Learning From Loopers

Last week we spent 3 days at a conference called the Winter Rendezvous put on by the American Great Loop Cruisers Association in Ft Myers. We were surrounded by 450 fellow boaters who had either completed the Loop, were already progressing around the Loop, or were in the planning stages like us. We learned about the route from Fort Myers to Norfolk, where the next Rendezvous will take place in May, we attended a seminar on weather, and another on electronics. We were also able to tour 18 Looper boats docked in the local marinas. We learned a lot and met a lot of cool folks who will be in our cruising class of 2022. Here we are in front of the route map. Suffice it to say we are excited and overwhelmed and intimidated, but all in!!

Coast-to-Coast the Adventure Begins!

Most Loopers start their adventures somewhere along the Intracoastal Waterway or great rivers of the US. Ours started last week when we traveled 2667 miles from our home in San Pedro, California to our daughter's home in Ft Myers, Florida. Between furniture for our daughter and enough supplies to, hopefully not, sink our new boat, our SUV and trailer were packed to the point we could barely fit another piece of paper inside.  After a 10-day COVID delay, we pulled out in the wee dark hours of the morning to start our long 4 days of driving. The trip was mostly uneventful, other than the fact that we had a flat tire outside of Phoenix on the first day. We made it off the freeway just in time for the tire to completely deflate. After unloading half the car to access the jack, we discovered that it was absolutely useless. While waiting for AAA with an estimated 2 hour arrival time, Rob called our Sierra Veterinary Medical Association ski buddy, Tom, who we knew lived somewhere in the Phoenix area. With a good stroke of luck, Tom's desert hacienda was less than a  mile away from where we were stuck! Five minutes later he pulled up in his big pick-up with a floor jack in the back. Having no room for a flat tire in the back of our car, Tom threw the deflated useless piece of rubber in the back of his truck and off we went to find a new tire. We were back on the road after a relatively short three hour delay, and a fresh reminder of how great it is to have good friends! With 140,000 miles on the car and a flat-tire induced sense of vulnerability, we carried on with a sense of foreboding waiting for the next calamity to happen. Fortunately, the travel gods were with us and after 40+ hours of driving we pulled safely into our daughter's driveway. Along the way we discovered - The I-10 is pretty flat and gets progressively greener as you head east, the waffle makers in all of the Holiday Inn Expresses are broken, and California seems to be the only state where cars pulling trailers are limited to 55 mph. 

The afternoon before our departure, our best buddies put together a sunset bon-voyage party for us! We are so blessed to have the friends and neighbors that we do. We will miss them all!

Christmas in Florida Canceled Due to COVID!

Rob and I were planning a pre-Loop trip to Florida to visit our daughter and son-in-law at their beautiful new home outside of Ft Myers in mid-December (see photo.) Flights were made, luggage was packed (200 pounds of boat stuff) and we were ready! Those plans came to a screeching halt when the cohort of friends and family that drove with them across the country contracted Covid19. It would be too soon for them to travel before we were to arrive. So, in addition to "No room at the Inn," we didn't want to expose ourselves to the dreaded Covid19 virus...

So, we stayed home and planned to travel to Ft Myers earlier in January to make-up for the missed December Trip.  Of course, now, the 200 pounds of aforementioned "boat stuff," in addition to all of our clothes, and miscellaneous stuff we need to set up a boat to live on for a year, required buying a trailer to haul it all to Florida. Check, got that done... we were all set to lift off on the 7th of January. Then a funny, not so funny, thing happened.... yep, you guessed it, we both got Covid19. Now we are recovering and hoping to leave for Alison and Dylan's Florida oasis sometime mid-January.