Adventures of the J Dawn

  Went over to Naples to see Dad and Maryvonne the day after Christmas. Surprised Dad at his activity center. It was nice to know he recognized me.  Russ had a beard and Dad kept looking at him for a long time trying to figure out who he was but in the end I think he remembered who he was. Had a very nice time playing games. Headed back to the boat after our visit since we had the dogs with us and they were still doing a lot of coughing.  Christmas it rained hard all day and night and the dogs coughed all day and night so after our visit with Dad we decided this adventure is over. Wednesday we took a little trip down the river and then at noon we loaded up and were on our way north. We plan to stop in Chattanooga at Nick’s house and winterize the boat. If the weather is decent we’ll then drive home with the boat, if the weather will be bad we will probably find a place in Chattanooga to store the boat for the winter.  This was quite an adventure….not exactly what we ...

 Returned from our cruise on Friday December 22. We were the last cruise they let sail before they closed the ports in Fort Lauderdale and Miami due to high winds and storms. They had both ports closed until Monday. We had 36 foot waves and it was very rough. Russ had to go buy me something for seasickness because the waves got to me. It wasn’t one of our best cruises for nice weather as we had rough seas and rain. I was still happy with my nice room and plenty of food to eat.  When we picked the dogs up from the kennel they both were doing some coughing but we didn’t think anything about it because we went and did laundry and bought food so we were busy running around. That evening they both were hacking away and vomiting. So we finally found a vet open that was 60 miles away so at 12:30am we hopped in the truck and headed to the vet. They both had kennel cough (even though they both were up to date on their kennel cough vaccine). We got back to the boat many dollars poorer a...

 We left Nick’s place on Sunday and we are now in Moore Haven,Florida. We’re at a marina on the Florida intracoastal waterway near Lake Ocheecoobee. I had to take a picture of our boat because we are so little compared to everyone else. The big adventure now is we have no water since leaving Nicks. Don’t know what happened to the water pump but we will have to order a new one. Hope it doesn’t take as long to get here as the prop. I’ve been using bottled water to cook and wash dishes. So guess what…we booked a last minute cruise leaving tomorrow. It’s on Holland America an Eastern Caribbean cruise for one week. Very good deal when you book last minute. We leave out of Fort Lauderdale at 3pm. We found a kennel for the dogs for that week. Won’t take us long to pack as we have very little amount of clothes and no suitcases. Should be fun as our belongs will be in bags. Can’t wait for someone else to cook and a big bed with no dogs!

 Haven’t posted in a while so I better get something written. When we came back from our little adventure to New Orleans, Nick called and wondered if we could come and help him build a new deck on their house before Christmas. So Sunday Dec 3 we loaded the boat onto the trailer and drove to Chattanooga, TN. We have been this whole week tearing apart the old structure and working on the new. We have enjoyed our time with family but will probably leave Sunday to head to Florida. Will trailer the boat and launch it in Florida. We’re still looking for some warm weather as it’s been in the 30s at night and only in the 50s and sometimes the low 60s in the daytime. Hope Florida is a bit warmer!