Quick Update

Hmm, lets see now.  Completed the steam from Cartagena, Colombia to Theodore, Alabama (Mobile) in about 7 days.  Using Google Earth, I pinpointed the closest bar and found a favorable review for it, as well as phone number.  I checked out the front of the bar on Google Street View and all of this worked brilliantly.  I called the bar on Sunday evening, when we arrived.  The owner said she would alert the bartender and stay open for us.  We walked there in the dark, miles down a very dark, loney road, bounded by swamps at some points.  Google, The Prophet, did not let us down.  It did not know that the bar had been sold back in September and that the former Julies was now The Brier Patch, but everything else was spot-on, including the review. 

Southern hospitality?  Look it up in the dictionary and you should find a description of The Brier Patch, on Daulphin Island Parkway.  It started when they said they would stay open as late as WE wanted, on a Sunday night.  When the bartender heard we walked, she asked why we didn't call for a ride and said one of the customers would've drove over and loaded us in a pickup-the two old guys at the end of the bar both nodded.  She bought us shots, gave us free snacks, even going out to car for a couple bags of pretzels she had bought for home.  At the end of the night she promised to make us a pot of gumbo, ask some girlfriends to come up the next night and told us we could drive her car back to the ship, instead of walking.  We declined and most of us left, walkng.  One poor sod ended up sleeping in her car and she drove the rest home after closing the bar at around 4:30 in the morning.  True to her word, she had gumbo waiting for us the next night.

The last night, when we again showed up hungry, she called up a friend who showed up a while later with a giant tub of BBQ'd ribs.  You just don't get that kind of friendly, everywhere.  We won't soon forget the Brier Patch.

Anyway, we sailed and began deploying for the next job.  Christmas was a pretty good time, despite being stuck onboard and at sea.  I dressed up as Trailer-Trash Santa, smoking and drinking and gettin some skin from my homies.  I guess I'll have to attach an image to this post, along with our crew Christmas card.  I gave out presents and afterward we played bingo (party-time, I know).  We gave away a few hundred bucks in cash and prizes including a play station, Wii and some computer gear. 

Santa didn't win squat.