Happy St. Patricks Day!!

Paddy, the Irishman is struggling to find a parking space.  "Lord," he prayed.  "I can't stand this.  If you open up a space for me, I swear I'll give up the Guinness and go to mass every Sunday!  Suddenly, the clouds part and the sun shines on an empty spot.  Without hesitation Paddy says, "Never mind, I found one!!"

Sue and I were talking a bit about when we anticipate turning the Ponderosa north and starting the migration.   It sounds like we may be hitting Alberta first before heading back to Manitoba.  We figure we will have to head north about April 15th.  We were wondering how spring was progressing back there when I got a message from my friend Juliette in Slave Lake Alberta.  Apparently the sun was shining so she pushed the envelope and got out the Spider and went for a 40 km drive.  I think she was pushing it a bit but surely that is a sign of an early spring.

I have driven past the warship museum in Mobile Alabama a few times now, and have always wanted to stop and check it out.  Today was the day to do it.  Sue didn't have a lot of interest in it so today she has a cold and wants nothing more than to curl up in bed and get rid of it.  I thought this would be a good time for me to just take my time and tour the USS Alabama and the Drum Submarine.   So down the road we went about 10 am.

We found a nice spot in the parking lot to park the Ponderosa and Sue curled up in bed in her jammies.  That is the nice thing about having your house with you.

As I was leaving the Ponderosa I noticed a neat thing.  They have dog kennels where you can put your dog if you are afraid of it getting too hot in your vehicle while you are on the tour.

  

You go in and give a $10.00 deposit for a lock and key and put your dog in there.  When you are done the tour you take the lock and key back and get your money back.  Great idea!!

The tour of the USS Alabama was great.  It is a really big battleship and I was in there for at least 2 hours.   I don't take a lot of pictures because if you want to see it that bad you will go see it!!

I did get to climb way up near the top and I could see the Ponderosa way over in the parking lot.  I'm sure Charlie must have spotted me up there!!!

They also have a nice aircraft display in the building next door.  Each aircraft comes with a little video story given by someone who had flown the plane.  Nice touch.

The helicopter that the US Presidents used to fly in was on display as well.  Nixon and Regan were a couple presidents who used it.  I remember seeing pictures of it landing on the White House lawn.

Last but not least I toured the USS Drum which is a submarine.  I am not sure how anyone could live on here knowing you are surrounded by water.  It is a bit claustrophobic in there with all the hatches open.  

The torpedo guns or whatever you call them were really neat.  They were all brass and shone up real good.  They almost looked gold!!  A lot different than the dull grey guns on the battleship.

I got done touring about 2:30 so we set off down 90 highway heading to meet up with our friends Harold and Pat and Chuck and Angela.  They are at Slidell Louisiana in a Wildlife Management area.  A lot of the drive today was by the Gulf with the White sand beaches.  Because it was chilly today, not many people were on the beach.

This is the route we took today.

It's nice to be back with the gang again.  We are waiting on some of the others to catch up to us maybe later this week. 

Pat, Sue, Me, Chuck, Ang, Harold

We even had a nice little bonfire tonight.  Its been a couple months since we last had one.  Sue was still battling her cold so she was warming up by the fire with her blanket.  Yes we were watching that it didn't catch on fire.

Our view out the window tonight!!  Nice to be back with them!!!