Family Reunion in Orlando

Admiral Sue, niece Khalan, sister Carol,
sister-in-law Cindy.  Four roses in the park!

My sister flies down two days before Easter from Grand Rapids MI to get away from all the cold & snow they're STILL having, to tour the area & go cruising with us on our planned 3-day trip north (down the St John River) to Jacksonville.  This was Carol's first time aboard our boat, but she'll learn quickly how to swab the decks & be a part-time galley wench.

The next day, my sister-in-law flies down from snowy upstate New York with her daughter & family, bringing lots of those good Yankee dollars, to act like tourists for a week in Orlando.  So, Easter Sunday we all get together for a reunion of sorts, being that we haven't been all together for 2-1/2 years.  We all had a good, though short, visit.

We've finalized our trip plan up to Jacksonville, noting where we will anchor for two nights.  Carol is hoping to see lots of Florida wildlife, and we're always aiming to please.  The ladies are continuing to shop for provisions (at least that's their excuse for buying all this food).  And we'll show Carol some of the local sights, including driving to the seashore next to Cape Canaveral to squish some sand between our toes.  Departure will be either Wednesday or Thursday of this week.  As the Navy ships always said before leaving the dock:

"Make all necessary preparations for getting under way!"

Another 1000 miles last week

After re-reading the ending of my last blog posting, I find it amusing that I was so naïve to think that we would really have 2 whole weeks to prepare to go cruising.

It all started just as we were preparing to leave New Orleans on March 31.  Sue was actually in the doctor’s exam room when she received a phone call from the realtor in TN.  She said that we had a good solid offer to buy the house in Cleveland.  Was this just an early April Fool’s joke?  We were already set to drive to Jacksonville on April 1 to change our legal residence to Florida, with voting cards, driver’s licenses, and car registration, because we hoped to sell the TN house (our legal address).  Since Sue needed a day to gather more information about the house offer, we made the trip to Jacksonville on Tuesday, and then drove back to Cleveland TN on Wednesday.

Sue getting ready to crawl under the
house with all the spiders & bugs.

The offer was indeed valid, so we decided we could spend about 10 days in TN before we had to get to the boat to prepare for my relatives coming to Orlando at Easter.  We asked our realtor to expedite all house inspections so we could address them before we departed.

The home inspections were relatively innocuous EXCEPT for the fact that we had to remove a whole bunch of sheetrock construction debris which the builder threw under the house.  We rented an 8 cubic foot dumpster which we filled with an estimated 1-1/2 tons of damp sheetrock.  We had to hire a day laborer to crawl under the house to help us.  The worst part was having to handle each piece of debris 4 separate times in getting it into the dumpster, and each time, the sheetrock crumbled some more.

Clint & Leigh aboard their new yacht

Sue succeeded in selling all the appliances remaining in the house, using Craig’s List.  We also succeeded in filling a 10’ x 10’ storage unit with the remaining articles in the house, some of which we had just brought from her uncle in Ohio.  We were pushing hard all week to get everything completed, and were finally looking at a vacant house on Saturday April 12.  We were fortunate to be able to spend Saturday night at the home of John & Susan, fellow boaters and Hurricane Katrina refugees, rather than at a motel.

Captain Clint on the TN River
passing under Lookout Mountain

On another happy note, we were invited by some of our best friends, Clint & Leigh, to help them move their new 39’ Silverton boat to a different home marina.  Several years ago when we lived on our boat in the Chattanooga area, Leigh & Clint became our Boating Buddies when we took several week-long trips together along the Tennessee River.  This time, we helped them move “Barefootin” about 100 miles south, through some of the most beautiful mountains & scenery of the Tennessee River.  Clint claimed he needed a certified Deck Ape as he took his new boat through the two locks, so he put the call out far & near; all he got was me.  Seriously, it was a boatload of fun & most relaxing to be on the water with our friends again.

So now we can finally head back to our boat & our home.  We’ve been gone 4 weeks, and drove from Orlando to Cleveland TN, to Mansfield OH, back to TN, then to New Orleans, to Jacksonville, back to TN, and finally to Orlando.  We’ll have 4 days to prepare for my sister’s arrival to join us for cruising, and the following day my sister-in-law and family come to Orlando for a previously-planned vacation.  Looks like Sue & I are gonna start to get busy!

Captain Clint and Admiral Leigh celebrating the arrival
of their new boat at their new marina
with their "hired crew"