Seasons Greetings

Just doing a blog 'cos I've got nothing else to do really.The weather is perfect.....warm sunny days....cool 'sleeping' nights...a rain shower every few days to rinse Jabiru off.......a few different players and venues to have a play and our almost constant companion and look out Sam the seagull who occupies the buoy next to us . Could be Samuel or Samantha....don't know him/her that well yet.

 

That's about it really.

Christmas has been and gone and New Year is but a few days away.

Ooh ,I know . While we were up the west coast of Florida we went to the "Greek" settlement of Tarpon Springs. It was pretty much put on the map by Greek sponge fishermen and of course now is a tourist attraction where you can fill up on Greek cuisine and soak up some Greek culture....and... find a sponge divers helmet to stick your head through.

 

First in Flight

Yes folks ,and I have reason to believe that more than one person does have a look at this blog otherwise I would have started with " Yes folk." Point is this ...I've caught up .....all entries from now on will be in the present.....after this one that is . This was our last adventure in summer 2013 before we took off south. See ' Un Real Time ' Oct 2013.....if you feel like it of course.
Anyway..our good mate 'Big ' John Boone ( see Before I Go Nov.13 2011...if you feel like it ) took us up for a couple of days at his beach house at Cape Hatteras. That's the sticky-out bit between Beaufort NC and the Chesapeake Bay. Aussies might have to consult an Atlas.   "What's that " I hear my grand daughters say !
It's called the Graveyard of the Atlantic as it has strange convergences of currents and huge shoals and of course most of the hundreds of boats wrecks happened before us techno-sailors had chartplotters and 'mostly ' accurate weather forecasts...... not forgetting Chris Parker.
                   Being very flat and exposed it also has strong and consistent winds

That's not Johns house but you get the point

Back to the winds.

The Wright brothers chose one of the areas there ,Kittyhawk, to do their glider experiments before they eventually  built a thing capable of flying itself. Hence the logo "First in Flight" on North Carolina vehicle rego. plates.

In the background is the hill they used to launch their gliders from and in the foreground are the markers for their first 3 flights.

Below is the 3rd flight marker and in the distance is the 4th flight marker

So... the first rock is where they left terra firma and the 1st to 4th stretch to the end of the paddock.

Various people had been getting machines to glide around but FLIGHT meant taking off and landing under their own power on a level plain ....or something like that.

It was a GIANT leap for a couple of men...in 1903.

A mere 69 years later Neal Armstrong took a 'small' step onto the Moon.

Wow

.

Here's Big John and Gail at the monument on Kittyhawk hill.

Well that's all folks....I've caught up and now I just have to keep up.

 

Gettysburg

Drawing to the end of our NE road trip we crossed the Appalachians ,another day of breathtaking scenery, and into Gettysburg. We had bypassed a few other Civil War battle sites on our way north through the Shenandoah Valley to New Jersey but had heard that this one was spectacular . It was a big turning point in this tragic war and as we are finding American history so interesting ..it was a must.
On the outskirts of town,  when we started to see memorials and statues and cannon we pulled over and joined a tour group and started learning how all these AMERICANS young and old and sometimes related were killing eachother for the benefit of politicians and other rich guys who wanted more money and more control. Sounds like your normal war I s'pose. It was about slavery but also about economics and ....I dunno....WAR ..huh...what is it good for.....absolutely  nuthin'.. Anyway , the guide presented  it all with respectful and informative  wit and at the end of his 'presentation ' realized the visitor centre had closed and locked his bicycle inside . We gave him a lift into town and the National Military Park Museum and Visitor Centre and he gave us complimentary tickets to the museum and movie and the Cyclorama. Amazing ....give it a google. Another lucky thing was that there was a traditional / folk/ bluegrassy music festival going on that weekend.

Instruments I'd never seen ( or heard ) before

Fife and drum bands

Yankee buskers                                               and the President himself

                     
It took all the next day to do a tour of the battlefields. I've never seen so many statues and memorials.
Every state and town that had supplied the heroes and victims had put up a memorial or statue of some sort. That's my North Carolina boys , although I guess my sympathies were with the Union.

If it's a dilemma for me......how was it for them!

Note the statues all through the trees

Gun emplacements . Hundreds of them..still in place.

Guys in dress to tell you stories

Civil War fanatics who camp out.....and tell you more stories

And at lunch they get fed by the Colonel.

It's one of those experiences that can hardly be done in pictures and comment blog style.

Huge...moving...you have to be there.

 

What we did Last Summer Pt 2 (or maybe 3and 4 )

As I was TRYING to say.
We took a day trip down to Gloucester Mass..It's the fishing town that the movie The Perfect Storm was about. They've got a memorial to the 5000 fishermen who have lost their lives on the job (!!!) since the 1600's .

Also one for their wives and kids ..waiting for them to get home

Looking out to sea...which was like a mill pond that day.

 

The New England coastal towns are picky-postcard perfect

 Had to tear ourselves away though and head up for a look at Maine and then cross over to Niagara Falls on our way up to Canada .They are a good day out.Hundreds of thousands of gallons (4 times that in litres ) per second ....or minutes....or something......lots.

 The ducks didn't seem worried though

That's Canada in the mist/spray on the other side

 

Then it was off to Canada to see our friends Rick and Donna of Lorbas who we'd cruised in the Bahamas with in '08 and Cuba in '11 can't remember if we did a blog on that.

Anyway they live (in summer ) up in Georgian Bay north and west of Toronto. Beautiful area with lots of rocky islands and clear FRESH water.

This is their outlook from the bottom of their garden.

( below that is ...that's a hotel above )

Apparently it all freezes over in winter and they get around on snow mobiles etc. Well their neighbors do. Rick and Donna and Lorbas sail around the Bahamas/Caribbean area.

Then it was back over to the States via Buffalo where we met our first pain in the arse Border Security guy. He didn't seem to understand the word RETIRED and was convinced I was working in the USA. After he kept us hanging around for a couple of hours he snuck out and went off shift and was replaced by the usual courteous and friendly officer who gave us our visas...but did suggest that they normally like you to be out of the country for more than 5 days. Fair enough.

Next stop was Mansfield Ohio to see our favorite family the Morgans.

Ray , of course , is famously the son I never had....and never wanted.

 An old joke from way back when we first went to Oriental to buy Jabiru but we did spend a lot of time with Ray and Bridget and their 2 boys Max and Noah.....and I would have adopted Ray but would have had to take the whole package!

Anyway we had a good old play on the porch.

And even called our old mate Bob up to join in with his banjo

We left the boys at home one day (or rather they declined to join us old farts )and went up to the Rock an' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland

 

It was fantastic .Everything from...

The first Telecaster

To the first Rolling Stone mag.

Janis Joplins Porche

(even though she wanted a Merc. )

Jimi Hendricks couch...full of various stains and burn holes!

And everything you could think of  to do with our musical heroes.

Cool.

Another day we went to the Ohio State Reformatory , a beautiful old building built to give young criminals a sense of culture that they could aspire to.

Unfortunately the interior didn't really give that impression.

It was used for the filming of The Shawshank Redemption and as a Gulag for Airforce 1.

Looking at a photo of Max and Noah checking out one of the Shawshank props reminded me of how long we've been here.

 Anyway , as always ,it was time to keep moving . I forgot to mention that 'my boy ' Ray was all over town as a poster boy........so we got to give him another wave 'bye on the way out of town.

 We drove down through Amish country ,which I thought would be interesting but ........mmmm?
The scenery was stunning all the way down through the mountains and we were heading up to the Smokeys,where we would love to live one day , but thought we'd leave that 'til closer to Fall ( see earlier blog ) and turned off to go look at the old Civil War battleground of Gettysburg instead.

 

 

What we did Last Summer

This could be long (if my friend the computer is co-operative )as I really have to get up to date and become a part time roving reporter again. As you know , we did arrive back 'home ' in Oriental after another nice ride up the Gulf Stream . Nothing much had changed ,particularly this guy.
Doug had started renovating his boat about the same time as us ,over 6 years ago ,and swears he will be off cruising.......next year. It's probably taking him so long 'cos he's perfected the ability to sleep while holding a beer and appearing to be reading a magazine on boat building.

We had a 6th birthday party for Jabiru.Dee Wogaman baked her a cake.

Old friends and new turned up.That's Nikki on the right and a good angle on Phil foreground.

We bought a car....Jeeparoo...of course.

 

Then we took off on our North East road trip.

My goodness , driving is sooo fast.In 2 easy days we were in New Jersey visiting our friends from Liberty Landing Todd and Melody.They live just south of Asbury Park (Bruce Springsteen remember ? ) Their house was just on the edge of some woodland and we saw our first chipmunks and raccoons and groundhogs all hanging out in their back yard. Cute.

Then we drove straight through the Big Apple and right up to Portsmouth ,New Hampshire,in a day!

Got there in time to go to a concert in the park with Ben Taylor ( James's son ) and a fabulous gospel/blues singer from Austin Ruthie Foster,   who had just come back from Oz and Trombone Shorty from New Orleans.All for free .Love this place.

We stayed with Dennis and Heidi ( Tobago Keys and Providencia ) who also invited Paul over for dinner.Piper was in California doing the Grandma thing.

Paul and Piper only lived about 2 miles away so we stayed with them next ( what are friends for ! )

Piper has a lovely big house on  New Castle island so we did bike trips round the island .

Also went kayaking round other islands and checked out the wildlife..including Bald Eagles.

 Paul took me round to sit  in with some of his mates bands around town....and what a lovely town it is ....Portsmouth.

Well , I'm sorry to report that my 'friend ' (curse its black heart ) has decided that that's enough for today. I'll give the poor little thing a rest and see if he/she (no definitely a she ) feels like letting me do more later