Milestones...

During the past couple of weeks of traveling we've crossed some significant milestones...some good, some not so good. I'll get into the events a bit later.

After leaving Orange Beach Alabama we crossed back into Florida at Perdido Key. We stopped at the Oyster Bar Marina and took the dinghy over to the Flora-Bama for a fun afternoon. Next stop was Pensacola where we celebrated 1 milestone, my 54th birthday. As usual we celebrated with a pint (or 2) at a local brewery.

We next moved on to Destin where we were lucky that our timing coincided with a vacation trip for my brother and his girlfriend. They were accompanied by her daughter and her husband and we had a great visit with them! One day we went out to Crab Island and spent a fun afternoon. The water here is more like something we've seen in the Bahamas, not the panhandle of Florida.

We stayed in an "interesting" marina in Destin where we did some creative docking. When it was time to leave I was glad there wasn't a crowd watching....

After Destin we moved along pretty quickly toward Carrabelle FL. which would be our jumping off point for the gulf crossing. Carrabelle makes for a shorter crossing than Port St. Joe where we left from in 2015. In fact, it cuts about 10 hours off the trip and allowed us to do it in (mostly) daylight this time instead of overnight.

One day while traveling toward Carrabelle I heard a familiar voice on the radio talking to a barge behind us...naw...couldn't be...they live in Nashville and didn't plan on doing the loop again! Sure enough, when the boat catches up to us we get a call on the radio from our friends Carol & Tim who we had traveled much of the Great Loop with...talk about a small world! Turns out they were helping friends move their boat to Florida and were just along for the ride this time. It was great to see them again and meet new boating friends. They travel quite a bit faster than us but we still got to enjoy docktails in the same marina at the end of the day.

When we got to Carrabelle it looked like we would be stuck there for a week as the winds and seas were forecast to start building the next day. In looking at different forecast models it turned out the building wouldn't start until late in the day so we decided to head out early the next morning and stay ahead of the weather. The forecast actually was accurate this time and we made the 17 hour crossing with no drama. 2 days later the weather buoy NW of Tampa was reporting 9 foot waves!

It was along the crossing that we hit one of the milestones. In the almost 4 years that we've owned Chasing 80 we have now passed the 10,000 mile mark!! I know it doesn't sound like much from a car driving perspective but most boaters don't travel that far in a lifetime. We're still enjoying it and looking forward to the next 10,000....

After the crossing we spent a few days of R & R in Tarpon Springs and are now in Gulfport FL about 100 miles from our destination of Ft. Myers. This brings me to our next milestone...the "not good" one. After leaving Tarpon Springs the starboard engine temp. started to creep higher than normal. I shut it down and continued on one engine for a bit before trying it again.... same results. I suspected a stuck thermostat (the easy answer) and went down to investigate. In checking things out I found that it was low on coolant and high on oil.....very much not good! Somehow the coolant is leaking into the oil and I suspect through the oil cooler which we just had serviced in Orange Beach last December. Soooo it's our first mechanical breakdown...on a holiday weekend...no chance of seeing a mechanic before Tuesday...flight out of Ft Myers in 10 days kind of milestone!! Wish us luck!!!  

I'll leave you with a few parting pictures while we head off to see what Gulfport has to offer for the weekend. The first is an interesting take on the pedal bar we've seen in several towns. This is the pedal BOAT!! looks like it could be a really fun time on the water with friends.

The next is a sign we saw in a brewery in Apalachicola...Just call me Exploding Candidate Lager...what's your beer name????

Do You Know What It Means.....

To Miss New Orleans? As the song goes... Well we ended up staying about 2 and a half months in New Orleans and that's a long stay anywhere for us. While we don't "miss" the town yet we both agreed we were not burnt out and could have stayed longer. We also agreed we were both ready to go boating again.

The last few weeks topped off our stay with the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival. This is 7 days of music and food over the last weekend in April and first weekend in May (including Thursday the 2nd weekend). Weather was mostly great and we started off with a visit from our friends Ann & Grant. They got in Thursday afternoon and we headed right to a free kick off concert in City Park.

The concert had 3 great acts including Paul Sanchez and his Rolling Road Show.

In the crowd this night I spotted a familiar "hat" from the last post. I had to go introduce myself and let him know how "famous" he was having made the Chasing 80 blog!!

Next morning we headed to the fairgrounds for the 1st day of the fest which included a stop at a local bar and kick off Bloody Mary's.

One stage we visited was the Gospel tent to get our church on for the day. While there we saw a cop that reminded me of Jake Blues when he "saw the light".

Sunday morning we awoke to find severe storms approaching New Orleans and decided to just drive into the Quarter and let them pass. We later got the notification that the fest opening was "delayed"...good call. The storms were pretty wicked but moved out about 1:00 so we kept an eye out for an opening time which ended up being at 3:00. Pretty amazing considering the record rain that fell. We headed back to the boat and gathered up our tickets and Ann & Grant dropped us off at the fest on their way to the airport (damn, that was a quick visit!!).

Once at the fest we saw a sign that left us a bit disappointed but we went in anyway...

Turned out OK though since the crowd was light and we got to see the act I had been looking forward to the most. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers put on a great show on their 40th anniversary tour!!

After a few days rest we were back for the second weekend and the weather was perfect. The crowds were back too but we were able to get around pretty well.

The attendance totals were announced this week and came in at 450,000 for the entire fest. I figured out that we had seen at least 33 acts between the 2 weekends. everything from singing Mardi Gras Indians....

....to up close with Buddy Guy!!

All in all we had a fantastic time and really enjoyed being there for the whole fest. And, in the interest of full disclosure, yes....we have fest hats too.

So, we are now on the move again. We left New Orleans this past Tuesday and took advantage of great weather to cross Mississippi sound in 2 long travel days. We are now back in the more protected ICW in Orange Beach Alabama heading east. The plan is to take about a week getting to Carabelle FL where we'll decide if we want to take the long Gulf crossing to Tarpon Springs or the "scenic" route around the big bend. The bend route will take 3 days but eliminate the long overnight trip. Weather will decide as usual.

On the Mississippi Sound we were happy to see the dolphin escorts return to our travels. We take this as continued good traveling omens.

Fest Hats...

Wow...2 posts in one day?? I used up all my creative energy in the last post so you just get the pictures with this one!

Fest hats come in all different flavors from the tasteful and professionally made to the creative and homemade to everything in between.

Many of the homemade variety are actually store bought with a bit of "bling" added to make it their own.

Two of my favorites may have been the same guy on different days...not quite sure.

And a great use for used beer cans.

Some were very simple like the creative use of the fest schedule.

Or the guy that may have been on his way to or from work.

I have to say that my favorite were the most creative but may not classify as "hats" and these were found on stage instead of in front of one.

Just another reason to love New Orleans!

April in New Orleans

I know I've said before how much we enjoy New Orleans but April is a really great time to be here. The weather hasn't gotten too hot or humid yet and there is some sort of festival every weekend. The first big event was French Quarter Festival which is free and runs for 4 days throughout the Quarter. It starts with a kick off parade on Thursday morning and ends Sunday evening with local food and music everywhere you turn.

After the parade we made our way to the riverfront for the first act we wanted to see. A quick look at the river and Jill & I agreed it was a better day to be listening to music along the river than trying to cross it in our boat.

They do a really nice job of laying out the fest and even when stages are close together we had no problem hearing the one we were listening to. Many of the stages are the same type of music so if you just want to hear jazz or maybe zydeco you can stay at 1 stage all day. We typically just wandered around listening to a few songs and moving on to the next.

They have a zydeco stage.

Old Time Jazz.

Brass Bands.

Swing.

And even ?????????

There is always something interesting to see and great people watching at any event in New Orleans. I even took a whole series of pictures of people in their Fest Hats but I think I'll save that for it's own post. One shot from the "what could possibly go wrong?" category......

Not sure if there was anyone in there but I love that the guy in back had a cigar...covering up the smell??

The last day of the Fest nephew Jeff and his wife Carin came in to spend a day with us before leaving on a Spring Break cruise. It was fun to show them around a bit while they were here.

After the fest we got down to more boat work like waxing and refreshing the varnish. These things take some time and give a nice break to our livers. The next weekend was Easter and we went back to the Quarter to catch some of the parades and all the great Easter Bonnets.

One day we took some time off of boat projects and went Uptown to see the Zoo. This is another one of the places we've always wanted to see but never squeezed in on previous trips. It was very nice and small enough to cover at a leisurely pace.

We're coming up on 2 weeks left in our stay here and can see the light at the end of the projects. We need to have everything wrapped up by Thursday and the start of Jazz and Heritage Fest which will be a busy 10 days!! Our friends the Lights will be in to join us for the first weekend and that will be too much fun!!

Speaking of visits, friends Monica and Rick from Green Turtle Bay came over from Mobile where they have their boat ready to head north after wintering in Florida & the Bahamas. We traveled with them off and on during our Great Loop trip and it's always great to see them!

Yesterday while walking through the Quarter with Rick & Moni I hear a voice behind me say, "Kevin??" I turn around and see old friends Lyn & John from Cincinnati who happen to be in town at the beginning of their own 3 month travel adventure (by land).  What are the chances?!?!?! It was great to catch up with them a bit and we wish them the best on their great adventure.

As mentioned in our last post our future plans have changed quite a bit. We had planned on heading back up the rivers and spending summer on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Well we're now going south instead!! When we leave New Orleans we'll be heading to Ft. Myers for an extended stay. Friends from Cincinnati are going there to start a new business and we're tagging along to help. That area has some great cruising grounds and it should be a wonderful summer/fall/winter????? Of course our reservations begin June 1st which happens to be the start of hurricane season.....

For our Cincinnati friends, we'll be in town for a few days starting June 11 and hope to catch up with as many of you as possible.

I'll try and get the "hat" post out later today but that will probably be the last one from New Orleans. We hope to get moving about May 10th so keep an eye on the tracking link and I'll send out a twitter message on travel days as usual for you followers. Until next time...Happy Jazz Fest Y'all!!!!

Trip to Houma and Visits

Just thought I’d post a quick update to get us all caught up, kinda. We talked about Mardi Gras in Houma in the last post but wanted to share a few pics of the trip getting there.

We left Pontchartrain Landing in NOLA to time us getting to the bridges on the ICW after curfew. They don’t open the bridges during the morning rush hour and we would need 2 to open to get into the Mississippi River. We would also pass through a lock that lifted us about 5 feet to the level of the river. After that it was a short run up river to the Harvey Lock which would lower us back to the ICW on the west side. It was a real thrill going past New Orleans both in the views and the amount of river traffic. Shortly after we exited the lock we were passed by an up bound freighter…those things really move!!

As we continued up river there was traffic moving in every direction and I just tried to stay out of the way.

The next pic is New Orleans with the business district to the left and the French Quarter on the right behind the riverboat Natchez.

Once past the Quarter there was a dredge operating in the area where the cruise ships dock. If you look past the dredge you can see a down bound freighter that would pass us before we headed over to the west bank.

We got through the Harvey lock with no delays and were greeted with a very industrial area of ship repair yards. Luckily most traffic was not moving here.

In a very short time we were in bayou country and the most we had to deal with was an air boat tour and the occasional barge.

On our return to NOLA we had a bit of down time to start boat projects before the St. Patrick’s celebrations began. They party here for a full week around St. Patrick’s day and St. Joseph day parades. The first stop was uptown on Magazine St. for the block party and parade.

If you’re “lucky” enough to have a house on the parade route you throw your own party complete with music.

The people mingle up and down Magazine St. waiting for the parade to start. It was so delayed this year that Jill & I decided to skip it and make our way back to town.

We were lucky enough to pass by St. Patrick’s cathedral just as the Archbishop of New Orleans was heading in for mass….no, we didn’t stay.

During this time we also got to visit with Jill’s cousins who were in town on vacation as well as our friends and old E dock boaters from Cincinnati. Vickie and Bryan were in town to meet up with Bryan's daughter and her boyfriend who live in Texas.

We’ve really enjoyed spending an extended stay in one of our favorite cities and tomorrow begins the spring music festival season. This weekend is French Quarter Fest which claims to be the largest free festival in the US and I’d have to believe it. A few weeks later is the Jazz and Heritage Festival which spans 7 days over two weekends. After that we’ll be on the move again, probably May 10^th depending on the weather. I’ll get another blog out to cover the events and reveal our next plans…you’ll be surprised I’m sure!!