
I know you've all been looking forward to my blog and I apologize for taking so long to getting around to it. Frankly, given all the travel (planes, trains and automobiles--actually planes, automobiles, trucks, and boats), my tummy has been more than a bit off and I've been exhausted.

The only good news about that is that when I don't eat, the Admiral buys and cuts up shrimp for me. That usually primes my hunger pump in a really good way.
In any event, we traveled from Bangor, Maine, to Pensacola, Florida, on Monday. The Admiral hires a guy named Ken to drive us to the airport. She says he's a great guy and he does drive slowly and carefully. But, I HATE cars and i caterwalled most of the way to the airport and probably owe Ken an apology.

Once again, they stuck me under the seat of a small CRJ700 and once again I say "Yuck." There is just no way you can think

it's nice under there. You know, it's so gross that somewhere along the way, i thought I might sweeten it up a bit and I peed and peed and peed. Fortunately, the Admiral puts puppy training pads in my carrier, She was uptight about traveling with me already and got pretty worked up when she found out I'd done that. We spent a half hour in a DCA companion bathroom getting cleaned up. I'm afraid the Admiral kind of blamed Cap. It really wasn't his fault.
In. any event, they rented the conference room in the Admirals Club for two and a half hours so that I could stretch my legs during an interminable layover. Actually, if it had lasted forever and I didn't have to get onto the next plane, that would have been ok with me. But we did get on the next plane--an only slightly bigger one. You know, Cap

says that once you turn 65 you should never walk past a men's room. In Cat years (Please be sure to use Upper Case for the "C") I'm way more than 65 and I wish I'd peed in the box they put out for me in the Admiral's Club because the Admiral was really angry that I peed in my carrier on that second flight too. Nonetheless, half way through that flight and even though she'd signed a document saying I'd stay in the carrier, she let me out and I rode most of the rest of the way on her chest where I could look out the window (good thing the flight attendant loves Cats). I felt like the Little Prince or maybe even Ernie Gann. Thank God I didn't feel like Tom Cruise or Cap's real TopGun friend, Admiral Joe Dyer. I would have lost it all.
We arrived in Pensacola and, with no checked bags, went straight to the taxi queue. Except, there were no taxis. After waiting 20 minutes in the cold, the Admiral went to Hertz who had "No cars." No cars? "Well we've got a big pick up". So, we rented a Dodge Ram 2500 to get to the boat. Even though it's a huge truck and Cap drove it very smoothly, I still caterwalled the entire half hour ride. I thought it would be good to bookend the trip in case the Admiral and Cap were thinking about doing it again any time soon.
I think Cap told you about Tuesday and Wednesday so I'll just say that we had a great cruise yesterday from Destin to Panama City. Our day in Destin started with a visitor on the dock. The Great Blue caught my attention but he (she?) was really too big for me.

Our 60 mile trip started and ended in big bays but, a good portion of it was on a narrow channel through a huge Cypress Swamp. It was flat calm almost the whole way. My


kind of cruising!

We are now in Panama City's St. Andrews Marina, a very secure spot where Cap's got us cross tied on more pilings than I can count. We're staying here again tonight so that my crew can do some work on the boat and dinghy. Ok with me and I hope tonight's sunset out our aft entry door is as nice as last night's.
'Til next time,
Rascal
Commander-In-Chief

Jeez, Rascal - You've had the course. If I were you I would insist on cut-up shrimp for a week. They owe ya.