Panacea: January 2015

Seriously, 2015??? This is starting to get scary!!!

Here's hoping all of your enjoyed your holidays and the New Year is off to a good start for you!! Needless to say, the last few weeks have been busy. We completed the window painting project - they look pretty darn good for rookies!! Now with the colder weather here we have to pick our weather windows for any outdoor projects - time for indoor projects and the list is waiting!! To recap some of activites the past few weeks - our friend from NY, Erik, is an amazing key boardist and when he spends the winters in GA he plays with different bands. He was playing at one of the local outdoor, waterfront bars one evening so we boated down with two other couples to hear him play. It was a cold evening but so worth it!! Had fresh GA shrimp and great music!! Erik also plays at a bar in Brunswick (our nearest town) on open mic night on Tues, so we headed in to get pizza and then over to hear him play. He plays with the house" band that plays if no one wants to get on stage but we were "lucky" to be there when one of the locals showed up to sing and play guitar. He was at least 65 ish with black leather pants and spent a lot of time on the floor, on his back, playing the guitar and "singing". It was a sight to behold!! My ear were ringing when we left. The hotel had their annual holiday bag piper so we went to enjoy a drink on the veranda, listen to him play, and picture ourselves back in the days when the likes of Carnegie and J.P. Morgan spent their holidays here. It was pretty empty here Christmas Eve so 4 couples drove to a small town for their famous BBQ - it really is awesome!! Christmas Day we left for LA, spent the night in Biloxi, MS and then on to Ben's. Gillian and the family were there also - sooooo good to see everyone!! The grand kids have grown and changed so much and our new one, Gabriel, is absolutely precious. All of them are, of course, beautiful and extremely intelligent!!! So good to hold a baby again - nothing like it!! We arrived back at Jekyll New Years Eve afternoon and stopped to pick up a pie at the local grocery as there was an oyster roast that we helped sponsor and everyone brought side dishes. Needless to say we didn't have time to prepare anything so the pie worked out well. The oysters were delicious - GA oysters!! The evening ended early for us as I was coming down with a cold, which Alan picked up 3 days later. We are on the mend. Boats are starting to leave for the south - some permanently, some will return in late spring. Erik and JoEllen left for the keys for a month, another tried to leave but had to return as it turns out they had a small fish in one of the intake lines to the engine!! They hare headed to the keys also. Some are talking about going to the Bahamas. We are thinking of leaving beginning of Feb or so and heading to south of St Augustine and then do the St John' River (Jacksonville) on the way back here. Just need to be moving!! The plan, as of now, is to leave here Apr 1 and head to the Chesapeake for the Rendezvous that we decided to skip last year - it is in Norfolk, VA the beginning of May. After that we start on The Loop. We haved decided to complete it all this year for several reasons: If we only did half of it we would have to leave Panacea up north somewhere for close to 7 months and we just don't want to do that, the gas prices are very attractive and many states want to charge you tax if you leave your boat there over 3 mos.. We are not interested in that. Ideally, by next Nov we will have gone north to NY, up the Hudson, thru the Great Lakes, down the rivers to Mobile, AL, across the Gulf and be in western Florida. That is the plan du jour. Tune in next week!!

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Panacea

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

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Happy New Year!!!