May 25, 2008 Wabasha, MN to Winona, MN, 37 miles, Crew Brad G. We had a small thunder shower last night. Glad the wind didn’t change directions since we had 20 miles of open lake (Lake Pepin) to our North. Brad and I raised anchor at 8:00 am and motored to Wabasha, MN. We pumped out (our waste tank) and got some ice. Didn’t see any Grumpy Old Men. The wind was from the South East at 15 knots, but we hoisted a reefed main sail anyway. The sailed added a couple more knots of speed as we motor sailed down [View Full Entry]

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May 19, 2008 Baraboo/Tomah, WI to Bayport, MN and Maple Grove, MN via 1984 F-250 Ford truck Harold and I made it to Lake St. Croix without any problems. We ended up going to Bayport, MN where there are a number of marinas. We found a good ramp at the Beach House marina. The City of Bayport charges $10 for launching and $10 a night for parking a vehicle. WE started stepping the mast and found out that the port spreader was broken. We found Roehegers welding shop about 3 miles from the marina. They had the spreader welded in about [View Full Entry]

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It’s time to do some traveling on the water. Captain Wayne and crew, brother Harold, will be taking a cruise. We plan to launch S/V Amber Lee II on the St. Croix River near Stillwater, MN on May 19th, enter the Mississippi at Prescott, WI and sail, and motor, down the Mighty Mississippi to La Crosse, WI. This adventure will begin before we hit the water, when we trailer the 27 ft ODay sail boat from Baraboo, WI 200 miles up I94 to our launch site. The old Ford will have to work to pull a 3 1/2 ton load. I [View Full Entry]

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We ended our last blog arriving at Cape Hatteras. We went to see Cape Hatteras lighthouse, then went to the beach and watched kite surfers. Check “kite surfing” out on google if you want to see what a wild sport it is. The next morning, the 13th, we continued north on the Outer Banks and managed to drive out on the beach again, without getting stuck in the sand. We drove through Nag’s Head, another Wisconsin Dells type area. We then checked out Orville and Wilber Wright’s first flight National Historical site at Kitty Hawk. We ended up driving through Norfolk, [View Full Entry]

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Week 1 of retirement I better make an entry in the “Headed South” blog before we start north for home. Left sunny Wisconsin on April 6th and arrived in Atlanta on the afternoon of the 8th. (Happy birthday Harold!) Southern Indiana and Kentucky looked very wet. Even had to ford a small creek with the Jeep when we stopped to pick up our Indiana geocache. We stayed with Kim and Bruce, Karen’s sister and brother in-law in the Atlanta area for 2 nights. Karen’s Brother, Terry also stopped over to visit. Our recreational activities included visiting the Southern Mus [View Full Entry]

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It has been a while since Karen and I have taken a trip together. Wayne needs a break between 38 years of work and retirement. We will be driving to Atlanta, Georgia to visit Karen's Brother and sister and families. We then plan to head for the South Carolina coast. If the weather is warm we will drive North To the North Carolina Outer Islands. If it looks like cool temperatures we may go south to Florida. [View Full Entry]

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Thought I would add a few more photos of the BIG TRIP. Just click on a photo and you will be able to open any of the photos. [View Full Entry]

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Day 26 August 8 Traveled 520 miles to McBride, BC We are off the ferry and in the Old Ford F250 again. We made it almost across British Columbia. We would have made it to Alberta, but a very beautiful rainbow led us to a campground in McBride, BC. The rainbow made a perfect arc over this nice little town. We stopped and took a bunch of photos of the rainbow and are spending the night under the rainbow, or where it was. It was again cloudy and rainy most of the day, until the rainbow came out. Maybe it’s a [View Full Entry]

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Will add some more photos at a later date. Day 21 August 3 Traveled about 250 miles. Staying at Tolsona Wilderness Campground. This is the same campground we stayed at on July 28th. It is a very nice place and would highly recommend it to any Alaska travelers. It’s 13 miles west of Glennallen and the owners are friends of Karen and Gary. Our drive today took us through the Anchorage area. We made a quick stop to re-provision our expedition. We continue to be amazed at all the mountains. It’s hard to drive anywhere in the State and not see [View Full Entry]

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The adventures of Big Al and the Geoose in Alaska got lost by our friends at TravelBlog.com. Their server crashed and all is lost. Fortunately we have copies of most of the blogs. Here are days 7-20. We will publish some photos when we have a chance. Day 7 July 20 340 miles Traveled - Camped at Takhini Hot Springs last night and took another hot bath. We had a good cold rain shower while we where in the hot springs. That cooled us down a bit. The first stop today on the Klondike Trail was at "Moms Bakery". Mom has [View Full Entry]

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