We left family and friends on December 29th to meander back down to Aqua to pick up the boat and take it down to Orange Beach.  Orange Beach will be our winter destination again this year.

Our crew is complete now as we picked up Smokie from Pat’s house.  He spent the fall with Pat at his new home and now he is ready to enjoy the dolphins and pelicans.

Smokie, finally back on the boat

We Aqua left bright and early on the 31st and arrived at our 1st destination, Midway Marina.  We ended up traveling (sort of) with a 65 to 70 foot Berger.  He was pouring the coals on and we were traveling at our normal slower speeds.  I don’t think he was too happy when he ended up waiting for us at the last lock :(.

Midway marina was still nicely decorated with Christmas lights

Christmas lights

And our boat looked so warm and cozy

Warm and Cozy

We, of course, rang in the New Year with a little bubblie

Cheers!

but we were in bed by 9.  Such non-hackers 🙂

We got up early on January 1st and were on our way by 6:45.  Smokie couldn’t handle the partying from the night before

Smokie, sleeping it off

We have an action packed day planned, we have 4 locks to get thru today.  As we didn’t travel well with the Berger (he was too fast and we were too slow), we were hoping to get well ahead of him.  We succeeded until the last lock, then we had to wait for him and he had to rush to catch up to us

Here he comes!

Almost there

Ahhhh, he made it!

It turned out this boat was also from Minnesota.  They keep it at Red Wing, at Cindy’s.  Us crazy Minnesotans running from winter.  But what fun we are having!

Our next stop was Columbus Marina.  We ended up staying there for a week.  It rained hard for the first 2 days we were there and so the waters rose and the tress started floating down river and we hunkered down to wait for the waters to subside and clear out.

So while we were waiting for the waters to recede, we decided to go transport our van from Aqua marina to Orange Beach Marina.  We rented a car for 2 days, filled up Smokey’s dishes and we were on our way.  We got to Aqua.  Gary was going to drive the van and I was going to drive the rental car.  The van was running very rough when he started it but we decided to continue.  As the van continued to run rough he pulled over to the side of the road, we were taking the van to Corinth, MS to have it checked out.  He is in the lead, all of a sudden we are going down back roads.  I can hear the banjos playing now.  What the heck?  I hope the van doesn’t die on these roads, we’d be screwed.  Turned out he took a wrong turn but luckily our Garwin got us back on track and we made it to the dealership. We told them our sad tale of just passing through so they were going to do everything they could to get us on the road.  But, of course it was lunch time and the only mechanic that worked on Dodge’s was out to lunch, so we left the van and walked across the street to have some lunch of our own.  About 1:45, someone comes back and tells us it is the coil.  They have sent someone to Jackson, TN to pick it up at another dealer.  They will try to have it installed before they close at 5.  I Googled the distance between here and Jackson, TN….it is 1 1/2 hour drive.  Poop!  I don’t think we’ll be getting out of here anytime soon.  So we sit and wait.  People in the waiting room try to strike up conversations with us.  One old lady is talking politics.  Don’t you know one of the things you should never talk about is politics?????  What do I think about Jebb Bush?  What do I think about Mitt Romney?  Oh oh, time to fake sleep so she’ll find someone else to talk to.  Then there is this old gentleman.  He is like the Wal-mart greeter but he sits in the customer lounge and talks to everyone.  Seems he is related to everyone there…….somehow.  Someone finally comes back at 4:30.  Yes, they finally have the part the need but there is no way they are going to be able to get it installed that day but will have it done by 9:30 tomorrow morning.  So we will get a hotel and be back at 9:30.