Jimmy Buffett was a good friend of legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite, who died July 17th at the age of 92. At Cronkite’s funeral today in Manhattan friends noted that Jimmy Buffett had recently visited him:

Sandy Socolow, Cronkite’s longtime executive producer and friend, took center stage. He told a series of affectionate anecdotes, highlighting Cronkite’s imperfections.

At one point, Mr. Socolow recalled that one day, towards the end of his life, Mr. Cronkite received a visit from the patron saint of beaches, sailing, and cocktails. Jimmy Buffett, he explained, had landed his waterplane on the East River, not far from Cronkite’s apartment. Mr. Buffett then proceeded to serenade the newsman turned sailor with a jamming ukulele.

Jimmy Buffett is apparently still in Europe after playing a show in London on Sunday. American cyclist Lance Armstrong tweeted this morning that Jimmy is riding along in the Team Astrana car at the Tour de France:

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Update – VeloNews has an interview with Buffett at the TdF. The first question in the interview was “What in the hell are you doing here?”. Jimmy says that he was invited by Lance Armstrong and he had always wanted to come but was always on tour.

Watch the interview now

(hat tip to Cliff for passing along the interview)

According to New York Magazine, Jimmy Buffett recently performed at the wedding of Netscape founder Jim Clark:

Netscape founder Jim Clark and Aussie supermodel Kristy Hinze (nearly 40 years his junior) tied the knot at Rosewood Little Dix Bay resort on Virgin Gorda. Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber attended while Jimmy Buffett performed.

Read the entire article here.

The fourth part of Jimmy Buffett’s recent Outer Banks Adventure is now up at Margaritaville.com. In this final installment, Jimmy writes about pirates and lighthouses, and his ventures on Ocracoke Island:

There was little daylight left as I disembarked on the south shore of Ocracoke from the W. Stanford White, so there was not much to see as I drove towards town and my place of rest for the night. Again, the campgrounds were closed and I had surfed the web for an interesting looking place to spend the night. It had been awhile since I had first dropped out of the sky here for lunch and my first look at the Outer Banks. Maybe the thing that had attracted me here in the first place, other than the unusual name, was the fact that Ocracoke’s history was significantly effected by two things that have always interested me very much – lighthouses and pirates, which meant I was on a “research expedition”.

Read Part IV in its entirety here.

(hat tip to Barefoot for passing this along)

College football held its national championship game last night, the BCS Championship, between Florida and Oklahoma. Florida head coach and parrothead Urban Meyer’s Gators came out on top with a 24-14 victory for their second national title in three years.

In November, Jimmy Buffett attended the Florida – South Carolina game in Gainesville and Coach Meyer invited Buffett into the locker room:

“Jimmy Buffett was in our locker room, he was,” Meyer said, almost giddy.

“In all seriousness, that’s a big deal,” said Meyer, whose favorite Buffett song is “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.”

Meyer met Buffett at Super Bowl XLI in Miami. It was raining and Meyer offered the singer a dark Gator jacket, which Buffett also wore to Saturday’s game.

“It’s great to be back in Gainesville seeing the Gators playing this well,” said Buffett, who had his son, Cameron, with him. “It’s been a long time. I like what Coach Meyer is doing here. This has just been a lot of fun tonight.”

Meyer’s love for Buffett runs deep:

”Urban doesn’t just like Jimmy Buffett, Urban wants to be Jimmy Buffett,” said Shelley Meyer, Urban’s wife.

“To Urban, Jimmy just has the greatest life because he gets to be laid-back. That’s Urban’s dream, just to be relaxed and have fun.”