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.
