Heading South

Enjoying Brookgreen Gardens at Myrtle Beach.

In the past 2 years of cruising we had out boat north in the summer and then headed south on the water to follow the sun. This year we were driving to take care of business; visit with friends and family; and work on our next year's travel support. In organizing our plans we considered lots of options like; where do we fly to/from the US, where do we need to go, what made sense for our acquisition and how could we accomplish the most in our limited time available.

After much thought and analysis we decided that flying to/from Chicago made the most sense as we could make a big loop around the eastern half of the country. Anyplace else and we would spend time going and coming.Then we began filling in the calendar with stops, visits, business and requirements as we traveled. It meant we would spend about 2 months living out of a car since our home was in Guatemala. Thus, we packed for that when we left Guatemala and now we have spent most of the first month on the first leg working our way from Chicago to the IP Rendezvous in Boothbay Harbor and now looked forward to heading south and back to warmer weather.

View looking up the beach at Myrtle Beach, SC.

As an aside, we really have become acclimatized to warmer weather and anything under 75 really does feel chilly and cold. Beginning with our stops in Pennsylvania and north we started seeing evening temps in the 50's and that was cold. In many of our hotel rooms the air conditioner had been set down in the 60's and we put the heat on to warm it up. In the middle of summer, even in Florida we were running heat at night so getting back to the sun was welcome.

We left Boothbay Harbor on Sunday 30 July to drive down to New London, Connecticut where we planned to do some shopping at Defender Marine.  Traffic almost all the way from Maine to New London was very heavy. Traffic going to Maine on Friday had also been heavy. Traffic in New England was heavy when we lived there in the 70's and 80's and it has only increased. We were able to get a room at the Navy Lodge at the Navy Base, New London for the night before we going to Defender about 20 mins away.

Us with Michael and Tammy Hetzer at Brookgreen Garden.

In the years we've been sailing we've been buying from Defender but we never had the chance to visit the store and took this opportunity to do that. With their huge inventory I expected the store to be bigger. We had several items on our list and we found them after perusing the inventory available. After that we headed south through New York City and back to Virginia. Already the weather was getting warmer as were now about 500 miles farther south than Boothbay Harbor. We love visiting Maine but even in the summer it's cold.

How bout them Cubs?

Another garden visitor.

 In a way it was nice to get back to the DC area before heading on. Having lived here for several years we are always nostalgic for places we used to frequent but we're happier where we are. We sold out here because we decided we would never move back to the area in the future because of the cost and growing congestion. It was fine when we lived here but we're done with it. So after a few more days of follow-up with our medical folks we headed south. Before we left we got to spend a night with our great friends Al and Trish Del Negro at their beautiful home on Spa Creek in Annapolis. Over the years we've spent many wonderful evenings with them and hope to spend more next year when we return.

"Pegasus", by Laura Gardin Fraser, one of the magnificent large sculptures.

After leaving DC our first stop was in Myrtle Beach, S.C. to visit with our friends Michael and Tammy Hetzer. Michael and Tammy were with us in Jamaica and had planned to go on to Guatemala with us before changing their minds and then heading off toward Providencia in what turned out to be an ill-fated voyage as they lost their Aria on the way. This was our first chance to visit with them after their loss. They are out looking for a new boat to begin their adventures again. Good luck to them.

Entry into the Gardens.

What was supposed to be one night in Myrtle Beach grew into 2 as we were having such a great time and Michael insisted we visit the Brookgreen Gardens. What an overwhelming experience with the sculpture and botanical gardens accompanying them. A truly beautiful experience. Many thanks to Michael and Tammy for suggesting it. We would like to go back there again. There was so much we didn't get to see.

Welcome to Florida.

From Myrtle Beach we went to Jacksonville to visit our storage locker, gather our mail and begin packaging our stuff for shipment back to Guatemala. Our couple days in Jacksonville were very busy. Our first key objectives were to get the pile of mail that had accumulated at our "home" in Green Cove Springs. We had numerous packages shipped there that included many things to be shipped to Guatemala and some things we are taking with us. The second key objective was to visit our storage unit. When we downsized there were things we kept for perhaps an eventual return to dirt-dwelling and we had stuff we accumulated over the past year to leave there.  After doing that and doing shopping we packaged things together for our support back in Guatemala. We need this opportunity back in the States to obtain maintenance and repair items we might need for the next year because other than coming back over the holidays we may not be back in the States again for another year. We can ship maintenance parts back but it is difficult to ship back food supplies that we want and can't get in Central America.

My daughter Kirsten with her oldest son Keith and youngest son Hunter.

After accomplishing our key objectives over a few days in Jacksonville we headed south to Sanford, FL to visit my daughter and her family. It has been almost a year since we visited with them. Over the several days we were there we spent a good bit of time together. One afternoon we all went bowling and even Hunter got a strike and some spares (of course he got to use the bumpers 😍). On Sunday afternoon we took the boys to the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford and had a great time before going back home for a barbecue.

Grandsons Ethan and Hunter when we were bowling.

Monday we loaded the car with our packages to ship and headed to Miami. We had one stop to make along the way and that was to pickup some courtesy flags that Fawcett's had been unable to get before we left Annapolis. We arranged to pick them up at Bluewater Books & Charts in Fort Lauderdale,  To be sure they would have them when we got there I went online and bought them with a note on the order that we would pick them up. Well, whoever processed the order shipped them. Fortunately I called them and they agreed to give me new ones when I stopped and then later we returned the ones they shipped.

With the boys at the zoo.

With this purchase we closed up the last box and headed to the shipping agent near Miami International Airport. About 2:00 pm we dropped off the boxes to go there way to us in Guatemala and we turned around and headed north and west toward Port Charlotte making our second big turn.

After 1,600 miles and another 2 weeks we completed the second major leg of our trip and were heading back north again. This time our destination is Chicago and back to the point of beginning in the final stages of our time back in the States. With so much accomplished we are beginning to think about finally getting back home but using the time left to visit other friends and family before going back to our home in the tropics. 

The Bald Eagles at the zoo.