Last Mainship Blog

My apologies for the delay in blog updates.  Three months is the longest time we've ever spent at the same dock, except for home, of course.  It's been good, but is not nearly as much fun and does not provide the same blogging material as cruising.  Just the same, I will update our activities since the last entry.
We drove to Columbus, Mississippi, to have lunch with Minnesota folks Steve and Julie (who are building a house on their TennTom canal lot in Aberdeen, MS) and Charlie and Trish (who live on their Skipperliner houseboat in Columbus).  We all piled in the van and drove through the historic district, stopping at Tennesee Williams childhood home, now serving as the Columbus Vistors Center. 

Many of the antebellum homes can be toured, but we just drove around and took our pictures out of the car window.  The homes are beautifully well kept  and show a variety of architectural styles. 

Our next road trip took us to beautiful Pensacola Beach, Florida, where we (along with BFF's Sue and Ron) stayed with Kathy and Jeff in their townhouse.  We spent Thanksgiving with Jeff and Kathy when we did our Great Loop and they were also the friends who drove us home from Demopolis this past Thanksgiving.  We arrived on Super Bowl Sunday, but the big event was Kathy's 65th birthday.  65 candles aflame all at once on this cake, pretty impressive.

Pensacola Beach is on the barrier island of Santa Rosa and just down the road from the townhouse is a long stretch of Gulf Island National Seashore complete with a great bike path. 

We cooked amazing meals in the gourmet kitchen of the townhouse with the seafood from Joe Patti's in Pensacola.  This family owned business is amazing, the best seafood market we've ever seen. 

We also ate at some really good restaurants, but mostly just enjoyed hanging out together and the beauty of the beach.  This is the walkway to the beach.

Sue and Kathy on one of our daily beach walks. 

"Beachside" is the name of their vacation home.  You can rent it from them for your beach vacation ... see it at http://www.vrbo.com/280274   

The seas kicked up big on the day we left as seen from the deck. 

We cancelled our plans to drive to South Padre Island to visit Mark and Joann because we suddenly started to get some action on our attempt to sell our Mainship.  Steve had the transmission out and sitting on the back deck while we waited for a new damper plate.  Thinking the boat might show a little better with the transmission put back in its place, we hustled back and began to prepare the boat to be shown.  Well, that potential and the next potential fell through, so we started to make plans to cruise to New Orleans.  That plan also was cancelled as a third buyer called with genuine interest in a well kept, well appointed, and reasonably priced Mainship.  Long story short, we have sold our beloved Mainship and are now CLODS ... that's Cruisers Living On Dirt. 

We had perfect weather our last month in Demopolis, 80's by day and 60's by night with all the trees fully leafed out.  We left at the same time that our dock companions, John and Michelle, headed north for their summer. 

We hope to meet up with them next winter in our next boat ... looking for a 41' Roughwater as it has the features that are important to us:  single engine, 2 staterooms, one helm with glass windows and no isenglass or canvass.   Here's a link if you've never seen one.  www.roughwater.com   

Just before we left, Fred and Kim had a hamburger dinner for all the boaters.  Fred and Kim provide great southern hospitality to all the boaters they serve.  The new basin at Demopolis, Kingfisher Bay, is coming along beautifully.  Boaters who pass through next fall during the southern migration will be impressed. 

The new owner, Dave, will be shipping the boat (by trailer, big trailer) to his homeport in Connecticut, where we are sure she will be well cared for.  As the closing date approached, we began to pack our stuff into the van (it all fit !!!).  One of our final acts was to take our treasured Gold Looper Burgee down. 

Leaving our boat for the last time was very difficult, especially for Steve, who has put an immeasurable amount of work into her over the past 16.5 years.  But there's no better place in the summer than Minnesota, and we plan to enjoy life on the Upper Mississippi.  We close our final blog looking forward to our next adventures.  Thanks for following our travels.  

January in DMop

It was great fun to go "home for the holidays" as we did not make that journey on our first Loop.  We had a busy social calendar and it was wonderful to see everyone after being gone for the fall.  Once the festivities were over, however, it was time for some warmer weather, so we packed up the van and Lucy and headed back to Demopolis.  It's about 18 hours by car (as opposed to two months by boat) with one overnight stop.  We made it to St. Louis in time to catch part of the sunset from the top of the arch.  Here's the view to the west.  The domed building in the center is old city hall, which is now open as a museum. 

It was only 23 degrees, after dark, and the dock water supply was temporarily shut off when we arrived at the boat the next day.   Brrrr, but just like in MN, it's been an abnormally warm winter here, and it's only dropped into the 20's a couple of nights since.  A few days after we arrived it hit 70 degrees, so we launched the dinghy for a 12 mile trip up the Black Warrior River.  This river flows into the TomBigbee just above Demopolis and we wanted to see what it looked like.  A little gray on the banks this time of year, but it felt good to be out on the water in January !!!

 The river is navigable for 100 miles to Tuscaloosa (Roll Tide) and beyond.  We spent most of our first couple of weeks on boat upkeep (it's always something).  We began to think it would be a rather lonely time here, most of the Loopers are in Florida by now, but then our social life was reborn.  Loopers Kathy and Bob (aka Trip Time) who we cruised with last fall, and Gold Loopers Hal and Cheryl (aka Mas Bueno) who we knew from our Loop arrived within days of each other.  Along with Michelle and John (aka High C's), who are here for a while like us, we have a formed great friendships and had lots of fun.  Cheryl made us Arroz con Pollo (that's chicken with rice) and we dined in the fabulous laundry room. 

A few nights later it was Steve's Jambalaya followed by a delicious pot luck.  We are also finding a few good local restaurants.  Having a car makes a total difference and everything in DMop is within a 3 mile drive.  There's two antebellum (that means before the civil war) mansions in town and we've toured them both.  This is the dining room in Gaineswood. 

Gaineswood was built in stages as the owner's family grew and his cotton plantation prospered.  It sits on several acres and is an impressive site.  

Shingebiss is docked in the last slip on the pier.  We get the morning sun in the salon and frequently see a good sunset. 

We have been getting a huge downpour about once a week, but for the most part the days have been sunny and in the high 60's ... much warmer than we expected.  Lucy is enjoying being outside all day.  She has discovered how to get under the dock decking and travels through the labyrinth on top of the floats.  Here she is preparing to exit her domain by jumping to our swim platform. 

There's a great place to walk just adjacent to our docks, so we often start our day with a brisk walk.  Here's Hal (Mas Buenos) and Steve (Trip Time). 

We thought Trip Time and Mas Bueno would be gone to the Gulf by now, but the recent heavy rains have brought the river up, cresting today so travel is not recommended.  Here's Fred, the ever helpful and friendly marina owner.  He's drawing a diagram of the locks and explaining to the captains why they should wait until the water goes down a bit before they travel.  

As the sun goes down, we gather on the dock, trade cruising tales and all agree:  Life is Good !!!