Second Post 2017-2018
Thursday, November
23, 2017. Thanksgiving. Once again, we spent Thanksgiving with our
friends Stan and Judy (formerly Rhumb Runner).
Former cruisers Dave and Carol were also there. A very nice day, great food and great
friends. We managed to get back to the boat
before the rains came. It had been
stormy all week and it is predicted to continue.
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| Thanksgiving l to r Lisa, Carol, Judy, then Benny, Dave and Stan |
We spent the next week getting ready to depart for St.
Augustine, where we are to meet Saber Tooth (John and Nora) and Greenstone (Bob
and Judy) in January. The plan is to
leave the boat at Rivers Edge Marina while we drive home for the holidays. When we return in January (via Southwest
Airlines), they should be there. We will
then travel with them to the Bahamas.
During this week, we managed to get to the beach twice. The first time we found several sea beans (1
hamburger bean, 1 purse bean, 3 sea pearls and 2 nice golf ball beans). The second trip, we only found 2 sea pearls
and one golf ball bean.
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| Dinner at Sake l to r: Benny, Grant and Libby (Nightingale) Roz (Sarah), Merry (Allora), Lisa and Pete (Scrubbibg Bubbles) |
We spent the next week provisioning for the trip to the
Bahamas when we return after the holidays.
We are now pretty well ready to go except for perishables and water.
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| Christmas Parade - Vero Beach |
Friday, December 8,
2017. We have emptied the
refrigerator on the boat. The two solar
panels should keep Rhiannon’s new batteries charged while we are gone. Grant (Nightengale) gave us a ride to shore,
as we have lifted Rhiannon’s dinghy out of the water for the time we are
gone. At 9:00am, we are on our way north
to McCormick, SC, our first stop on the long drive to New Hampshire. It starts
to rain when we hit the Georgia state line and continues for the rest of the
day. The temperature continues to drop
and by the time we arrive at Roger and Connie’s (formerly Down Time) new home,
it is 30 degrees! We are still in shorts
and t-shirts!
We had a great visit.
Saturday we visited a craft
fair in a former grist mill in McCormick and then had lunch at a nice restaurant
in Abbeville. A nice day with friends,
but cold with storm clouds on the horizon.
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| Decorated Grist Mill, McCormick, SC |
Sunday morning,
we left McCormick and headed across the state to Calabash, NC (on the coast) to
visit Lisa’s cousins. We had a nice
visit with Terry, Jennifer and her son Nick (now 15 and taller than all of
us). Dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Nice day.
We stayed at a local Days Inn and were on the road to Pasadena, MD at
8:30am on Monday. It was an uneventful drive, but for the
traffic around Washington, DC – always a mess and no way to actually avoid
it. We arrived at 5:30pm at Jim and Judy’s
house (Tug-a-Long). They were one of our
buddy boats on the first trip down the ICW in 2012. They came to visit us in the Bahamas (Abacos)
in 2014. We went to Two Rivers
Restaurant for dinner and shared prime rib, one of their specialties. Very good.
Tuesday, December 12,
2017. We spent the next day relaxing with Jim and Judy and Judy’s sister
Rose Mary. She’s 84 and what a hot
ticket – her mind still sharp and she does everything on her own. I worked on
getting our two dead cell phones back in business and trying to figure out why
the iPad won’t find a Wi-Fi signal. Got two
back up phones working and the iPad online, so a successful all day. Lisa made dinner (Chicken Tarragon).
At 8:00am on Wednesday,
we headed to New Hampshire. Seems to be
getting colder as the day progresses. We
managed to miss the traffic around New York and were home at 6:00pm. Nice to be back. Jake (our rescue lab) was over joyed and Lulu
(our house sitter Brett’s lab) was just as happy.
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| Ready for Christmas in NH |
We hope everyone has great holidays. We are headed back to the boat on January
7. Stay tuned.
