What little we know (updated 9/3)

UPDATE 9/3: Frank and Judy used some NOAA satellite photos on the Internet to locate Marty's house. The street there looks clean! It's possible he didn't even get any flooding, because once-flooded streets have mud swirls on them. Keep your fingers crossed!

In response to comments: Yes, Frank's been looking at charter rates online. If we can't have our cruising adventure in the Zombie Princess, we'll have it in some other boat! And for those who might be curious about Chloe's shoes and Marjie's shirt: We took a lovely break from life at the local shopping mall the other day. Chloe bought some baby blue Converse hightops covered with multicolored bubbles, and Marjie got a skull-and-crossbones t-shirt that says "It's all fun and games til someone loses an eye!" The skull has a patch, of course!

UPDATE 9/2: Well, there's not much good news today.

Rumor has it that most of the boats in our little marina sank. So it isn't looking good for the Princess. We'll post specifics as we hear them. For those who've been wondering, yes, we have insurance!

Looks like Chris is out of a job. Research positions are not a priority in New Orleans right now. She has a line on some temporary work that we hope will tide her over.

Chris' son Paul's place in Lakeview was totally flooded and he's lost all of his stuff. He will have work, I believe with his dad, and plans to move into Chris' place for the time being.

Bob heard from one of his tenants that at least one of his commercial buildings uptown has been vandalized. There's a restaurant on the ground floor and evidently some folks decided it might have food in it.

On the bright side, Bob is getting an advance from his insurance company, Gary is slowly getting his insurance and FEMA benefits lined up, and -- in one of those weird hurricane quirks -- the guy who works for Bob and Anita tending rescued cats survived the hurricane in his tent on their property in Lacombe (northshore), and not one of the ~200 cats was harmed, despite tarp-and-fencing accommodations.

Still no word on Marty's house.

UPDATE 9/1: Chris heard from a neighbor that her house is dry and essentially undamaged. Hurray! Lori was able to get back to the northshore and had a look at Judy's house. There are some problems there -- mud mostly, and their motor boat was lifted off its trailer -- but it looked like the floodwaters didn't rise as high as their living area, and the house is intact. No word yet on Marty's place or the Zombie Princess.

I've gotten a couple of calls from people who are really worried about us (meaning the Krewe). Don't be!! We are happy, healthy, hopeful and enjoying our Houston vacation. We've taken a hard look at the worst case and it's just not that scary. Disappointing and sad, sure, but only a matter of money and inconvenience, and only a delay in our cruising plans. Frank says it would take more than a hurricane to blow us off course. ;-)

Love to all!
_____________________________________

All members of the New Orleans Maier family are safe and well away from New Orleans.
Lori has heard that her place in Covington has some roof damage, plus her carport came down on top of her car. They haven't seen the damage firsthand.
Chris' place in River Ridge has the best chance of any to be high and dry. Marty's house should be fine, too. It is in Metairie, but not near the low areas of Metairie that you are hearing about on the news.
Judy and Gary's place in Slidell always floods in storms and is set up accordingly, with the living area starting on the second floor.
As for our boat, we know nothing. No news is good news, right?

NEW 8/31:
Cori's mom, brothers, and their families are fine.
Bob and Anita and Bob's folks are at a shelter south of Jackson. They aren't exactly comfortable, but they're safe.
Lori and Jerry's dad is safe in Florida. We're not sure where Joyce and Luther are, but their usual habit is to leave early, so we're confident they are fine.

We're getting pretty specific neighborhood-by-neighborhood coverage on a New Orleans affiliate (wwltv.com, I think), and we haven't seen anything that causes us specific alarm regarding any of the Maier homes. Damage is likely, but we have high hopes that we've avoided destruction.

Officials are asking people to stay away for several days or more, so we're resolved to enjoy our little enforced vacation. I spent today sleeping and swimming in the pool. Judy and Chris went shopping. Frank, Marty, and Gary watched movies and news reports. Marjie and Chloe swam, swam, and swam some more. Oh, and they jumped on the trampoline. Life is good.

Thanks for all the kind thoughts in the comments! We love seeing them!

KreweQueen Ronnie

Safe in Houston

12 hrs of traffic later, we're at Chuck & Karen's. Chris & Marty are here too, w/Judy and Gary due soon. Party!

We're evacuating!

Boat is as safe as we can make it, and we're heading for texas. More later!

The Grave Tender Is Born

After an exhausting, hot morning, with me on the winch reminding myself of the muscle tone I *used* to have, and Frank taking care of various maintenance tasks at the top of the mast, we spent the afternoon picking up our dinghy and motor and assembling same. So the Grave Tender has been born. She's a sweet little boat, sure to serve HRH, The Zombie Princess and her Krewe very well. Provided she doesn't get stolen tonight. We've got dinghy and motor locked up, of course, but they sure look shiny and new and tempting. We'll have to spend a little "insurance" time with patch kit, paint, and perhaps a wrench applied bluntly to the motor casing. Nothing like dings and scratches to give a motor that tired, well-used look.

Looks like Katrina will/might (mostly) miss us, and she's a hurricane now! That means she'll move a little faster and get out of our way. I hope so, because we're feeling a little stir crazy. We're thinking of writing a song titled "Stuck in Slidell." ;-)

We had a nice family dinner out last night to celebrate 15 adventurous years of marriage. The girls got a kick out of hearing wedding stories. Then we moved on to the stories of their births and (early) lives, back when Mom and Dad could barely function due to lack of sleep and cousin Jerry was their big brother. It was nice remembering all of you who participated in those happy moments. Glad you all were there!

Happy birthday, Cherie! We love you!

KreweQueen Ronnie

8/26 update: Dinghy and motor both survived the night! First thing this morning, Frank and I took a little bayou cruise. It was GREAT! Our new motor is really quiet and smooth, and the dinghy handles well. Love it!!

'Cane Katrina (was TD 12)

Don't worry, y'all. We're watching the storm! Worst case, we'll stay tucked up waaaaay back in the bayou, eating good New Orleans food and doing some extra prep work.

R&F

Cruising New Orleans (aka "Eating")

Did you know New Orleans is a fun place to go on vacation? Really! In our hurry to hit the water, we had kind of forgotten that. This weekend was a good reminder and has served to kick us out of frenzy and into cruising mode.

In New Orleans, it's all about the food. Here's what we've been eating:

Friday night, Frank and I joined friends Bob and Anita at the Lousiana Grill in Mandeville (across Lake Pontchartrain from N.O., reached by means of the 25-mile-long Causeway). Our purpose in visiting this particular restaurant was to see the show put on by Big Daddy O, known to his friends as Owen Tufts. Owen was already on the music scene back when Frank was playing music and is really coming into his own in his current bluesy incarnation. Also, his wife, Gretchen, was at UNO with Frank and Bob, and - as it turned out in one of those "New Orleans is really a small town" coincidences - at Mt. Carmel High with Anita.

Anyway, the music was fabulous and seeing Owen and Gretchen was really fun. The meal also turned out to be a big highlight. We started off with crab-stuffed mushrooms and a scrumptious crawfish, spinach, and pepperjack cheese spread on toast points. Our entrees included filet mignon for Frank (he needs the red meat after working in the heat all these weeks!), a big crab-and-tomato salad for Bob, fried shrimp for Anita, and speckled trout, fried and topped with crawfish, for me. We were too full for dessert, but we didn't let that stop up! We had strawberry shortcake and a little mini-frypan of bread pudding, with four spoons!

Still feeling full Saturday morning, Frank and I skipped breakfast and headed across the lake to pick up some parts and do a little Christmas shopping (yes, really, but just a little). It was really, REALLY hot, so we fortified ourselves with some snowballs, tall cups of shaved ice flavored with your choice of fruity syrups. Even so, a few errands turned into a real endurance test, and by the time we returned to Slidell, we felt deserving of a(nother) reward and some food. We accomplished both by stopping in at Captain Humble's for a couple of his "world famous, New Orleans style" oyster po-boys.

The Captain himself took our order. He's a former New Orleans radio personality, so the walls of the restaurant are covered with photos of a younger him with various 70's music stars. He seems perfectly happy in his new(er) career, though, granting a cheerful exception to his ban on personal checks to the cash-strapped mom in line ahead of us, and then even more cheerfully promising us we would love our sandwiches. He was quite right; we burned the roofs of our mouths in our eagerness to get at those oysters.

A word about oysters from the Gulf for those of you more familiar with Pacific oysters: They are small, tender, and usually *very* fresh. If you don't like Pacific oysters, you might like these, and if you like Pacific oysters, you'll LOVE these. Frank and I are in the latter category. In a po-boy, they are deep fried, nestled on a bed of lettuce (get your po-boy "dressed" or be spotted instantly as a tourist), and slipped between fresh French rolls. YUM!

Sat. night, we met up with our daughters (who spent the weekend with cousins Lori and Brian, their two dogs, and their trampoline) for Brian's poolside 12th birthday party. Unbeknownst to her, it was also the not-quite-50th birthday party for Frank's baby sister, Judy. The party took place on an old converted barge at a marina in Madisonville that turned out to lack air conditioning. Bad timing, since it was such a killer hot day. The kids solved the problem by spending about 5 consecutive hours in the pool.

We finished off the weekend with a day spent stowing stuff. What will and won't be coming with us is becoming clear, with a surprising amount in the "will" column. Preplanning and organization - not to mention a variety of storage contraptions and bungee cords - are serving us well.

Speaking of bungee cords, Mezza and Snowball seem unperturbed by the new location of their cage: suspended above the dinette and free to gimbal. We hope this and the homeopathic anti-nausea remedy supplied by their vet will keep them comfortable under way.

KreweQueen Ronnie

Moving in

Well, we've spent 3 nights aboard the Zombie Princess. Despite the utter stillness of Bayou Bonfouca (where we're moored), I have "boat rock" when I go ashore, so I guess I'm officially a liveaboard sailor now.

There's still more disorder than order belowdecks, but I am slowly getting things stowed. I've taken some cruising-guide advice and am keeping a record of where I put what. It should come in handy two months from now when I'm going "Now where did I put that eyeglass repair kit?" It does slow things down, though, since I have to stop and write after putting something away.

The exhaust wrap came in, so Frank finished up the generator installation today. We tested the system and -- after an airhead moment where yours truly forgot to flip a switch on the AC panel -- everything works great. The generator even runs the air conditioner! I doubt we'll be able to take advantage of that much on the water, since our primary concern will be charging the batteries, but it's nice to know!

With several other miscellaneous tasks under out belts, and a whole lot of shopping -- if I never go inside Home Depot and Target again, it'll be too soon -- we bit the bullet today and ordered our dinghy and motor. Since we aren't spending the money for a lifeboat, we went ahead and got a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) dinghy. It's a bit like towing a 2005 Mercedes behind an '85 Winnebago, but this was an area where we didn't want to skimp.

Delivery time on the dinghy has determined our departure date and given us a more relaxed prep schedule. The dinghy comes in Thursday the 25th, so -- weather and boat readiness assumed -- Friday we'll make the long trek out the bayou, across Lake Pontchartrain, and through the Rigolets to the Gulf. Once there, we plan to tuck behind an island and rock for a few days.

While Mom and Dad slave, Marjie and Chloe and the rats have already settled into cruising mode. The human girls are co-writing a sword-and-sorcery novel or two. The rat girls are much intrigued by new smells and noises aboard the boat but seem to be taking it all in stride.

KreweQueen Ronnie

We'll always have New Orleans

Cap'n and Krewe are together again at last!

Highlights of the cross-country voyages of the Krewe:

Spokane, WA: The fun and festive wedding of Matt and Laura Maier. (Matt is son to Steve, one of Frank's many first cousins.) It was great to see the Maier crowd and nice to represent the New Orleans branch of the family at the celebration. We're anxiously awaiting word of bouquet-catching Alicen's upcoming wedding no matter how terrified daddy Bill looked at the idea. ;-)

UPDATE 7/9/2007: Alicen has just announced her engagement to her beau, Brian. She isn't the first to the altar, though, unless she elopes before her Aunt Mary gets hitched on 7/21.

I-90 Eastbound: Being accompanied east by dozens of Harley Davidson-riding, denim-and-bandana-wearing, "don't come near me on a Japanese motorcycle" men and women on their way to Sturgis. It made every stop colorful and entertaining, and it made mornings at our motels a noisy affair with all those bikes firing up.

Lexington, NE: Seeing Cherie, Steve, and Pat; trying to find floating depths in the "inch deep and a mile wide" Platte River; introducing Reggie-the-dog to Mezza-the-rat (they liked each other!); and standing firmly on the ground while my more adventurous daughters had motor-glider flights with their Papa Steve. A great visit!!

Arkansas: Slow going on Highway 71 gave us lots of time to enjoy the beauty of western Arkansas.

Arriving safe and sound in New Orleans: FRANK!!! Hard to say if he was more impressed by my incredibly short hair or his ink-decorated youngest daughter -- Marjie wrote "We Missed You, Daddy!" across Chloe's forehead, which coordinated nicely with her self-inflicted "tattoos" elsewhere -- but the girls and I were very, very happy to see him again.

Meeting the Zombie Princess: Our new home afloat is a nice little boat. The interior is open and light, the cabins are comfortable, and -- now that my mom and I have spent several hours getting acquainted with her by scrubbing every surface -- the ZP is starting to feel like home.

I'm not adjusted yet to the heat and humidity of New Orleans (is it even possible to adjust to it?!), so the boat's air conditioner is an especially nice feature. If we get out to the boat by 8 a.m. and keep her closed up, it's comfortable enough belowdecks all day. Still, I can't wait to get out to the coast where it's not so muggy!

As for the boat fixups, don't let Frank's post fool you. He's gotten a LOT done. I'm optimistic that we'll get through the remaining tasks in the next week. He thinks it'll take two. Somewhere in between there, we'll be hitting the water.

Ah. We have an itinerary change already. We received a call from the office of the Director of Agriculture of the Bahamas. They will not allow Mezza and Snowball into their waters. After a brief family meeting, we've decided we didn't want to spend a couple of hundred dollars to cruise there anyway! So we'll do the Keys and then scoot down to the Turks & Caicos.

"Hey" out to Ryan who was kind enough to visit on his way to a new tattooing job in Florida. It was great to see you! Huge thanks to Judy and Garry and to Chrissy for providing housing for the rambunctious Krewe; and more huge thanks to Grandma Mary for help driving and scrubbing, dinner at Copeland's (yum!), and general service above and beyond the call of motherhood. We love you!

KreweQueen Ronnie

The Captain checks in

While the krewe is on the road, I thought I'd give a little update from N.O. I'm starting my third week of refitting and have managed to complete
absolutely nothing. Well, I take it back. I greased the jib furler... but not the winches, all of which are in desperate need of a tuneup. I rebedded a couple of ports... but not all.The propane system is almost done. The generator is almost done. The head replumbing is almost done.

Seeing a pattern, yet?

The logo, however, arrived from the printer and it is swell! I can't wait til the krewe arrives so we can install it.

My first week was high 90s. Last week we had a cold front come through and it only got into the low 90s. I haven't checked the weather for this week
but it was probably mid-90s today. I've lost 10 pounds since arriving. In the abstract, that's nice, because I usually gain weight from a N.O. visit, what with all the fabulous food. Hydration is my middle name while working in this weather, especially when I'm down in the deep laz, doing something awkward and difficult.

Yesterday I gave in and fired up the airconditioner while I worked on replumbing the head. Boy! Was that nice!

So, that's what old Cap'n Franko has been up to recently. My next report will be more upbeat as I get some of these tasks actually finished!

Life's too short to sail on slow boats!
Cap'n Franko

Some starter photos

Krewe heads out to join the Cap'n

Well, the journey is about to begin. After what are sure to be the busiest couple of days ever, Friday morning the girls and I will start our cross-country trek to join Frank and the Zombie Princess. I can't wait to see them both!

For the Krewe here in Washington state, these past days have been full of laundry, packing, laundry, shopping, errands, and more laundry. I've also spent a lot of time on the phone, getting financial and other details straightened out. We took the rats, Mezza Luna and Snowball, to get their health certificates, and we visited our family doctor so she could prescribe some just-in-case medical supplies.

My biggest adventure was getting all (well, most) of my hair cut off last night. It's the shortest I've ever had it, a spiky, stylish bootcamp look. ;-) The world feels about 10 degrees cooler -- not quite an asset at night in western Washington, but sure to greatly appreciated once we get about two hours east of here.

Meanwhile, in New Orleans... Cap'n Frank is making great progress on the boat fixups. He has nearly completed the plumbing and rather unpleasant fiberglassing work for the new propane stove (which arrived in record time), in addition to rebedding some leaky ports and replacing the galley and head faucets. With the stove in, the only big job remaining (knock wood) will be installing the generator into the stern laz. And much to the delight of the accountant (yours truly), the only big purchase remaining will be the dinghy and motor.

Cross-country itinerary for the Krewe:
Friday night - Spokane, WA, for the much anticipated nuptials of Maier cousin Matt and his intended, Laura
Saturday night - wherever we end up along I-90
Sunday night thru Tuesday morning - Lexington, NE, for a happy visit on Loudon Pond (and a welcome reprieve from driving)
Tuesday night - Arkansas maybe??
Wednesday night - New Orleans

We can't wait! Our little family has been divided for too long.