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  DAY 199 to 208 November 1-11 After a hiatus at the Navy Base in Pensacola, I moved the boat across a very lumpy and wet Pensacola Bay to the downtown area called Palafox.  This is a pretty chi-chi section of town with lots of sidewalk restaurant seating, stock brokers and specialty medical offices.  So, you can have a great meal, visit your gastro doc and then see your broker to pay the bill.  One stop shopping at its best. Obviously Paul was here at the wrong time, no horses tied up. Two days I was here.  This guy was still screwing in that sign. Palafox was, and still is, the seaport for Pensacola.  These two vintage tugs are still making a living here.   The big, black behemoth behind the red tug is the SGT William Button, a US Marine Corp Prepositioning ship.  These ships are typically loaded out with all the equipment the Marines need to take a fight to an enemy.  Owned by the Navy and operated by the Military Sealift Command, they are civilian operated and all named for Medal o

The inland rivers are behind us!! Yay!  The rivers were interesting in several ways.  There is always hype on the Looper blogs, etc,- tales of horror and difficulty.  This is typically focused on things like gigantic tows of up to 20 barges, debris in the rivers (logs, whole trees, chevrolets, you name it), ripping currents, swirling eddys, giant locks, oh my. We found the navigation to be straight forward.  The tow masters, the few we encountered, were happy to talk to us, professional and polite (even if I failed to take a crash course in speaking southern).  There was minimal flotsam and jetsam in the water and the locking was very easy.  True, on a couple of occasions we were held up while tows were given their correct priority.  The big river locks were actually incredibly easy to manage, with a single line on a floating bollard.  I single- handed a few of them on the early morning departures. What surprised us the most was the stunning lack of signs of humanity along the rivers. 

   DAY 197 & 198 October 30-31 Snow Goose is safely tied up at the Bayou Grande Marina which is located at the Naval Air Station Pensacola. Paul took Grady to the vet for his annual check up and rabies shot before Grady gets a new home. Paul had rescued Grady from "the needle" about a year ago. He knew that after the loop his lifestyle of frequent traveling would not be conducive to having a full time pet but wanted to give Grady a chance while he/we found a better place for him. Mission accomplished! We will miss you Grady. (but not your shedding and kitty litter) My mother is celebrating her 95th birthday in November, so of course, I am heading back to South Dakota to help her celebrate. This also provides some time for Florida to clean up and reopen some of their marinas after the hurricanes before we complete our journey. This means that the blogger, Cheryl, will be on hiatus until November 12. Check back after that for the next and final chapters of our Great Loop. -

  DAY 195 October 28 We spent most of the day touring this incredible museum.  No question, this is one fabulous Air Museum! These holograms were really realistic and cool. A yellow shirt guy showing his moves in this hologram. It's a Bamboo Bomber!!  I have many hours futzing and quite a few flying in one of these that is in a whole lot nicer condition than this one! A cut-away example of the famous Catalina Flying Boat. A school orchestra was playing. Lucky us, they were good! The Link trainer.  Cheaper than crashing real planes.  It's worth reading the information below about how realistic this little contraption was. Another view of the Bamboo Bomber.  It got its name because the wing spars and frame are cedar, with a steel tube frame fuselage, covered in fabric.  Built during WWII, it was a Utility airplane that did not need scarce resources, like aluminum.  Originally powered with 245HP Jacobs radial engines (Shaky Jakes), this is a plane that you need to fly all of the t