Off to the Pacific Northwest

The plan, as last year  was to loop south first to avoid cold weather & the severe storms that tend roam the midwest in April. Such was the plan.

  

You just know that when you step outside of the terminal in Baltimore & see this stuff it is a bad omen.

Happyness is moving in

As usual it is off to Martinak State Park to take on water & be close to a market to load up food. Also as usual, we had the place to ourselves.

Off to Tilghman & Severn Marine for a few days. Always interesting to see what Carl has in the shed.

Southern Cross, a 1950s classic

It is going to be an awful shame putting this beautiful finish on a Markley 46 to work.

Spring flowers on Tilghman Island WP5

Waypoint 11, Near La Grange, GA.

West Point Lake, WP11, GA

Hows this for a view?

Turtles sunning themselves

Ready, aim

FIRE!

Some reasons to like country music. 

3 day music festival, Dothan AL, WP13. Huge! 

Something like 30,000 through the gates.

Pensacola, FL, WP16, home to these guys

and a great naval air museum

WW2 vintage carrier prop weighing 30,000#

Show your age. Who remembers these things flying 

in & out of NOB Bermuda?

Curses you Red Baron

WP17, Big Lagoon State Rec Area, Pensacola, FL

Big Lagoon St Rec Area

You meet the nicest naayyybours at a rodeo. WP21, Longview TX 

Someday 

Santa is going to bring us one of these trucks.

Drool.

Somewhere in the TX panhandle north of Amarillo

At this point we are 27 days & some 2500 miles into the trip. No road incidents & mostly decent weather except for the cold. First night was a record cold for the date where we were. The night near Panama City, FL was a record cold for the date & while in Amarillo TX the temp equaled the record cold for the date. Where is spring?

 Spring & Summer 2013

Off we go again. This time to do a second trip to the Pacific Northwest which we set out to do last year but was aborted due to unfortunate events. There must be something about us & the Northwest. The first trip in 2009 was aborted due to the loss of the trailer to the blowover in Wyoming & month to get the truck repaired & replace the trailer.

  The first leg of this years travels unexpectedly started with no wheeled transport at all.
We got an invite from very good longtime friends, the Richolds. These folks are well known by many on the list here but for the others they are part of the infamous Bermuda Boat People crowd who we spent so many memorable weekends together on the  water as our kids grew together.

They also shared our first RV trip, renting two class Cs for two week loop trip out of Denver some 12 or 13 years ago.

March 1st we were off on a 4 week trip to the Exumas chain of islands in the Bahamas starting in Ft Lauderdale.

Right from the beginning we were dogged by weather. About 12 hours after arrival in Miami we headed out to sea to be ahead of bad weather which would have kept us in Ft Lauderdale for almost a week.

All through the trip we did not get much rain but lets just say a sailor would have been much happier than the crew of De Onions with the wind.

The Ride

Must say the folks at De Onions Cruise Lines know how to set up a send off.

Carolyn & the youngest crew member, Ashley, in charge of entertainment 

 

How the 'other' .00099% lives. Atlantis, Nassau. The ironic part is, these things are far too big to get into the best anchorages.

What can be said!

Coolin out!

One of the local residents, a nurse shark

The colours are quite something, even compared to Bermuda. The reason for the difference is the white sand bottom rather than grass as mostly found in Bermuda.

De Onions crew, Skipper, Michael & executive officer, Lisa. 

Greeting a friendly stingray

What Carolyn came for, the conch salad, 

every chance she got.

The explorers

The Bahamas are nothing without one of these to get around in.

The Worshipful 'unofficial' Lord Mayor of Georgetown, Exuma, Andrew Gracie & his lovely wife, Carol

A grand bridge to Nowhere. One of so many grand projects that sit half finished, finished but unoccupied or under-occupied. This one to Crab Cay.

Fall 2012

Southeast US

Back to mostly familiar territory doing bluegrass festivals and getting a taste of southern food while getting to meet wonderful down to earth people who talk 'funny'.

Assateague Island boardwalk

Near Ocean City, MD. What we have here is a combination of people from at least 3 bluegrass bands doing an impromptu jam.

A summer home on a lake in western NC

Truck Show in Charlotte, NC. All of them, well except for the old ones, are daily working trucks.

Somehow I can't see this being used to haul diesel around

Remember 'Smokey & the Bandit'? Here is the truck still looking good

The old & the not so old. The red one is almost 60 years old.

Can you believe this!!! Like nothing has ever been touched

The outside is just as clean

The GRRRRR that makes them move

In the mountains near Ashville, NC

Turn around & this is the sight

A damp & chilly 30 something on the mountaintop. No view today

Fall colours only just beginning to turn along a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway

When one engine isn't quite enough, no problem, add two more. The VA State Fair, Raleigh, NC.

The Myrtle Beach, SC cleanup dept, airborne division, doing a flyby.

Best part of a bluegrass festival is the jamming after the formal show. Performers & amateur musicians get in there & learn from each other.

Hmmmmm, now what could be in here?

How about this fellow. He walked onto the property the day before.

What can be  said? Yes, it does exist. It will put hair on places you never knew it would grow. 

Here piggy piggy piggy piggy

She watched the pig roasting proceedings for hours

And then came the picking the thing apart

Just what everyone needs, a BBQ on wheels

Sisters. On the left, only 14.

Severn Marine workboats & Knapps Narrows Bridge

Our usual slip

Downtown Oxford, MD

The Oxford General Store

No escape from home. Texting Jenny

Boardwalk on Assateague Island, VA

Wild horses & access bridge, Assateague Island

Assateague sunset. Clouds formed from jet contrails.