Were Back…….. Fairhope, Alabama

We arrived back in Fairhope on January 7^th right in the heart of college football championship weekend. One would be hard pressed to not know just who was playing or exactly who one was rootin’ for. Pickup trucks had two or more Roll Tide or BAMA flags waving as they drove down the road. Some even had the large flags (two of em) flappin’ in the wind from each side of the tailgate. There were Bumper stickers, t-shirts & flashing neon signs. Needless to say whether you were a football fan or not that weekend you were; so much energy, excitement & emotion filled the air you couldn’t help but join in.

When we left Ka-Dee-Anna moored in Fairhope we had headed home to spend the Thanksgiving & Christmas Holidays with our family. As usual we came skidding in just a few days ahead of our Son and his families’ arrival. That is just our style however it seems no matter how long we have been away from home we seem to pick right up where we left off. It’s good to see our island friends and jump back into island activities that we enjoy. Being away for a few months gives one a whole new appreciation for island life and what a true gem Anna Maria Island is. We had a wonderful visit with the kids and grandkids packing in almost everything they had hoped to do while they were home. After everyone headed back to their respected home fronts & lives we decided to head back to Fairhope, Alabama. Our goal is to move Ka-Dee-Anna across the panhandle of Florida to Apalachicola, FL and enjoy the area its culture, seafood & everything else it has to offer.

We plan on waiting in Apalachicola for our “weather window” for our crossing (the gulf) to Tarpon Springs. We will hold up here until we have a 48 hour weather window of calm seas. That gives us a nice buffer of time as our crossing will take us approximately 20 hours.

We threw the lines off in Fairhope and headed out into Mobile Bay on Tuesday January 10^th and made our way to Orange Beach, AL where we spent just one night before heading over to Pensacola we spent two nights there and really enjoyed that city. We toured the Air museum which was located at the navel base and toured the historical parts of the city. Much of the “old” city is beautifully restored to its original glory. It has a great deal of culture & many wonderful restaurants to choose from.

 From Pensacola we putz’d our way through the intercostals waterway to a city dock in Fort Walton Beach. The town dock offers a place to spend one night free however there is no power we ran our generator a good part of the night as the temperatures dipped into the 30’s. We had a fun time at Folkers Pub and shoved off from our dock by sun up the following morning. The putz today was filled with countless dolphin following us on our journey, it appeared as though they truly loved performing for us. Playing in our wake & watching us as we filmed them. We never grew tired of their joyful, playful nature we couldn’t help but smile as they were close enough to splash us and even made eye contact a few times.

Panama City was our next city to visit along the way the area we visited was a tired old city many closed store fronts a few nice antique stores and old diners it was a good stop it gave us a chance to rinse the salt of the boat and walk a spell.

The only timeline we have on this leg of our journey is our youngest daughter Kadee would like to come home from college on a long weekend break. So if our weather window does not happen before that time we may have to rent a car & drive home. Until then we are going to keep enjoying this beautiful area and praying for warm sunny weather and calm safe waters. That’s it for now……..Enjoy the day!