Grand Mariner Marina, Mobile AL

 After 3 nights across the river, we moved over here and will stay here 6 nights, then leave the boat for 2 months over the holidays and drive back to WI for Thanksgiving.  The boat will be pulled from the water, have the hull inspected, generator repaired, windlass anchor motor repaired and the whole boat washed and waxed. When we come back the 2nd week of January, it should all be good to go for the last 4th of the loop.

The restaurant here is great and the seafood is awesome.  We have eaten there about 3 times during our stay and have gotten to know the folks who work there pretty well.  This is a family run operation and they couldn’t be nicer or more caring about their boating customers. We continued to share happy hours and occasional dinners with Steve and Kathy and when we each go our separate ways, it will be tough for all of us.

No courtesy car here, and no rental cars available, to Tom got resourceful and we rented a U-Haul pickup for a couple of days. Four adults piled into the 3 person front seat for a day of adventure on Saturday…. We went downtown in the morning for beignets  at Mo Bay Beignets and in the afternoon drove 30 min to Dauphin Island. The beaches were beautiful, although the day was chilly, so we settled to walking on the sand and picking a few shells. We stopped at the Port Gaines, the Civil War Fort on the island and actually ended up spending several hours there. We replenished our liquor supply on the way back and enjoyed one last dinner together at the restaurant.

We drove the U Haul truck to the airport here and rented a real car on Saturday also, which we will use to drive north. Sunday morning Tom left to drive to Memphis and attend a Dwight Yokum concert with Daniel and is driving back today. Steve and Kathy pulled out and are headed to Pensacola FL and will cross the gulf to the western side of FL by the end of the week.  I spent the time cleaning out the fridge, working jigsaw puzzles and packing for our 2 months away from the boat.

Tom should be arriving any time now so we can take the boat across the river to our previous marina for a pump-out and then we can begin packing and loading the car.  Our plan is to leave around 9 am, spend one night in Nashville with Johanna, one night in Kenosha with Kate and then arrive in Hudson on Thursday.  I understand it is in the 30’s up there with some snow, so here we go….  My goal is not to fall this time!

I will do an occasional update over the holidays to keep you in the loop as to where we are, but am looking forward to terra firma for awhile!

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