Travel update/Visit to Naval Air Museum

After evaluating the river predictions and considering some upcoming appointments and meetings, we've decided to drive home again. We'll be leaving Play Dough docked at Dog River Marina in Mobile for another 2-3 weeks. While we were at Dog River we completed our second engine servicing. The service is done every 150 hours. We had a well known boat mechanic do out first service last year. After observing him and taking notes, we were able to do our own service this time. While our first servicing/tune-up costs were $1000.00, we were able to change the oil and both fuel filters for $102.00. Who said you can't make money boating??

We spent one day at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. The Blue Angels winter in California, but stay in Pensacola during show season. Their Tues. and Wed. morning practice sessions are open to the public. We arrived at 8:30 for the first session of the 2009 season. After the practice we spent the remainder of the day there at the Naval Aviation Museum. The museum has so many aircraft on display in their huge building. Even though these are full size actual planes, they appear to be scale models sitting everywhere, some even suspended from the ceiling. Every aircraft ever used by the Navy is on display. We saw everything from balloons and blimps to today's jets. We even witnessed a change of command ceremony and watched an IMAX movie on fighter pilots. This museum is one of the top 10 tourist attractions in the U.S., drawing millons of visitors each year.

"Cargo plane that hauls the Blue Angels' equipment and ground crew"

"The Blue Angels are almost too fast to catch in the air!"

"Jet at Entrance to Museum"

"Aircraft from the World War II Era"

"A Blue Angel jet suspended from the ceiling "

"This propeller from an aircraft carrier weighs 30,000 lbs. It takes 4 of these to power a carrier"

"Rescue aircraft-notice the basket on the side"

"Jet Ranger helicopter, like the one Rodney piloted"

"Change of Command Ceremony"

We're Like the Space Shuttle-Go/No Go

Our timing and rain cycles can't seem to get in sync. As we stated before, once the rain came through and peeked the river levels we went home to let the waters subside. After returning to Mobile, finishing up our maintainence work and getting ready to go, a rainy weekend was in the forecast. Once again the rivers are projected to rise above floodstage within the next week. We've become quite familiar with the Mobile area. We have spent more time here than we had intended to spend in any one town along our voyage.

As we continue to tour the Gulf Coast and wait on the rivers to receed, we are looking at several alternative trip plans. We have a couple of weeks in the current window and our closest marina to the north is at Demopolis, AL, a four day run from Mobile.

There is still a lot of evidence of the hurricanes around the Biloxi area:

- Lots of empty lots along the beachfront with only concrete slabs left in place

-Many partial boat docks that haven't been rebuilt

-Some partial buildings left standing, some of them being worked on and some abandoned

Many of the hotel-casinos have been replaced and are up and running.

"One of many buildings destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi"

"Hurricane damaged home being rebuilt"

"The Biloxi Fire Department still has missing walls from storm damage"

"Biloxi Casino"

On Hold

After we tied up in Dog River Marina off Mobile Bay, the weather got nasty. While most of you had rain and snow, we had mostly wind. We had gale force winds.(Sustained surface winds of 39-54 mph) Even though we were tied to the dock it was bouncy enough that our TV Tracking system could not maintain a signal. We reverted to DVDs for entertainment. The conditions also required someone to nap in the recliner through the night. Not only did we have to monitor our ropes, but those of the untended boats around us. We did discover a rope on a nearby boat that had gotten loose. This boat had gotten pushed within a foot or so of us when we discovered the problem.
The 5 plus inches of rain that fell in central Alabama presented us with another problem. The rivers we were headed up were forecast to crest at 20-25 feet above flood stage later in the week. Not only does this create a strong current that you must work against, it also floats a lot of debris downstream to contend with. At this point, we made a decision to drive home for a week. This will allow the higher water levels to subside and make travel much easier and safer. We will still be leaving Mobile around mid March as we had previously planned.