Saturday, October 22, 2011

OH.... Please let there be heat

People and their pets


This dock is now full lesson #1.......

socializing 101


OUT with the old............

IN with the new!



In my last post I mentioned the fact that we have been without heat in the aft cabin and Jim ordered a unit to be delivered to Joe Wheeler.  Well I am happy to report that we now have heat!!!  The unit was here as promised and Jim was all over it when we got here.  It took him about 3 hours to get it installed and 1 trip to the hardware store.  Thank You to Pam on GodSpeed for taking Jim to the store, luckily she had rented a car and generously offered to drive him there.  So last night when it got down to 30 degrees we were nice and toasty.  And with Jim purchasing the unit direct from the factory and installing it himself he saved us $1400.  Way to Go Jim!

Today was spent cleaning, Jim is working on the outside, an endless job.  And I spent the day inside mostly cleaning up after the install and killing flies, we seem to have those spiders we picked up in Canada under control. 

I would say about 15 more boats came in today and the marina is nearly full now,  Check in for the start of the rendezvous begins tomorrow at 3pm, cocktails began early today I would guess by 2 in the afternoon the docks were full of people.  By 6pm we wandered over to the  " official dock party" at the gazebo, its great fun catching up with other boaters we haven't seen in awhile, and the many knew boats that are starting or at the beginning of their loop. 

Florence Mississippi to Rogersville Alabama

Friday Oct 20th

We left Grand Harbor on Thursday and traveled to Florance Ms it was a nice short day and the ride was pleasant.  When we left Grand Harbor the marina in Florence was not sure if they would have a slip for us with electric as they were quite full and because of the weather. boats were lingering longer than anticipated.  Luckily, when we arrived they had electric for us, this was important as the temps have been wayyyyyy down the last couple of days, and it is always nice to have some heat.  I say some heat as we are down to 1 unit on the boat that is working properly, there are 3 AC/heat units onboard.  I had mentioned that while at GH we had someone come take a look at our unit in the Aft cabin and the unfortunate diagnose was it lived a 20 year life and needed to be put to rest.  Now, anyone with a boat knows these boat things are pricey and when they called with a replacement price of $3000 for 1 unit installed. the captain went online to check things out himself.  In the end he ordered a unit had it shipped to Rogersville AL and it would be waiting for us when we arrived.  Oh, and the weather when we left GH was long pants, sweatshirts, jackets and gloves.  Sure hope all goes well with the AC/heat unit Jim ordered.

Florence was a nice stop though be it a 1 night stand, we will be stopping there again on our way south in a couple of weeks.  The next morning we would leave here with a flotilla of 8 boats all heading to the rendezvous. though a short day, we needed to go through 2 locks which can really slow things down, but traveling as a unit and talking in advance to the lockmaster the lock was open and waiting for our arrival.  SWEET!  And the second lock was just as nice as the lockmasters talked to each other so again the 2nd lock was open and waiting for us!  Once at the 2nd lock we picked up some more boats so 2 boats needed to rafted up in order for us all to lock though together.  We arrived at Joe Wheeler in a flotilla of 11 and were in our slip by noon, checked in and cocktails shortly after, docktails at 5pm and dinner at the lodge (9 of us) at 6:30.


Pickwick Belle



Tee Pees on the Tennessee River



At Florence we woke up to the start of a bass tournament  100 boats



The Florence Flotilla 5 behind us



4 in front of us



Joe Wheeler State Park we are finally here for the fall rendezvous  these are the slips in front of the lodge.   Theres Erika Lin pulling into her slip, after a year and a half we, or they, finally caught up to us.  We first met Lynda and Bob at the Myrtle Beach rendezvous 2010