Staying put... Getting New Stove

What is the saying, best laid plans....
Weather here I'd cold and nasty but then there is no snow.
Tom has decided to purchaseAIS before we take off and we are getting a new stove for the boat
I am doing a happy dance...
So we are delayed. Hope to have new equipment installed by December 12th and make it to Fort Meyers for Christmas.

Keep us in your thoughts for great December weather...
No pics this time but soon

Stuck in Weather in Kemah

The weather is just not cooperating with us. We could leave tomorrow and have fairly decent travel if you don't mind fog at night and early morning while trying to thread your way around ships and oil rigs, but Saturday and Sunday the winds turned north at 25 to 30 kts with 5 to 7' waves... chance of thunderstorms... and even the inland waters are "rough". We need at least 4 days to get to another marina to tie in and wait out weather. Grand Isle just west of the Mississippi delta is our first safe hold. Anchoring out in 5 to 7 ' waves... not happening. 

We did get out new dingy cover and Dave and Carol English made for us and it is great. Tom finished varnishing the wood in the cock pit and made set a board up to hold our extra gerry cans of fuel. 

I have stocked and restocked the pantry, knitted, read, cooked, knitted... waiting for a weather window. 

We will leave... won't jinx it saying when.

new Dingy chaps

Tom and our newly varnished entry

we have added a generator to our equipment.
When we anchor out and if it is cold we can run
our small heater and keep the fridge running
with out draining the batteries

Red skies at night - fair weather... just not for very long

We are getting ready to depart

We are getting it together and looking at a Weather window this coming week. Signed up with Chris Parker for additional weather support this week. Tom sanded our teak, deciding to varnish it this time and it is looking wonderful. We are still waiting on our chaps for the dingy, but the should be done on Monday.
Tom is getting us a generator today and we are going to invest in AIS and radar. I am still hoping for a new stove for Christmas, but we will see.
I did get a new pressure cooker. Got a good deal from William &  Sonoma, with a coupon for 20% off I got a set  of Fargo, 6 & 4 quart with a steamer basket. So far I like the results.

Coot and Mallards in Marina

Tom varnishing our teak in cockpit

three coats -- two more to go

we woke to heavy fog and dew jeweled spiderwebs

on the move South, short stop in Carmel, Ind., worlds largest wind chime.

We are off, heading south to warmer climates and with the Tropical Storm season coming to an end we can start moving. First a few Aha moments. I was surprised that there was so little color in Indiana. It seems the further south we went the colors just drained from the trees. Short look up and here is the reason.

During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.

The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.

It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful fall foliage colors we enjoy each year.

We made a stop in Carmel, Ind and a visit with Meghan. We also stopped to see the worlds larges wind chime. Over night now in Texarkana and tomorrow we should back in Kemah. 

We had a short visit with Meghan and she took us on a tour of Indianapolis. There are some fascinating buildings, here are a few pictures

Two commercial buildings in the 700 block of the avenue are noteworthy for their original Italianate designs. 706-710 and 707-711 are brick c. 1875 Italianates. Both retain original stone arcaded storefronts. Further up the avenue past restaurants, galleries, and drinking establishments, 858-868 is an Art Deco masterpiece. Local architects Rubush & Hunter designed this large complex for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in 1931. The gleaming white glazed terra cotta exterior is ornamented with chevrons, sunbursts, and stylized pilasters in relief.

Further up, at New Jersey and Massachusetts, is a unique architectural wonder, the headquarters of the Indianapolis Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine — the Murat Shrine Building. Oscar Bohlen of D.A. Bohlen & Sons designed this building in 1909. Bands of tan and brown brick, Moorish arches, onion domes, and a 208’ minaret tower make this landmark stand out on the Indianapolis skyline. In 1922, architects Rubush & Hunter designed a north addition with Egyptian Room, inspired by the recent find of King Tutankhamun’s Tomb. Across the street is the German social club, The Athenaeum (Das Deutsche Haus).

We had a wonderful dinner at the Rathskeller 

The Indiana World War Memorial Plaza is an urban feature located in Indianapolis, Indiana, originally built to honor the veterans of World War I.^[3] The five-city-block plaza was conceived in 1919 as a location for the national headquarters of the American Legion and a memorial to the state's and nation's veterans. At the north end of the plaza is the American Legion Mall, which is the site of the administration buildings of the Legion, as well as a memorial cenotaph. South of that is the Veterans Memorial Plaza with its obelisk.

The Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a 284 ft 6 in (86.72 m)-tall neoclassical monument located on Monument Circle in the center ofIndianapolis. It was designed by German architect Bruno Schmitz and completed in 1901.

The Monument was erected to honor Hoosiers who were veterans of the American Revolution, territorial conflicts that partially led up to the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the US Civil War, and the Spanish American War. In addition to its external commemorative statuary and fountains (made primarily of oolitic limestone and bronze), the basement of the monument contains the Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum, a museum of Indiana history during the American Civil War.

crossing into Missouri

With the help of a bucket truck, a 100-foot (30 m) tall oak tree, his son David, and numerous friends, the chime was erected on site from prepared components in front of approximately 100 onlookers. The chime is dedicated to Ranaga's late father, Ignatz Farbiarz, a Holocaust Survivor.

The six metal pipes are tuned in an Oriental pentatonic scale, like the black keys on a piano, with the longest and shortest tubes emitting notes an octave apart. The deepest toned tube is 20 feet (6.1 m) long and "sounds like a combination Cathedral Bell, Tibetan Singing Bowl and Jet engine." The shortest is 14 feet (4.3 m) and has a rich Cathedral-like sound. The overall length of the chime is 35 feet 10 inches (10.92 m), easily beating the previous record of 16 feet 8 inches (5.08 m)

The instrument is made from four-inch (102 mm) diameter, thick-walled aluminum tubing. The total weight of the chime is 653 pounds with the musical tubing alone weighing 310 pounds. The 6-foot (1.8 m) by 8-foot (2.4 m) wooden pyramidal shaped top weighs 225 pounds. The center hung circular wood knocker is 3' 6" in diameter and weighs 64 pounds. A 4-foot (1.2 m) long by 2-foot (0.61 m) wide Celestial Wind Dervish which Ranaga makes out of recycled local and imported woods is used as the windcatcher and weighs 18 pounds. The down rods and miscellaneous hardware weigh 36 pounds. Ranaga calls it the “Wind Chime of Mass Distraction” (WMD) because it is made with the same size and grade aluminum sought by the weapons inspectors in Iraq.