First of all, I need to apologize to south Louisiana for no WIFI per the blog yesterday. After I hiked 24 blocks round trip to use the WIFI at the Hampton Inn, I found out it was available at the public library 2 blocks from the boat!
Moving on, we left Morgan City today around 8 AM. It was 44 degrees last night and pretty chilly getting everything ready for departure this morning. Just a few miles out, we had to pass through Bayou Boeuff lock and fortunately it was open with no delays. Sorry for the pic below but I wasn't about to go outside or open the window just for a better pic.
After the lock and several miles of industrial/commercial/shipping/fishing/everything you can imagine to do with large boats, we entered a stretch, at least 15 miles or so, of solid cypress trees covered in Spanish moss, very peaceful and scenic (even in cold temps).
And then, right in the middle of nowhere and among all that serenity is a sign advertising legal services for maritime something or another!
As you arrive Houma, there is lots of residential waterfront property as well as industrial sites which mixed well together, all in all a very pretty town. We were a little busy getting all of our lines and fenders ready for docking so we missed lots of good shots. The city docks are designed for just a few boats and with limited services. However, it is very nicely done in a park setting nestled between two bridges.
This shot is for the grandkids.
After many more city blocks and not much exciting to show for it, I'm starting to get tired. Rhonda wants to keep sightseeing so she presses on without me. First of all, I don't do well in cold weather and my right leg and left foot have not completely recovered from my surgeries a couple of months ago so they are hurting as well. Also, lots of folks don't realize how tiring traveling by boat can be, especially in new territory. We normally get up early so we can depart at sunrise or shortly thereafter. By the time you do engine checks, get shorepower, water lines, dock lines and fenders in, and all the equipment ready in the flybridge, you've already had a pretty busy morning. During the day is steady attention to where you are, periodic engine room checks, etc etc and then all that is required for docking. And as another reminder, I fractured my shoulder blade in 2 places this summer so it's still a bit stiff, and then topped my "medical summer" off with a stent and a pacemaker!!!! So, by this time I'm about ready to check in for a room at the facility below.
But I'm getting close to the boat, I can see it across the canal but "just can't get there from here" and then get the sign below.
Cock your head to the left - it says "4 laps equals 1 mile." From this position I have to walk 2 of those laps to get back to the boat so I've still got 1/2 mile to go! Anyhow, I finally made it back and I might add that I'm pretty pleased with the pacemaker. It's still a bit uncomfortable but with it set to kick in when my heart rate drops below 70, it's running about 9% of the time. And in case you are wondering why the boat is so dirty on the front end, that's the "moustache" we always get from the tannin in the water as it rides up the hull. We'll get rid of that when we get east of the Mississippi River in New Orleans and the Tenn-Tom Waterway at Mobile.
Rhonda asked several people in town for dinner recommendations. They all said we should eat at the hospital! The sad part is that we did and we even invited the sailboater docked behind us to join us!!! It tasted like hospital food, not sure what we were expecting different than that. But we did have an interesting conversation with the sailboater. Turns out he is also a retired air traffic controller - very small world considering there are only about 16,000 ATCs on the payroll at a time.
One good thing about the hospital, they have WIFI and we obviously took advantage of that to get another blog post done. I asked Rhonda to proof-read it for me while I went to the bathroom. Something didn't look right when I got in there - you guessed it, I was in the womens restroom, not kidding. Clearly time to call it a day and head back to the boat.
We will probably head toward New Orleans tomorrow but it will take 2 days to travel the 69 miles to get there, get through the 2 locks and run a short time on the Mississippi River. BTW, remember our friends we left behind in Lake Charles? They are leaving LCH tomorrow and will be catching up with us in the next few days. Rhonda and I plan to sightsee some in New Orleans while they travel.
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