tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33402038237712104262024-03-12T23:28:43.774-05:00On the Road With the RosesJoin us as we travel around. A year in a camper van, a year on a sailboat, with our sweet pup for most of that. Our furry kid has crossed over Rainbow Bridge, so now we can travel by plane. Join us for a year heading south of the border!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-34907685850077074992023-10-06T19:42:00.000-05:002023-10-06T19:42:31.533-05:00Random Road Trip 2023! Stop 5 New River Gorge National Park<p style="text-align: center;"> If you haven't visited New River Gorge National Park you need to!</p><p style="text-align: center;">https://www.nps.gov/neri/index.htm</p><p style="text-align: center;">People have been rafting here for decades but it was just christened a National Park in 2020.</p><p style="text-align: center;">In addition to river rafting the area is dotted with great trails and overlooks.</p><p style="text-align: center;">The New River runs North so the water flowing thru the gorge passed Steve's place in VA!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6vQPlZ5z0_ZZwBvi2pft6GTEYt0aY405dCVbg8fxyeWUa-FVuMGfXWfuEXWuv9lczbsy6l4V1XqswFCRFel6dETkKIBSRiiycT2nXAfKEz3451KUoy-MMpUBlrw1aYM2ZOIkbIse-mbehiPCZ5wl-iZwr-0otmUSacoa-u2Uk1jL2hl6LR2nk5qBjHvT/s4032/20230821_143756.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6vQPlZ5z0_ZZwBvi2pft6GTEYt0aY405dCVbg8fxyeWUa-FVuMGfXWfuEXWuv9lczbsy6l4V1XqswFCRFel6dETkKIBSRiiycT2nXAfKEz3451KUoy-MMpUBlrw1aYM2ZOIkbIse-mbehiPCZ5wl-iZwr-0otmUSacoa-u2Uk1jL2hl6LR2nk5qBjHvT/w400-h300/20230821_143756.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">https://www.nps.gov/neri/planyourvisit/nrgbridge.htm</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsEi6yxbsaeBw2RDV7DTlgOGZsVwH8hzCz0QfzfatyGmvLDkiYRGAogukbqxBfvjabPcbYbvTBk-ssKIsGYGRyzcuiyY0ZcJ5_AIJwp0znN7uXV_DfzW1F7iT6_dWzN8RnFG9BeKoL0wH3QvtxCsVXKS8_lFYenED7rMNPW6pi4V5SAMlulbQjOZmzBqys/s4032/20230822_123721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsEi6yxbsaeBw2RDV7DTlgOGZsVwH8hzCz0QfzfatyGmvLDkiYRGAogukbqxBfvjabPcbYbvTBk-ssKIsGYGRyzcuiyY0ZcJ5_AIJwp0znN7uXV_DfzW1F7iT6_dWzN8RnFG9BeKoL0wH3QvtxCsVXKS8_lFYenED7rMNPW6pi4V5SAMlulbQjOZmzBqys/w400-h300/20230822_123721.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://cantrellultimaterafting.com/</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Highly recommend Cantrell if you want to raft.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXD-EAL8Jp_yX-8gYCt8b7f5-kBTjLnoh9ixdj-Fynvp_omnZxPnJwvj7RT4fLt4JZinEWBeLqHJLC_cGfUkkD-x9UiC6mG8StRf9-I9qKte9mZN7MYEhe-maVuyaekZThQW8wX0HWEGrVWrfEuO3hnxj4neTISXuRUtCQRtaaZCyCVR0lg95H9YzoS_yl/s4032/20230822_125147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXD-EAL8Jp_yX-8gYCt8b7f5-kBTjLnoh9ixdj-Fynvp_omnZxPnJwvj7RT4fLt4JZinEWBeLqHJLC_cGfUkkD-x9UiC6mG8StRf9-I9qKte9mZN7MYEhe-maVuyaekZThQW8wX0HWEGrVWrfEuO3hnxj4neTISXuRUtCQRtaaZCyCVR0lg95H9YzoS_yl/w300-h400/20230822_125147.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZ06YivvOhZ2OeAY6dxMzHK1BvMytaFa8EAm1S9Vx_-Nmujn7_1SkQsW_rSIqsS_JpQVOxCgsQrJd2Z5QTNNIN764B7qFUfIn-nUIEHwNyriZQorgk9brODZk8FY3qsvvtXCAOZgIdmfCPQQYTdRKRXZO_eBYzEY0eUPSiTutl3oe71kCscrD9TTcQD_7/s2471/20230822_125157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2471" data-original-width="1853" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZ06YivvOhZ2OeAY6dxMzHK1BvMytaFa8EAm1S9Vx_-Nmujn7_1SkQsW_rSIqsS_JpQVOxCgsQrJd2Z5QTNNIN764B7qFUfIn-nUIEHwNyriZQorgk9brODZk8FY3qsvvtXCAOZgIdmfCPQQYTdRKRXZO_eBYzEY0eUPSiTutl3oe71kCscrD9TTcQD_7/w300-h400/20230822_125157.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEhUBSGnQ3ONWDx8oe6fhk75VbvKPSh3zW1sLVN5rQ1rwv_O1OVbHvxsElTKufprk8kZ2KM-4y_rpZQFmdhI9jp5UwohrfRuhAHUFY2KI2oxc2e5NbMufhSWlOT9Ju_MvB93d5o3Id0Yvsu6tX-tEreaNRk_9JqeKA-7dO_7Hk7zEgIvqoYnBgthpd98qg/s4032/20230822_131651.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEhUBSGnQ3ONWDx8oe6fhk75VbvKPSh3zW1sLVN5rQ1rwv_O1OVbHvxsElTKufprk8kZ2KM-4y_rpZQFmdhI9jp5UwohrfRuhAHUFY2KI2oxc2e5NbMufhSWlOT9Ju_MvB93d5o3Id0Yvsu6tX-tEreaNRk_9JqeKA-7dO_7Hk7zEgIvqoYnBgthpd98qg/w300-h400/20230822_131651.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbAGzXe8hfJbeUhc2muOWTaFqtM1r6q4XdNp1xp5y65FQ7hCCm8sr6iNK3YS8JKa7jXAL8fk-WBHtfepmGXHYSNp5kE7tXv50ZAwRjQ-ICL6U0HHXaDHsmF5frmj7z0-J2S6cDNxF6cRnqi-oFNBOB4rX3jx9yad87P44RXzBeowqkyaS72Waz_M47H2Va/s4032/20230822_150813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbAGzXe8hfJbeUhc2muOWTaFqtM1r6q4XdNp1xp5y65FQ7hCCm8sr6iNK3YS8JKa7jXAL8fk-WBHtfepmGXHYSNp5kE7tXv50ZAwRjQ-ICL6U0HHXaDHsmF5frmj7z0-J2S6cDNxF6cRnqi-oFNBOB4rX3jx9yad87P44RXzBeowqkyaS72Waz_M47H2Va/w300-h400/20230822_150813.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This madman was our guide</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Too Tall Terry</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">"Triple T!"</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgLs4VITOl09r4vh_nydyMyVe8fdVyOm7pKaQ-5tN6H3GJB6i4yMSJDCFWgsRj1pYYMw9jDRR5vkIjH1DDRKPbQUALdWGeHHuumtGrI3gQ8kFwhFddnbwUk__4oH6pj1cZC9AT9TPv_Sq8XXMuqq-mRMWaRWD-UwWbx7eAq5AJWgRfM_KR8cFQXgltnR-9/s4032/20230822_154735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgLs4VITOl09r4vh_nydyMyVe8fdVyOm7pKaQ-5tN6H3GJB6i4yMSJDCFWgsRj1pYYMw9jDRR5vkIjH1DDRKPbQUALdWGeHHuumtGrI3gQ8kFwhFddnbwUk__4oH6pj1cZC9AT9TPv_Sq8XXMuqq-mRMWaRWD-UwWbx7eAq5AJWgRfM_KR8cFQXgltnR-9/w300-h400/20230822_154735.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Don't worry Angie is in the river intentionally.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">There were a couple of stretches calm enough to go for a swim.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOdLiLlR9Ass07VjmsRgB0YSUCWEdm3oPpQjaUpoL0WPXsFsP669gV1whwYBHAV69bma-UMQ3N42JAV5mvK2efwWCDLkP-1GfRACbl0aCStd2HsCqc87emseevbU5Dv_K5mh7OZgHE9ffInVaG1dbT3GtNAzWlLhC8u8mwx8VLWf6qC9S4TUiK9jg4sEiO/s4032/20230822_154704.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOdLiLlR9Ass07VjmsRgB0YSUCWEdm3oPpQjaUpoL0WPXsFsP669gV1whwYBHAV69bma-UMQ3N42JAV5mvK2efwWCDLkP-1GfRACbl0aCStd2HsCqc87emseevbU5Dv_K5mh7OZgHE9ffInVaG1dbT3GtNAzWlLhC8u8mwx8VLWf6qC9S4TUiK9jg4sEiO/w300-h400/20230822_154704.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">People bungee and base jump from the bridge!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://officialbridgeday.com/</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnRmdbzQHzl6_HOqVNkt0pOXakU8xJ9CnNIvWfeWvpuyuKYl5apRHg-5Kcw-d0b7b-keYpa2CTrsBviJkxiNFzXsq-lTCXG8x-D41XNNVs6-hAmZzpsg43JZMo3ooZR2nrs0NDPkwOWwlwcXB8dhzO5TM6DbdJ6TR6EEXpWzYx4PQBz6MuDRF-417zcr1E/s4032/20230823_085849.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnRmdbzQHzl6_HOqVNkt0pOXakU8xJ9CnNIvWfeWvpuyuKYl5apRHg-5Kcw-d0b7b-keYpa2CTrsBviJkxiNFzXsq-lTCXG8x-D41XNNVs6-hAmZzpsg43JZMo3ooZR2nrs0NDPkwOWwlwcXB8dhzO5TM6DbdJ6TR6EEXpWzYx4PQBz6MuDRF-417zcr1E/w300-h400/20230823_085849.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">What a great day!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Thanks Terry and Cantrell</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrw5cSuuZNQvcOn01ApTYj49zauNCT143d-L9dbdidjGo7PqYp8ROPrHmJnYyMsjYx5KOkwKsD6SB493aMjninA14gp4ZOSsl4Xbgty7QOCqRDetW52p-ARueyDVH4S8rUbwnbV4cHUvZ2gI1NAL3uS4UWYUSTyYUlXuligzQRxCr9L4bCwRAMLMr1W5j/s4032/20230823_105210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrw5cSuuZNQvcOn01ApTYj49zauNCT143d-L9dbdidjGo7PqYp8ROPrHmJnYyMsjYx5KOkwKsD6SB493aMjninA14gp4ZOSsl4Xbgty7QOCqRDetW52p-ARueyDVH4S8rUbwnbV4cHUvZ2gI1NAL3uS4UWYUSTyYUlXuligzQRxCr9L4bCwRAMLMr1W5j/w300-h400/20230823_105210.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVc3Jx9kzcDeVLDjA3GO6vzteVsYlWDsURL4XwgxOhw5IPRiKMbpLpLXT6f7HQL2hVeJVBlmJT24rYzGnWVOLDZ08L92UXya8n2Uc049MPJL5Uomf65Yi67Obqq6niouZsLozG63g4YVnWIWt_PpyRpTpkasf_bjbQtbm-tpT8qZTC6X3X063ISUxeXYsf/s4032/20230823_105752.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVc3Jx9kzcDeVLDjA3GO6vzteVsYlWDsURL4XwgxOhw5IPRiKMbpLpLXT6f7HQL2hVeJVBlmJT24rYzGnWVOLDZ08L92UXya8n2Uc049MPJL5Uomf65Yi67Obqq6niouZsLozG63g4YVnWIWt_PpyRpTpkasf_bjbQtbm-tpT8qZTC6X3X063ISUxeXYsf/w300-h400/20230823_105752.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkTemCI5E0KTRJWt4Z4FZSoqsGRF-3GaLsG911emEUDlK1Puw66LEzUSUfLJA2WHpGuz-xxUlUduclCG3FOfgwYBUndSOHpZ2ZH6QO3a7CRqPHh1tAO8rKg3wEG_S5QrNlQNTb4uOlLGt30chfcStoPNly6X7L9FheboUtqoTbgCyEOwRXQFfk3tZBfrO/s3648/20230823_123500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkTemCI5E0KTRJWt4Z4FZSoqsGRF-3GaLsG911emEUDlK1Puw66LEzUSUfLJA2WHpGuz-xxUlUduclCG3FOfgwYBUndSOHpZ2ZH6QO3a7CRqPHh1tAO8rKg3wEG_S5QrNlQNTb4uOlLGt30chfcStoPNly6X7L9FheboUtqoTbgCyEOwRXQFfk3tZBfrO/w400-h300/20230823_123500.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lot's of great hiking trails and the weather was amazing too!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Get to the Gorge!!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-23718276504625375992023-10-06T18:43:00.000-05:002023-10-06T18:43:50.463-05:00Random Road Trip 2023! Stop 4 Cousin Steve's in VA<p style="text-align: center;"> Just a short few hours drive and we were at my Cousin Steve's!</p><p style="text-align: center;">Steve lives in Southern Virginia by the New River.</p><p style="text-align: center;">We visited way back in 2016 and were overdue for a visit!</p><p style="text-align: center;">Apparently we were having so much fun we neglected to take many photos... oops</p><p style="text-align: center;">Steve is a great cook and has an amazing garden. He and Isabella spoiled us with great food, hospitality, and showed us all over the corner of Virginia they call home.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHfBiVfy-dPMdyNFUM3GQUXKzaX2T2x148FxBlsS-GTPXxRT02kQAGEaEcS1XbqegdTE0uHGXq4XMtM1W9GxvAQW0MqNyxW3BY4cfkjOIrZjOfuBLKtcAot5xhQUL5VrjzHWcvaxTOj35XTdE22IULGNvZiF_81h1tmJzO2Yk64dlDYPay-MvcHH-GbeK/s4032/20230820_100844.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHfBiVfy-dPMdyNFUM3GQUXKzaX2T2x148FxBlsS-GTPXxRT02kQAGEaEcS1XbqegdTE0uHGXq4XMtM1W9GxvAQW0MqNyxW3BY4cfkjOIrZjOfuBLKtcAot5xhQUL5VrjzHWcvaxTOj35XTdE22IULGNvZiF_81h1tmJzO2Yk64dlDYPay-MvcHH-GbeK/w400-h300/20230820_100844.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This stream is just a short drive from his house.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinioP4WPj_ZS4-aTgadeYQggfTJatzl8kLQG1tLSdaiVS8JRaDRLuuz1d1C9IppE8nhlrgbTNnWNt5asZSAh71lYLyEj3g2PmbHbIsMWir8hdSam5mQ9ueh_6TBVPLKr-9Asg9rJeGMHoFXBAPq2Z-67YZhAB0psTGHG-qM2k-_9sjxKEjUtq30jzsLyYZ/s4032/20230820_104721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinioP4WPj_ZS4-aTgadeYQggfTJatzl8kLQG1tLSdaiVS8JRaDRLuuz1d1C9IppE8nhlrgbTNnWNt5asZSAh71lYLyEj3g2PmbHbIsMWir8hdSam5mQ9ueh_6TBVPLKr-9Asg9rJeGMHoFXBAPq2Z-67YZhAB0psTGHG-qM2k-_9sjxKEjUtq30jzsLyYZ/w300-h400/20230820_104721.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Little hike in the National Forest.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Steve knows every tree and plant in the area.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7wP_DcXBFHBclfiQeEJSzV31XbRuYSMmFjeGZzLQuC0G_FVP1BpTw77kzfjtH6uMDHX9gNL5PYtoF82wHOKkYsHGX8jhfzTCCbB70w5_FwIUuIFOuknO00Ikge-KhpF4hvqx5cOTKCzncPR4vIfzKJ0PnJ9zYo21CH9z78y9urs13TMNE1oWVcpqP7_Q/s4032/20230820_110039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7wP_DcXBFHBclfiQeEJSzV31XbRuYSMmFjeGZzLQuC0G_FVP1BpTw77kzfjtH6uMDHX9gNL5PYtoF82wHOKkYsHGX8jhfzTCCbB70w5_FwIUuIFOuknO00Ikge-KhpF4hvqx5cOTKCzncPR4vIfzKJ0PnJ9zYo21CH9z78y9urs13TMNE1oWVcpqP7_Q/w300-h400/20230820_110039.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Steve showing Angie a local cave. We didn't even have a flashlight with us so this is as far as we got...</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSYdQi5OHYoVKN0RRCFr_iSTZoXOM8W2Y3sgS7vOcCYhj0lWFKK6CSuaJhg3hWkRoHrO9La8GUQCvFnwwYYTF9SMkfOwPPqUQEb-hOJIIUKWBXglAIpPPu0OYQLQa3CTTlhXm-f6ZoWSPIpB2-lPbuMFUXAMKzvw-egFKU-zfqXvcsUObM8ZV7j5VckZJN/s4032/20230820_111900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSYdQi5OHYoVKN0RRCFr_iSTZoXOM8W2Y3sgS7vOcCYhj0lWFKK6CSuaJhg3hWkRoHrO9La8GUQCvFnwwYYTF9SMkfOwPPqUQEb-hOJIIUKWBXglAIpPPu0OYQLQa3CTTlhXm-f6ZoWSPIpB2-lPbuMFUXAMKzvw-egFKU-zfqXvcsUObM8ZV7j5VckZJN/w300-h400/20230820_111900.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This is a trout farm in the area</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fJ5zbyJEe_CbRTjVIpVviNyoMaImuB3_wpN7EsOS-QYQdVrctObzyI93hP0xsiYBR74Jybu8f474ja63xrqLNDZySHDeSf8RY-3pVDk12-gtKIympl1F11A5kUZiWRvpsprUm2nhGi_YoYT508Gj0foDbyZNoCRlFweJ3T903IrKNvaG9h0DCeWjmXZQ/s4032/20230820_120703.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fJ5zbyJEe_CbRTjVIpVviNyoMaImuB3_wpN7EsOS-QYQdVrctObzyI93hP0xsiYBR74Jybu8f474ja63xrqLNDZySHDeSf8RY-3pVDk12-gtKIympl1F11A5kUZiWRvpsprUm2nhGi_YoYT508Gj0foDbyZNoCRlFweJ3T903IrKNvaG9h0DCeWjmXZQ/w300-h400/20230820_120703.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Steve lives on a few acres in the country but he also owns an old brick building that was originally a bank!</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiAKVo83qbJtdPmNWkPMVKMzWlDm6GiehXvAmh3_zENUud9XwmtGxJp1TZTaipGDdA46eOGKhEaCqr28VTjPJ_16SmJiu7cSHL_EGAWoSHR3bPjySSjHpZI3frziVRLdAAjA6FyW1kDw8F7G3ueEDWOdLtChW7Epp-c-LtCK_Pg8EkXBBxyhcV6HEQu8TR/s4032/20230820_163455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiAKVo83qbJtdPmNWkPMVKMzWlDm6GiehXvAmh3_zENUud9XwmtGxJp1TZTaipGDdA46eOGKhEaCqr28VTjPJ_16SmJiu7cSHL_EGAWoSHR3bPjySSjHpZI3frziVRLdAAjA6FyW1kDw8F7G3ueEDWOdLtChW7Epp-c-LtCK_Pg8EkXBBxyhcV6HEQu8TR/w300-h400/20230820_163455.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Just like back in 2016 we got out on the New River for a little float.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Thanks again Steve!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-13437875438336019062023-10-01T19:34:00.001-05:002023-10-06T18:21:11.215-05:00Random Road Trip 2023! Stop 3 Asheville<p style="text-align: center;"> We would have lingered a little while longer in the Ozarks but we had an invitation to see some friends in Asheville, NC that had an expiration date so we booked it there ASAP.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Bryan and Ania were visiting Jeff and Jane outside Asheville so we got to spend a night at their place and had a great meal together at Curate.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Thanks Y'all!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ioj2p_ev8HBU31CuygCkI0UcU81b2KS62q3PCh9OB8jMEu5yDK7M6xmLWmmQBCpYwF8wFGrnO4WuZ-5VDCr8HHTxRS49PMU7CtTBTQRDvjv57zQXPAKJXfhWkCERXvEp9oZhC38fZmvZv_1QiWmjJD8Zi0ZhJOAP-t8qiebSeftl_bNM7Rahmg6rvMXp/s587/IMG-5568.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="587" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ioj2p_ev8HBU31CuygCkI0UcU81b2KS62q3PCh9OB8jMEu5yDK7M6xmLWmmQBCpYwF8wFGrnO4WuZ-5VDCr8HHTxRS49PMU7CtTBTQRDvjv57zQXPAKJXfhWkCERXvEp9oZhC38fZmvZv_1QiWmjJD8Zi0ZhJOAP-t8qiebSeftl_bNM7Rahmg6rvMXp/w400-h291/IMG-5568.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We spent a few days in the area hiking at various stops off the Blue Ridge Parkway and at DuPont State Park</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://www.blueridgeparkway.org/</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://www.dupontstaterecreationalforest.com/</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgguk7lzeBZrhSvvx3uxR1g3LNF8l1VIVflnAaSAgjhW6j7TZidQUY7072B6m6gm_Innh7cfTyn-iz2mbXOya4rvEHJo19b5k18sPFisXNFhoNu2-50dPYrlpNSFqTMUg2lkpv4Pp0kSV26AHWEvO4gwYraVGzZ9L8lSsHRVcQHXhvxntbBGE90MQxjqyAG/s4032/20230817_130623.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgguk7lzeBZrhSvvx3uxR1g3LNF8l1VIVflnAaSAgjhW6j7TZidQUY7072B6m6gm_Innh7cfTyn-iz2mbXOya4rvEHJo19b5k18sPFisXNFhoNu2-50dPYrlpNSFqTMUg2lkpv4Pp0kSV26AHWEvO4gwYraVGzZ9L8lSsHRVcQHXhvxntbBGE90MQxjqyAG/w400-h300/20230817_130623.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6N8PmG_OwCYO3F1M2GxJkqRm_Rqt6lbTHg1wrtJ7w2hCf91UllRYygVBUM9WA7Hd18n97JAqIwno3pg3bggjsoO-3NDLSFhRHO8tZ8NSAWYJ21Bjul212SP8428-FjPwTyM-xNT3WyXFpRW3o2LbNNY0XcIXVEBsEm0zLezI7FwM_LsbJqt-ch0tK5WCM/s3169/20230817_122447.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3169" data-original-width="2370" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6N8PmG_OwCYO3F1M2GxJkqRm_Rqt6lbTHg1wrtJ7w2hCf91UllRYygVBUM9WA7Hd18n97JAqIwno3pg3bggjsoO-3NDLSFhRHO8tZ8NSAWYJ21Bjul212SP8428-FjPwTyM-xNT3WyXFpRW3o2LbNNY0XcIXVEBsEm0zLezI7FwM_LsbJqt-ch0tK5WCM/w299-h400/20230817_122447.jpg" width="299" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOXjPiBLQ46Ja5uzvmwvOhCyU7dGcOQEmedkTQpqlV26Q-uYpdcA6HYA3GuvnatUmYjPzIwL8wY1e0PA_TSj38XRvJ6fCYdEUvhwuI9Rc2anH7PQEPMV5m_y4lHbKz09O_59nCWmHFHyUB30wdIIWt0tUjLYr64Lv7o2v5Qz5fSatFZnd37jgg7iU-EpM/s4032/20230817_152201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOXjPiBLQ46Ja5uzvmwvOhCyU7dGcOQEmedkTQpqlV26Q-uYpdcA6HYA3GuvnatUmYjPzIwL8wY1e0PA_TSj38XRvJ6fCYdEUvhwuI9Rc2anH7PQEPMV5m_y4lHbKz09O_59nCWmHFHyUB30wdIIWt0tUjLYr64Lv7o2v5Qz5fSatFZnd37jgg7iU-EpM/w300-h400/20230817_152201.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">See that little tower?</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNI0PcQIbglGHrgfhUF-iAwwIV3VFU6JDqD9ZoJU3DMXa-G0d4w5T8VuGwxXSUJh5FLZM5HM7OxjeOEMRpbu6d5hnJmDaJ7NP2k-mc0lccZ6h-hNt6lJ28EAy8UsFrC_rpyCpDpb6Mx_NxLOYltrrfR6GM4Ow2MT32LMBffYRPynglRHhrDOVbKH79VILd/s4032/20230817_152207.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNI0PcQIbglGHrgfhUF-iAwwIV3VFU6JDqD9ZoJU3DMXa-G0d4w5T8VuGwxXSUJh5FLZM5HM7OxjeOEMRpbu6d5hnJmDaJ7NP2k-mc0lccZ6h-hNt6lJ28EAy8UsFrC_rpyCpDpb6Mx_NxLOYltrrfR6GM4Ow2MT32LMBffYRPynglRHhrDOVbKH79VILd/w300-h400/20230817_152207.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">There it is. We hiked up to that.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SCcLyP__OguxxSBqsdQqiMOEH2ixgWvM1Vjpk02WA9BrZXNy5qq2PljGS6yoa8MktqQKcHHZ7KL2np0VdQgJNQ2ZR0RqQMwG0SfKYh7WtO8b-_6MpMmTGo6JErsGOtlvlzbvNNlfsV9sXHAUqoiuSZ0jT1VxftqJUaAKqz9dROvD4qpyGnidJa8M3YVu/s3853/20230817_140438.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3853" data-original-width="2866" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SCcLyP__OguxxSBqsdQqiMOEH2ixgWvM1Vjpk02WA9BrZXNy5qq2PljGS6yoa8MktqQKcHHZ7KL2np0VdQgJNQ2ZR0RqQMwG0SfKYh7WtO8b-_6MpMmTGo6JErsGOtlvlzbvNNlfsV9sXHAUqoiuSZ0jT1VxftqJUaAKqz9dROvD4qpyGnidJa8M3YVu/w298-h400/20230817_140438.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsYzeA6UZzieu3C6E2oDFRJ43Mt1pZdyX-3opuAY0vmCULDmPwxedyfqlyxLqvJMJydpfeM9uWxQ-HOKNvGYp4i81MJB8Fnc4CSzJK19KFQiAhtP3jodRHehTJtuDKQyC8WtpS_BkKPsN-tj_xGvh1q3Ny0D84MFHpZ7NxMzTuA1kpomC47r2DVhRrgK2T/s3734/20230817_142947.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3734" data-original-width="2793" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsYzeA6UZzieu3C6E2oDFRJ43Mt1pZdyX-3opuAY0vmCULDmPwxedyfqlyxLqvJMJydpfeM9uWxQ-HOKNvGYp4i81MJB8Fnc4CSzJK19KFQiAhtP3jodRHehTJtuDKQyC8WtpS_BkKPsN-tj_xGvh1q3Ny0D84MFHpZ7NxMzTuA1kpomC47r2DVhRrgK2T/w299-h400/20230817_142947.jpg" width="299" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSTo5cfG6_VY2-NIt8xEz_394Zw5DEwk6o2FYLNdzbfImhOmFyWG8jhVgfmXvsO4fVjD4NUsSTaIynxEyAYyCnEgJJRBB4YnFcW68MjTKZHcylEVQ4X2gzjtzsknC4IXpMvNLzkk1agY2ZE5E0flqJnT5GaSIM7nU5h_h7uRCFa8p1CrIYGXPegwz8Y-m1/s3648/20230817_143256.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3648" data-original-width="2736" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSTo5cfG6_VY2-NIt8xEz_394Zw5DEwk6o2FYLNdzbfImhOmFyWG8jhVgfmXvsO4fVjD4NUsSTaIynxEyAYyCnEgJJRBB4YnFcW68MjTKZHcylEVQ4X2gzjtzsknC4IXpMvNLzkk1agY2ZE5E0flqJnT5GaSIM7nU5h_h7uRCFa8p1CrIYGXPegwz8Y-m1/w300-h400/20230817_143256.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbwPT0EGfwYx5m1rqqt3ats6VOy5y-uV2A_fOu6z9KgElTG8kkdb7dfwsBdBgd-qowIANas1df1Q4QmbJBK77DLMOsiw8OeTwNutNHsSbhCqo_QtaqHhM_TsaoVcMYpUZFB3FsR5MIJyyQqJU01kuzC7TZ4zi46rGlfqlSvfY6q7D5yfdgCAJT25NslpYA/s3547/20230818_113852.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3547" data-original-width="2587" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbwPT0EGfwYx5m1rqqt3ats6VOy5y-uV2A_fOu6z9KgElTG8kkdb7dfwsBdBgd-qowIANas1df1Q4QmbJBK77DLMOsiw8OeTwNutNHsSbhCqo_QtaqHhM_TsaoVcMYpUZFB3FsR5MIJyyQqJU01kuzC7TZ4zi46rGlfqlSvfY6q7D5yfdgCAJT25NslpYA/w291-h400/20230818_113852.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhmTqjuCopOgkaIF6Xj0Sx0STxzSoepFA0SJbKmxdOMlHfhaEvU0pcAW3hG-NQKWhA_w1AbUNSoj2npnSmSdXK01dfL7-N7ktBoaTVpXInoc3pD0CBhEGuZP12m1iVFppBPiNJpcbjNfbJpiD7f-mbVfwneYpdaR1NUduZv_uyA7JXyFEP2vrUDPKPd3Ka/s3648/20230818_120612.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3648" data-original-width="2736" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhmTqjuCopOgkaIF6Xj0Sx0STxzSoepFA0SJbKmxdOMlHfhaEvU0pcAW3hG-NQKWhA_w1AbUNSoj2npnSmSdXK01dfL7-N7ktBoaTVpXInoc3pD0CBhEGuZP12m1iVFppBPiNJpcbjNfbJpiD7f-mbVfwneYpdaR1NUduZv_uyA7JXyFEP2vrUDPKPd3Ka/w300-h400/20230818_120612.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">When we weren't getting our butts kicked by North Carolina trails we were eating and drinking.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA_1OAs6cjKXnzOYSmMBUsU91aSG25drda421zowGC506gnisJzf4OXIwpdoW2HX7fauK3cebbPmSGh66CCjGDTPtj0FLTRvEn4HK5fuLW0vQtX3z13hoRAIE1ACFD0mU-tikgqY80WBs5zKTHGj_8MT-Lvm75kVmWuWm7hSS4q4jGgGphOuLmZnERj82k/s4032/20230817_170543.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA_1OAs6cjKXnzOYSmMBUsU91aSG25drda421zowGC506gnisJzf4OXIwpdoW2HX7fauK3cebbPmSGh66CCjGDTPtj0FLTRvEn4HK5fuLW0vQtX3z13hoRAIE1ACFD0mU-tikgqY80WBs5zKTHGj_8MT-Lvm75kVmWuWm7hSS4q4jGgGphOuLmZnERj82k/w300-h400/20230817_170543.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">White Duck Tacos</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://whiteducktacoshop.com/</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-X7r_Kld2GX5OLw1wroWMQV_sB-Mw2WZgklTVaBRALqCorXsOKD87gSNeV11gFRbDrTmg_sP-y00yvHlfIWPhcfZUqXiIH7DK6f4h0vlWhWrBYslSBvm3HkwoRLeoA41veXEVoGDpQXV_js6MoVU1UnDJtHUbCH6L2Xi5_rwRB0CjHdIE6BcNeLZ62_lE/s4032/20230817_170634.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-X7r_Kld2GX5OLw1wroWMQV_sB-Mw2WZgklTVaBRALqCorXsOKD87gSNeV11gFRbDrTmg_sP-y00yvHlfIWPhcfZUqXiIH7DK6f4h0vlWhWrBYslSBvm3HkwoRLeoA41veXEVoGDpQXV_js6MoVU1UnDJtHUbCH6L2Xi5_rwRB0CjHdIE6BcNeLZ62_lE/w300-h400/20230817_170634.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudnivewanQ5kZxcM1btneprS7zpicnTLhjtVb-9ME_QbZw80Nipss8MR6EcPwhvtbMg4VzVzSQWrKUzbpr0mgl1eFQMH7nITXVmkcnzFq1DL0j6CZY_aJsPbAJvTSPdFQNtaw-fpDJffPRPkg-V9jMPw6cN0sMReGUqNCAu4yL-8Md509kKhhxAmbeDTm/s4032/20230818_175758.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudnivewanQ5kZxcM1btneprS7zpicnTLhjtVb-9ME_QbZw80Nipss8MR6EcPwhvtbMg4VzVzSQWrKUzbpr0mgl1eFQMH7nITXVmkcnzFq1DL0j6CZY_aJsPbAJvTSPdFQNtaw-fpDJffPRPkg-V9jMPw6cN0sMReGUqNCAu4yL-8Md509kKhhxAmbeDTm/w400-h300/20230818_175758.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Hillman Beer</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://hillmanbeer.com/</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibpgV7Ci708X3meJ7sWF2BH5HuubHKDwO087laZKU79y1F54kS3_qDD3ifWTweSCyW_dCwjt2S3YGzmdew6mIYD0XctAooCLstxp2Yg8S0OBYWkRwqvzFdZj3hgE5_AXZT6fkv8qfZhLcABAWQhAsRoFb-6RdRBvqjpJJ8KPkGzBOzTHEY8-BWpMEmut1Q/s4032/20230818_184501.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibpgV7Ci708X3meJ7sWF2BH5HuubHKDwO087laZKU79y1F54kS3_qDD3ifWTweSCyW_dCwjt2S3YGzmdew6mIYD0XctAooCLstxp2Yg8S0OBYWkRwqvzFdZj3hgE5_AXZT6fkv8qfZhLcABAWQhAsRoFb-6RdRBvqjpJJ8KPkGzBOzTHEY8-BWpMEmut1Q/w300-h400/20230818_184501.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Gingers Revenge </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://gingersrevenge.com/</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIQlBIkjgsq3paJJwBpsbrfIIqSLmqj2vKFHOuwet7YJizL1Ul8RgmauW-BDveY8nBBFEqIgIjgn1Q4qRXJGLgXTv4tjPP5J2qNKsXV58HE2bS-_p-IrDauT3133yfoPesQL1yTVyZwAa-Q95gPtqEwy5qHcu07uFdjj0AfzzhqUtJoDbs1WLiMjE44wrT/s3205/20230817_182932.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3205" data-original-width="2513" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIQlBIkjgsq3paJJwBpsbrfIIqSLmqj2vKFHOuwet7YJizL1Ul8RgmauW-BDveY8nBBFEqIgIjgn1Q4qRXJGLgXTv4tjPP5J2qNKsXV58HE2bS-_p-IrDauT3133yfoPesQL1yTVyZwAa-Q95gPtqEwy5qHcu07uFdjj0AfzzhqUtJoDbs1WLiMjE44wrT/w314-h400/20230817_182932.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We loved Asheville and look forward to returning!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-3781621743235811082023-09-30T21:15:00.002-05:002023-09-30T21:27:45.581-05:00Random Road Trip 2023! Stop 2 Eureka Springs, AK<p style="text-align: center;"> After a few days exploring Bentonville we moved onto Eureka Springs for a night.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Similar to Hot Springs, AK, but much smaller, the area has a history of attracting people to the healing properties of the spring water long before European settlers even arrived.</p><p style="text-align: center;">These days it's mainly a kitchy little tourist town but definitely worth a visit.</p><p style="text-align: center;">https://www.arkansas.com/eureka-springs</p><p style="text-align: center;">Not just one but two wiki pages!</p><p style="text-align: center;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Springs,_Arkansas</p><p style="text-align: center;">https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Springs</p><p style="text-align: center;">Enjoy the photos!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0xYLylyl1-T135xWmMlg0pj3Alz8JROJVOmkRw0qHl5zu_jOZjk4LXtKc9rt1QpawpAE0uvoiZkWD6Ksq2_5MUTvXmqNwfPJW2EU7QEFMs9G9dzaCUGIRTe_N18sqDiu75jRbMyWKn8bAV_9BXv-PlvN7D3Hk5YgOkQFvmEMUe-I9MzerXfs7S1WVYJj7/s4032/20230813_121359.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0xYLylyl1-T135xWmMlg0pj3Alz8JROJVOmkRw0qHl5zu_jOZjk4LXtKc9rt1QpawpAE0uvoiZkWD6Ksq2_5MUTvXmqNwfPJW2EU7QEFMs9G9dzaCUGIRTe_N18sqDiu75jRbMyWKn8bAV_9BXv-PlvN7D3Hk5YgOkQFvmEMUe-I9MzerXfs7S1WVYJj7/w400-h300/20230813_121359.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoWNvqWuTUMMw9wV16qv8MkNyFpyc2j3n6F6S7MflLtrpkl5jQRnOMx-oT7PAFv4ocPIb4ZLJcjLXzbhMGq_jwTY_0HjybXGDRPzE4pSKEnKCBX23v9SnkPr4dBBNR3uEhhBP3RSYgondKck1UhD0fpo4dO_PI2lK61pBb6u7tf-VY8l_Suo_b1X5Ad9Z/s4032/20230813_121351.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoWNvqWuTUMMw9wV16qv8MkNyFpyc2j3n6F6S7MflLtrpkl5jQRnOMx-oT7PAFv4ocPIb4ZLJcjLXzbhMGq_jwTY_0HjybXGDRPzE4pSKEnKCBX23v9SnkPr4dBBNR3uEhhBP3RSYgondKck1UhD0fpo4dO_PI2lK61pBb6u7tf-VY8l_Suo_b1X5Ad9Z/w300-h400/20230813_121351.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObwl2VVf2z3mAQs7-lYu7D8RH2bzh1foPAy4eo6x41o7UjzoM6zwi2n5mnZb_QsGfuHY3gHWSypZ9NMqebljOcVj5kTGcKcZ7XZD0RP8lt5w7BydDgKJiIavQVJdT0NnOFNdTzafaC0H7PLO67W7SFet3YvjuCJwJ3PvHnnjxemfHbVoGMtJ0fTqNRRo0/s4032/20230813_121608.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObwl2VVf2z3mAQs7-lYu7D8RH2bzh1foPAy4eo6x41o7UjzoM6zwi2n5mnZb_QsGfuHY3gHWSypZ9NMqebljOcVj5kTGcKcZ7XZD0RP8lt5w7BydDgKJiIavQVJdT0NnOFNdTzafaC0H7PLO67W7SFet3YvjuCJwJ3PvHnnjxemfHbVoGMtJ0fTqNRRo0/w300-h400/20230813_121608.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJXh0I7rh7d6FIBr0UdUAR4IpdlVrHF_9nHlkzNRtmObnwGW2IeTjowHTAYruD076DLB0_ozKCOhK05f2VTEc0HsohOYBfDC7LURUKyflIXYUsA966cb2g6b63yevrFzajeQW9rYv57CGczSGockWLG_KCWD0f1erPCA5LWmT-bvXzsOIGmunu7J9_SnPz/s4032/20230813_121829.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJXh0I7rh7d6FIBr0UdUAR4IpdlVrHF_9nHlkzNRtmObnwGW2IeTjowHTAYruD076DLB0_ozKCOhK05f2VTEc0HsohOYBfDC7LURUKyflIXYUsA966cb2g6b63yevrFzajeQW9rYv57CGczSGockWLG_KCWD0f1erPCA5LWmT-bvXzsOIGmunu7J9_SnPz/w300-h400/20230813_121829.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhe2R9oHXV0e_u6fK6ZtiuBPWKJJJdOqZtsYOv3Kp3EAQmH-dIVfa-ljxbBK80WnHk8du4c81trZ0xgKPWXAnJ7y_MZfYcIxRijPzweR6iJzanyXXrDuB3XqrsJQ0ex3VIExWQfBBAiuarP7y7XWQQaRGvGuRSyzrDAN4X3QFfycLmpktnMOfY1TatBPy4/s4032/20230813_122015.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhe2R9oHXV0e_u6fK6ZtiuBPWKJJJdOqZtsYOv3Kp3EAQmH-dIVfa-ljxbBK80WnHk8du4c81trZ0xgKPWXAnJ7y_MZfYcIxRijPzweR6iJzanyXXrDuB3XqrsJQ0ex3VIExWQfBBAiuarP7y7XWQQaRGvGuRSyzrDAN4X3QFfycLmpktnMOfY1TatBPy4/w300-h400/20230813_122015.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbkCtXqRVsMy7nhob2WGW3MnkA9hiF-AQrEUA_1PqcGbftCRxCemVVBNMEfITW5dnYfAO2Y1YwgA_ljThRf3Z2D4K6YhrBGCdg4tWS3BKlofxhqEpQwiVrOgie9E7a68vlUUbTnVAFBRLXwQnb0jjfw6PPk9ZDdyIc5MQZV4VokfiekDreKcS0uGqNhRz/s3049/20230813_123902.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3049" data-original-width="2516" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbkCtXqRVsMy7nhob2WGW3MnkA9hiF-AQrEUA_1PqcGbftCRxCemVVBNMEfITW5dnYfAO2Y1YwgA_ljThRf3Z2D4K6YhrBGCdg4tWS3BKlofxhqEpQwiVrOgie9E7a68vlUUbTnVAFBRLXwQnb0jjfw6PPk9ZDdyIc5MQZV4VokfiekDreKcS0uGqNhRz/w330-h400/20230813_123902.jpg" width="330" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Didn't stay here but did have pizza and beers on the top floor. Quite the view!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://crescent-hotel.com/</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://crescent-hotel.com/eat-drink/skybar-gourmet-pizza/</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80WADHDiwZWQIhQsfhfNxkCMGFnoUBfVW7x-5CLqSirFVdIzACZsEnPx2jMW3sJmW7pwCTKT98lZki4zU7TRNrwY6S3xiHPO0oH0uvbdf98QuZ0qzH5tIQ-A4J2KDjqKyK2BlEC7gntjp-zRltOeFkyeDr9lRzY72wm5v0qust8tW640OCz9EnwkWVxAx/s3648/20230813_141134.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80WADHDiwZWQIhQsfhfNxkCMGFnoUBfVW7x-5CLqSirFVdIzACZsEnPx2jMW3sJmW7pwCTKT98lZki4zU7TRNrwY6S3xiHPO0oH0uvbdf98QuZ0qzH5tIQ-A4J2KDjqKyK2BlEC7gntjp-zRltOeFkyeDr9lRzY72wm5v0qust8tW640OCz9EnwkWVxAx/w400-h300/20230813_141134.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcfaKpmBWbDF_lJGZC4JAKPbC-4onriWOqidgjfAixd1m6Dyg5ZK_YQZ8UtyFsm-mzMkVYkRqZixnb6F5_inM4p6e4TsmKplbs4_1A8vTCHmY0hIzpY2e_84AGBQdIKNz8R14ZqyG4Wyhpu1t2wr462FR56_x93O598f0iioZ9EJOQz_GBF1TkaUQsp4_o/s4032/20230813_143042.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcfaKpmBWbDF_lJGZC4JAKPbC-4onriWOqidgjfAixd1m6Dyg5ZK_YQZ8UtyFsm-mzMkVYkRqZixnb6F5_inM4p6e4TsmKplbs4_1A8vTCHmY0hIzpY2e_84AGBQdIKNz8R14ZqyG4Wyhpu1t2wr462FR56_x93O598f0iioZ9EJOQz_GBF1TkaUQsp4_o/w300-h400/20230813_143042.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiIKKZHhWNBERyNGRxY0g6eKI8OgyzCbhqaC0R6jygfFcg4dkUC91XX8W0AvZ5KrW9SNNgsAW-4lZbIgu9goY9E1jCcNOxIRdJ39UxHITbp9pjNasG5fy-vpQzyIfBa8kSGPnJlXsMpctuViZqCQddSl367wIpJuffWNHgYZ1lmbX8K3-KpFgrmhv_o93Z/s3600/20230813_183908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3600" data-original-width="2899" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiIKKZHhWNBERyNGRxY0g6eKI8OgyzCbhqaC0R6jygfFcg4dkUC91XX8W0AvZ5KrW9SNNgsAW-4lZbIgu9goY9E1jCcNOxIRdJ39UxHITbp9pjNasG5fy-vpQzyIfBa8kSGPnJlXsMpctuViZqCQddSl367wIpJuffWNHgYZ1lmbX8K3-KpFgrmhv_o93Z/w323-h400/20230813_183908.jpg" width="323" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-eLdqX4dLkHRPCXabIDb27miFSSQTXVzv_73HyZPfLCVGXQWi2XXhyphenhyphenVogdayXkUx4YtC0ziwYqqmjqTnvDH_TYysG8bwlm8cFphe3RqFrbwP7IZcXoo-D6DuPSBzhRLIduvH8Eunr_5IktMtaxTRKTdHUmn9TmEh9PKtNtR68ZdIHSWErKqALCAFMe58/s4032/20230813_144456.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-eLdqX4dLkHRPCXabIDb27miFSSQTXVzv_73HyZPfLCVGXQWi2XXhyphenhyphenVogdayXkUx4YtC0ziwYqqmjqTnvDH_TYysG8bwlm8cFphe3RqFrbwP7IZcXoo-D6DuPSBzhRLIduvH8Eunr_5IktMtaxTRKTdHUmn9TmEh9PKtNtR68ZdIHSWErKqALCAFMe58/w300-h400/20230813_144456.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-74416074826937966112023-09-29T18:29:00.005-05:002023-09-30T10:12:00.869-05:00Random Road Trip 2023! First Stop Bentonville AK<p style="text-align: center;"> August 2023</p><p style="text-align: center;">We've been preparing our house to rent and travel for a year.</p><p style="text-align: center;">This involves months of minor but time consuming repairs and yardwork but mostly purging our belongings, vehicles, bicycles, you name it, putting the rest in storage, etc.</p><p style="text-align: center;">So by August, by some miracle, we're ahead of schedule.</p><p style="text-align: center;">So we hand the keys off to our property managers (who are amazing btw) and get the heck out of town, cause it's 105 degrees!</p><p style="text-align: center;">First stop Bentonville AR</p><p style="text-align: center;">You're probably asking where's that and why?</p><p style="text-align: center;">Bentonville is in Northwest Arkansas, a beautiful place all by itself, and is the home of Walmart.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Yes Walmart.</p><p style="text-align: center;">The Walton family have an amazing museum called Crystal Bridges.</p><p style="text-align: center;">https://crystalbridges.org/</p><p style="text-align: center;">Let's let the photos do the talking for now.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRNNilXRsFbprkJtk6esR5jvNDkgavamhIb2OCXdMS6RX_RDIT4j6D8XhITCMhLd4LDrYwAcAsDWTW76iVUeuEEfH90VlJ7zy3sKBRCTYSIGi_pKxYrRXqxcFmf64cCXuRYTHnQrnpkE-WUTX1TqKdUNt_SN0vsmlF33544_O5PR-HmgQ1czl8mue4tiGG/s4032/20230810_105441.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRNNilXRsFbprkJtk6esR5jvNDkgavamhIb2OCXdMS6RX_RDIT4j6D8XhITCMhLd4LDrYwAcAsDWTW76iVUeuEEfH90VlJ7zy3sKBRCTYSIGi_pKxYrRXqxcFmf64cCXuRYTHnQrnpkE-WUTX1TqKdUNt_SN0vsmlF33544_O5PR-HmgQ1czl8mue4tiGG/w400-h300/20230810_105441.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Let's start with this...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They relocated a Frank Lloyd Wright house from New Jersey that was being flooded , in jeopardy, and couldn't remain at it's original location.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvrDQwLdKSIJnekf1CU_aV0FpVXIvefQimRg4gNFoDILMv5i-XwLJHy-RDdjXYaPkKVH4kg6VhgkVITDwtunfU4FW_7u3IkVxKcWk1v6uhWFxMLJtjLwGdgrWvrwHVKDEjhywmX8pfSeIB0UorMduBmlZLbp9nq9Hk9_wRorVE5FfNjwXPBjLhArvb5IZq/s4032/20230812_121448.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvrDQwLdKSIJnekf1CU_aV0FpVXIvefQimRg4gNFoDILMv5i-XwLJHy-RDdjXYaPkKVH4kg6VhgkVITDwtunfU4FW_7u3IkVxKcWk1v6uhWFxMLJtjLwGdgrWvrwHVKDEjhywmX8pfSeIB0UorMduBmlZLbp9nq9Hk9_wRorVE5FfNjwXPBjLhArvb5IZq/w400-h300/20230812_121448.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Yep, dismantled it, labeled everything, moved it cross country, reassembled, and restored it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They don't allow interior photos so visit their website for all the details:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://crystalbridges.org/architecture/frank-lloyd-wright-bachman-wilson-house/</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZU1ESvBjyXzJFsxscpexOdzrcum4k0Vwq3_ze49jF-y7ci4EIR3WFoYaAIap2U0MtqhlE_oy1DF5z1ugIu528gg390dwUHBeGjE9VHlXkFtvEh7KcQEZv1ooDL6H7S2KmPuqXMAK_jCQ2ogK6-ZWj4CrqR-x80Tp5Utj9sjE-s7V8bxk-erxJAlkA2fSg/s4032/20230810_110901.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZU1ESvBjyXzJFsxscpexOdzrcum4k0Vwq3_ze49jF-y7ci4EIR3WFoYaAIap2U0MtqhlE_oy1DF5z1ugIu528gg390dwUHBeGjE9VHlXkFtvEh7KcQEZv1ooDL6H7S2KmPuqXMAK_jCQ2ogK6-ZWj4CrqR-x80Tp5Utj9sjE-s7V8bxk-erxJAlkA2fSg/w400-h300/20230810_110901.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The architecture is incredible and the complex straddles a creek. More info here:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://crystalbridges.org/architecture/moshe-safdie/</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYx8RQmQMUxjDVjALskrIxPLA_bj68141wAHnaRQ24FWkbKric0j3s3Ri3j6O6JhI0-cPCw_AVBC54esGgYHNmUQ_aLGRXldZX3AY2EHiG36Kh1uM_OQnzfujXRzjiFi6kJKGNUXUgUvhgEvX39ZfJavqWmDHNc7VRk-RX2v0TF9Xg6kKWi7MHj6xLIfW/s4032/20230810_113939.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYx8RQmQMUxjDVjALskrIxPLA_bj68141wAHnaRQ24FWkbKric0j3s3Ri3j6O6JhI0-cPCw_AVBC54esGgYHNmUQ_aLGRXldZX3AY2EHiG36Kh1uM_OQnzfujXRzjiFi6kJKGNUXUgUvhgEvX39ZfJavqWmDHNc7VRk-RX2v0TF9Xg6kKWi7MHj6xLIfW/w300-h400/20230810_113939.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Norman Rockwell?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Yeah we got that.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwKOS-MHXHicujmnTQDbE4UNzcuuMe7cjB_HIqNRxRfxGFhKUyyWSJ0hdaDiolEe7nIjwTATQYblM0YP9VmfS1wEs-c2cMEdlOzy_ArHLTeNtbK5CfIUEwSxIrThT13xQoUN5_Cef0_p6oWAhoV5hI011uV9nbBq-57GLqQlc08bS5gqqSk_H2klWWmcI/s4608/20230810_132253.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwKOS-MHXHicujmnTQDbE4UNzcuuMe7cjB_HIqNRxRfxGFhKUyyWSJ0hdaDiolEe7nIjwTATQYblM0YP9VmfS1wEs-c2cMEdlOzy_ArHLTeNtbK5CfIUEwSxIrThT13xQoUN5_Cef0_p6oWAhoV5hI011uV9nbBq-57GLqQlc08bS5gqqSk_H2klWWmcI/w300-h400/20230810_132253.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The cafeteria...</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrNtiiSRgawPlxTUAx_Y72mtGEK0WKAXdu7XLbzf60vQpDzCUGPRXxl05uBJJgU0MOxMbcZXkLQW0dG7VWOjxNq61m98uh0sPMZr6cvSDgVdY47csVIalm_IJzyT79s0kwFEE3P-0UFfNfDPERLSzLnNJ9vBhvjCe_nau1HtO3R1D5aaaODI-P8l9VIewo/s4032/20230810_100656.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrNtiiSRgawPlxTUAx_Y72mtGEK0WKAXdu7XLbzf60vQpDzCUGPRXxl05uBJJgU0MOxMbcZXkLQW0dG7VWOjxNq61m98uh0sPMZr6cvSDgVdY47csVIalm_IJzyT79s0kwFEE3P-0UFfNfDPERLSzLnNJ9vBhvjCe_nau1HtO3R1D5aaaODI-P8l9VIewo/w300-h400/20230810_100656.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Giant spider and monster serpent sculptures...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiavVYaC3vE0OS5FxBLN-9s60GCqA907K4n2MEGAcVba9732UgFdrGYQGE5yWx8GOP0fX_Jmnptkmdtk0MYxDLbf_j-IcTl5ZGt8CeZ3qb5wV4RjHa8Go-We6Q9929vOuY6ks3zFUt-VushU5vkPIFWR9cAhvokSc_QrTz1RkmqVuSULLbwZ_MYGNDZx9Bu/s4608/20230812_124216.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiavVYaC3vE0OS5FxBLN-9s60GCqA907K4n2MEGAcVba9732UgFdrGYQGE5yWx8GOP0fX_Jmnptkmdtk0MYxDLbf_j-IcTl5ZGt8CeZ3qb5wV4RjHa8Go-We6Q9929vOuY6ks3zFUt-VushU5vkPIFWR9cAhvokSc_QrTz1RkmqVuSULLbwZ_MYGNDZx9Bu/w400-h301/20230812_124216.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">along a network of hike and bike trails...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Why not?</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPdIpfSMvgJjPv5FFwp4g252jod1bBd1RIG4Zq2vZtoYzKbTGguOav2AoqzKlu1h4rrB79n9yZxusjIamzwnTuVwxiwV81cPZ2KpYnx-gKTqyCg3b5qTKs4vHUZS0YXaRS4VybtdzdI-PTeL1h86thaPiXI25wOUhF3rC1lDxhZIT6q1U6s3KkBU3uDNH/s4032/20230810_125904.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPdIpfSMvgJjPv5FFwp4g252jod1bBd1RIG4Zq2vZtoYzKbTGguOav2AoqzKlu1h4rrB79n9yZxusjIamzwnTuVwxiwV81cPZ2KpYnx-gKTqyCg3b5qTKs4vHUZS0YXaRS4VybtdzdI-PTeL1h86thaPiXI25wOUhF3rC1lDxhZIT6q1U6s3KkBU3uDNH/w354-h400/20230810_125904.jpg" width="354" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Huge galleries</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMR1qiRnRVRsdzpqQ_COl7FakSYFbWC0OJvWds9ODDax1rieNgzovPaqdHOy2LGPYkrvAQIEiGlAhmepsp9zK_O9EjgQoYX4pxp1p2FQYt1KXBhAw5198ZFwTjAXZ0PnI7QUy-JqvGw7i0l4dxqQq6kEIhKjYKAB7VMe47BRy2acFfeAElSW06qkIg8QN/s4032/20230810_130301.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMR1qiRnRVRsdzpqQ_COl7FakSYFbWC0OJvWds9ODDax1rieNgzovPaqdHOy2LGPYkrvAQIEiGlAhmepsp9zK_O9EjgQoYX4pxp1p2FQYt1KXBhAw5198ZFwTjAXZ0PnI7QUy-JqvGw7i0l4dxqQq6kEIhKjYKAB7VMe47BRy2acFfeAElSW06qkIg8QN/s320/20230810_130301.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Disco globes in a mirrored room?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Of course</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsVCpeH1nWn0xLC7hkIEmv32v_gdFKx9BQodOc3rMKwg-rFj84nsyr9Dn45nmgtTud4-0b5Z72_1M5WclBDvJ5cEJBVnD6BsbVe207jNkVfVwzaEH86SehPWrSpL5Q8x1CF8T_yMfFgtzFcQ7cugToKTgfCk56dyfgGWmqNpDirLLuZpxtT9BVYQibysN2/s4032/20230810_144613.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsVCpeH1nWn0xLC7hkIEmv32v_gdFKx9BQodOc3rMKwg-rFj84nsyr9Dn45nmgtTud4-0b5Z72_1M5WclBDvJ5cEJBVnD6BsbVe207jNkVfVwzaEH86SehPWrSpL5Q8x1CF8T_yMfFgtzFcQ7cugToKTgfCk56dyfgGWmqNpDirLLuZpxtT9BVYQibysN2/w300-h400/20230810_144613.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Canoe sculpture</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7W8Dpp9wzt6jGAco2zzTBmtHJihrMokU3pjy_Rvg7pwvW4wFVTYQKYaZ0ABEcena9AMo7vlaNfvL5_-0h8xlphwnz9q8ErOAelIi_qr5eJXSvPyUVSjOYbwA0okHxY8Zaa7AmHmw2itQMQzR4tylHuh0XSi6uBA-0tiqs0VNlxk0Pr9e4WgSpXFNn8ErC/s4032/20230812_132136.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7W8Dpp9wzt6jGAco2zzTBmtHJihrMokU3pjy_Rvg7pwvW4wFVTYQKYaZ0ABEcena9AMo7vlaNfvL5_-0h8xlphwnz9q8ErOAelIi_qr5eJXSvPyUVSjOYbwA0okHxY8Zaa7AmHmw2itQMQzR4tylHuh0XSi6uBA-0tiqs0VNlxk0Pr9e4WgSpXFNn8ErC/w300-h359/20230812_132136.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Buckminster's Fly Eye Dome</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://crystalbridges.org/architecture/flys-eye-dome/</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">That just scratches the surface of what is on display, yes it's in NW Arkansas, and you can thank Walmart.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It's an amazing place (and the town is great) so go visit!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://www.visitbentonville.com/</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://www.arkansas.com/bentonville</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentonville,_Arkansas</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-39109434870401058212023-09-04T17:26:00.000-05:002023-09-04T17:26:14.520-05:00We Had a Dog Named Kipper<p style="text-align: center;">Sorry our blog has been dormant for so long. I guess we haven't done anything interesting since 2017?</p><p style="text-align: center;">That's not true, of course, just haven't had time to update and we forgot how to use blogger for awhile! And let me tell you it hasn't improved a bit so don't expect regular updates.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Check Angie's instagram if you want to know what we're doing in real time.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">Kipper passed away in February and I've been thinking about compiling photos and doing a post for him so here goes.</p><p style="text-align: center;">He had us for 14 years.</p><p style="text-align: center;">He changed our lives.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-r2o17wTsCEDqn2o7bM2dRMzp5YeLw_ltHQ9PAjw-R6fVqBjxgOEDSPznAIQLYyVZzbjf7obJVxXY2uq3ZeR6upEF1HjrBg3D7v_zvazpw6Up2P0gEBbcgIeGQ0iU91uSBy6Wm1G4qILGEcTnqJ0pE28I2ycqRJveDwx6qag5YihyE4SlYSxcfCfYC9t/s623/17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-r2o17wTsCEDqn2o7bM2dRMzp5YeLw_ltHQ9PAjw-R6fVqBjxgOEDSPznAIQLYyVZzbjf7obJVxXY2uq3ZeR6upEF1HjrBg3D7v_zvazpw6Up2P0gEBbcgIeGQ0iU91uSBy6Wm1G4qILGEcTnqJ0pE28I2ycqRJveDwx6qag5YihyE4SlYSxcfCfYC9t/s320/17.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">I won't caption every photo but I have to start with this one because I'm convinced this is why no one adopted him before us. Kipper was a pound dog and Angie found him thru Austin Dog Rescue. This "smiling" behavior is something some dogs do and if you're not familiar with it and a dog does it you'll probably avoid the dog. It's weird, and wonderful, as long as you understand the dogs not snarling at you. Austin Dog Rescue posted a photo on their website like this and Kipper was in a foster home for 3 months. Basically reserving him for us.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Kipper made friends everywhere he went:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNGi8yFJWcD-bsTIttqcMP736pWUVx8i58Z4yotbNi9JOA9krRKfQPl-mSfdSB7ls8hPdGGLABTUfjORmwWyE3JycphsmQdNvSwGqKiiAO5PsboPf0dElukVrjGl8DbcWNKnCccY4TnmXY7REYhQYg7wBpckmjP0HWb7uy5PB-vKtjWzDDr39eBFgN5f_e/s3358/roxie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3358" data-original-width="2798" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNGi8yFJWcD-bsTIttqcMP736pWUVx8i58Z4yotbNi9JOA9krRKfQPl-mSfdSB7ls8hPdGGLABTUfjORmwWyE3JycphsmQdNvSwGqKiiAO5PsboPf0dElukVrjGl8DbcWNKnCccY4TnmXY7REYhQYg7wBpckmjP0HWb7uy5PB-vKtjWzDDr39eBFgN5f_e/s320/roxie.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh76nd8UgG7rs3DcZmbKpHV3GQU3k2pLJRpIAfHhOXwmBmKTBN0Q41QLMiRLN6L6Z1lNQJv4GWbwizHjkaREW7YeJDcXh2LP5wOTX9CpN5O8VmoX4jlinzKq0PK0l6SPyx-1_tqc3Gi3dpdSlBuYAiYzGcoKu7DntrJuMuvWGgnco6nPoAftOC0APjVfu-y/s1401/tex1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="753" data-original-width="1401" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh76nd8UgG7rs3DcZmbKpHV3GQU3k2pLJRpIAfHhOXwmBmKTBN0Q41QLMiRLN6L6Z1lNQJv4GWbwizHjkaREW7YeJDcXh2LP5wOTX9CpN5O8VmoX4jlinzKq0PK0l6SPyx-1_tqc3Gi3dpdSlBuYAiYzGcoKu7DntrJuMuvWGgnco6nPoAftOC0APjVfu-y/s320/tex1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIQDcwVx_huCAR5C1kqPX8F5c3n_Qj6KjfLVqPZRkSJMiG-tKCS64BGQ8YjXkkJP_Xe-jujC5dWzsp8jMD94aoWbdm_ANY3hY4jiGW35R6kfX_XJ4OxmUc91BRXqyr0x6otNuZv-YFwb_6zBDiB62b_fernr6orphL187BN-9O1l-b5LXWpQRUnJhCT1d/s320/Alice2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="320" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIQDcwVx_huCAR5C1kqPX8F5c3n_Qj6KjfLVqPZRkSJMiG-tKCS64BGQ8YjXkkJP_Xe-jujC5dWzsp8jMD94aoWbdm_ANY3hY4jiGW35R6kfX_XJ4OxmUc91BRXqyr0x6otNuZv-YFwb_6zBDiB62b_fernr6orphL187BN-9O1l-b5LXWpQRUnJhCT1d/s1600/Alice2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHkBWA2i37Uoa0DbNxkOetVgRaO8_B7IieAOckx3de-CJt7Kyeh4pX-oX2mROlifSMJp1CmyLxk6PE-kL1jRZucvJuNI6V9mzSb1_B-0WUm88QDuxS91R6-RJoq20XcOeS4hukhVEmbCB2J02YygNAFrGTmYTIk3eZIRAfRtmQeEbAIjXfy2JfVg_VVP8/s551/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="551" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHkBWA2i37Uoa0DbNxkOetVgRaO8_B7IieAOckx3de-CJt7Kyeh4pX-oX2mROlifSMJp1CmyLxk6PE-kL1jRZucvJuNI6V9mzSb1_B-0WUm88QDuxS91R6-RJoq20XcOeS4hukhVEmbCB2J02YygNAFrGTmYTIk3eZIRAfRtmQeEbAIjXfy2JfVg_VVP8/s320/11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8WMrf9JyjP0PPaOq8l4DfytANN2wDZyfl6NnlPWsJwkBVPzFvPYueyH0aDk_bQDiK30PTbp_xiLx6IAXL1-7Rx1k1zphKTBMZxyQ1pjOjb4LBNJPh4a99wcvTv5pxnPWt3i-zOBveP2RnOSNfsGfLXuAb3q1WYHD_wzDAUjOhPeDAQiIuet2WLxb4CQ_h/s3264/IMG_1239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8WMrf9JyjP0PPaOq8l4DfytANN2wDZyfl6NnlPWsJwkBVPzFvPYueyH0aDk_bQDiK30PTbp_xiLx6IAXL1-7Rx1k1zphKTBMZxyQ1pjOjb4LBNJPh4a99wcvTv5pxnPWt3i-zOBveP2RnOSNfsGfLXuAb3q1WYHD_wzDAUjOhPeDAQiIuet2WLxb4CQ_h/s320/IMG_1239.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhVrlEi6zjoiXuUaT-kV0YzNcpbRg4bTFFSpIhHt2Puhj6_ScCnutns8xhyuvSqtOB7h204BJVojvMeFZrDoz2LjlnUCGVN63JiOTDeGf4ESLCoMp-hF-l0HtUJCXlYgIHf2oeqTp47jX-vmJpRO8h4gXxBcp066P5oO71G8zb8bFTIL143Xi3IV69NpMv/s3012/lincoln.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2892" data-original-width="3012" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhVrlEi6zjoiXuUaT-kV0YzNcpbRg4bTFFSpIhHt2Puhj6_ScCnutns8xhyuvSqtOB7h204BJVojvMeFZrDoz2LjlnUCGVN63JiOTDeGf4ESLCoMp-hF-l0HtUJCXlYgIHf2oeqTp47jX-vmJpRO8h4gXxBcp066P5oO71G8zb8bFTIL143Xi3IV69NpMv/s320/lincoln.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">He went willingly with us everywhere, even when he probably shouldn't have. 43 states and 7 Canadian provinces via road, and all over the Florida Keys and the Bahamas via boat.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">He visited most of the National Parks, all three coasts, and countless beaches and trails.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxETqtPU_KamVpLr2r6ORnHwULPP3O2aDQaViiScBjhBvvjqadzL48K60cvngS1rHM1z579WleQ9StfRrGhh62EpG7XyHM_H3VlwxJgP4156Fzo3ZK_aB4dWxqdMZ4l5t3GIAzxxyjLSkekMXsv5eUDvIbUUjHoMjD6SU4mFpNT9BY4F3v3sffqYV3omi/s608/14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxETqtPU_KamVpLr2r6ORnHwULPP3O2aDQaViiScBjhBvvjqadzL48K60cvngS1rHM1z579WleQ9StfRrGhh62EpG7XyHM_H3VlwxJgP4156Fzo3ZK_aB4dWxqdMZ4l5t3GIAzxxyjLSkekMXsv5eUDvIbUUjHoMjD6SU4mFpNT9BY4F3v3sffqYV3omi/s320/14.jpg" width="253" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5TwTqdQameRCp-STSxNK1tC5CZSNI204gtcpaADktNj_OS3j8GzeKhPTTf35bwq-S5ZnUYaLvZs09u1q6lGL_-e3Yg5SEbEcEhAHwRZ_9iOZbmfkHR4TDd5N7su6kZ8I0esFyiAiK9QjeAn733Z8XrZBl3Gc0VGOdUm9mPg4uWSr--GFtwkh2jsr2hhTg/s440/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="425" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5TwTqdQameRCp-STSxNK1tC5CZSNI204gtcpaADktNj_OS3j8GzeKhPTTf35bwq-S5ZnUYaLvZs09u1q6lGL_-e3Yg5SEbEcEhAHwRZ_9iOZbmfkHR4TDd5N7su6kZ8I0esFyiAiK9QjeAn733Z8XrZBl3Gc0VGOdUm9mPg4uWSr--GFtwkh2jsr2hhTg/s320/8.jpg" width="309" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4z7qTeP_VBoZ8G1966QNE3DciOQi8cV4FOrijUJtiMuG8DQuieGTS2GX4N_OCJxu6cy35BbFl5NhC_vt1DIKE1GRE5hsWSAh-g28rgr8t-yYQ-AgI_S2_Kc1Ze3M5lOZfQE-U-2ld3lHhJiQk71yacgHuAew_mgfWO77XMB6aqupnO5F6nHxyCrPIfuDk/s400/6LakeJackson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4z7qTeP_VBoZ8G1966QNE3DciOQi8cV4FOrijUJtiMuG8DQuieGTS2GX4N_OCJxu6cy35BbFl5NhC_vt1DIKE1GRE5hsWSAh-g28rgr8t-yYQ-AgI_S2_Kc1Ze3M5lOZfQE-U-2ld3lHhJiQk71yacgHuAew_mgfWO77XMB6aqupnO5F6nHxyCrPIfuDk/s320/6LakeJackson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsL26Js4Peuv1CQLkhFKrCH_USncQR3FUqSNfCjT_TlQAX9KG8oq_0vRtf4yUOFw7784cMcdacRo8iRPxI1PLOv2SzC82Zr2NovEBk5PLZsQMwM15-pD5ve3JkeCjI3vhnN0bGgxeJ1g_Mq-s-nvgZPKxPDEwk6pQjyBM963UmRz5e8qvU-eHRdyhAddK-/s3330/beach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3330" data-original-width="3012" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsL26Js4Peuv1CQLkhFKrCH_USncQR3FUqSNfCjT_TlQAX9KG8oq_0vRtf4yUOFw7784cMcdacRo8iRPxI1PLOv2SzC82Zr2NovEBk5PLZsQMwM15-pD5ve3JkeCjI3vhnN0bGgxeJ1g_Mq-s-nvgZPKxPDEwk6pQjyBM963UmRz5e8qvU-eHRdyhAddK-/s320/beach.jpg" width="289" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWKgTUIv4v7NDVuTKLOFWQB1AvgmBEBI7N257Qj0PZ6tWddC83C2EpUNsy86e7StTvDrXXWUU-X8jHr4FnSfJANkQTwTZ5YQJ_HLYdgff0BwweBBrjEcLpMkUIZ6NbPsbtZXJ2Mh04EkoU-dxW2WAQ_4xx19uA-73tQtqNUpLUwgMn5P6hPhvfTCAEmeB/s2733/dingy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2182" data-original-width="2733" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWKgTUIv4v7NDVuTKLOFWQB1AvgmBEBI7N257Qj0PZ6tWddC83C2EpUNsy86e7StTvDrXXWUU-X8jHr4FnSfJANkQTwTZ5YQJ_HLYdgff0BwweBBrjEcLpMkUIZ6NbPsbtZXJ2Mh04EkoU-dxW2WAQ_4xx19uA-73tQtqNUpLUwgMn5P6hPhvfTCAEmeB/s320/dingy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeYZsbAzTFcx8p2VCY7q0xnwsyypM_7zq_AD5Aen8HbAdRN5RunUTC01074shpKoeQMmexlZ3_PaLB4BIvIJ8zs9PdWsfgivgMG2boS2Qv1TPyDMh_fci5SESvezxxxHR9-e9IhI0IeXTxzmUA7gq0SujeF4JEOk9bDvrPsfpfQ5eNjgnl1an2eV4YHG3R/s4032/canoe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeYZsbAzTFcx8p2VCY7q0xnwsyypM_7zq_AD5Aen8HbAdRN5RunUTC01074shpKoeQMmexlZ3_PaLB4BIvIJ8zs9PdWsfgivgMG2boS2Qv1TPyDMh_fci5SESvezxxxHR9-e9IhI0IeXTxzmUA7gq0SujeF4JEOk9bDvrPsfpfQ5eNjgnl1an2eV4YHG3R/s320/canoe.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivb6ogcazPKuOwXy-_mGpwG-_L2lpo79yRIVRCJYnPJh2DjMmsYRODedPBm7RJijsc8tsFWIrn-EFCWkccvzKde7ad4iC6gjiG1ytOm6LVPKKm48-ltc19tO4zRAY4gTwoND0WTG4AtY4BkcI-m09a1JXAGu1b18cJHp6YM0M4sdyzz45ktQ36yW0dIYwN/s960/IMG_0979.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivb6ogcazPKuOwXy-_mGpwG-_L2lpo79yRIVRCJYnPJh2DjMmsYRODedPBm7RJijsc8tsFWIrn-EFCWkccvzKde7ad4iC6gjiG1ytOm6LVPKKm48-ltc19tO4zRAY4gTwoND0WTG4AtY4BkcI-m09a1JXAGu1b18cJHp6YM0M4sdyzz45ktQ36yW0dIYwN/s320/IMG_0979.JPG" width="180" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGQPUj6Oh9Pwo5aJDtCNOZPgyDswIiaBKvSAmx9cXulp6h6POd6-ZuQAIZTM_9gNn8VdEco1cFOTEpkVTM8XuCeJvezND4TGP1uj1-OtsqeU8yWAh3Wi3MxcK46WPkR9PxXVuf2TYmqwCv9SgesVxYcvGO67YMuNJmp-9vYAtw7unSMPso8KpSALNdQLPD/s1600/IMGP4474.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGQPUj6Oh9Pwo5aJDtCNOZPgyDswIiaBKvSAmx9cXulp6h6POd6-ZuQAIZTM_9gNn8VdEco1cFOTEpkVTM8XuCeJvezND4TGP1uj1-OtsqeU8yWAh3Wi3MxcK46WPkR9PxXVuf2TYmqwCv9SgesVxYcvGO67YMuNJmp-9vYAtw7unSMPso8KpSALNdQLPD/s320/IMGP4474.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Lbln7wWPF8qbrQZpK5HsiXkMiskEQMiBHbtiosjJYCYIoqxUdBYkK5n0ZF7_8bmJrQx8fCeTvjWos0PxqnRh6MyluSlGqieQBm0lkjBKWdljPHyQq_N6CL2EcWMeACxnRou7ALft6bDZ3h3nEycFJyLCfEOt0K5jPPrFc0UIzQ5t_BYksBRXqggNEoXO/s400/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Lbln7wWPF8qbrQZpK5HsiXkMiskEQMiBHbtiosjJYCYIoqxUdBYkK5n0ZF7_8bmJrQx8fCeTvjWos0PxqnRh6MyluSlGqieQBm0lkjBKWdljPHyQq_N6CL2EcWMeACxnRou7ALft6bDZ3h3nEycFJyLCfEOt0K5jPPrFc0UIzQ5t_BYksBRXqggNEoXO/s320/6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">He was also a skilled napper:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji7FxYULAYDd6z86vxq4RIFv1oy_RkM6c2irVhOJ4KGIqzeryoSShjpqKM_v5Bilf9bi_TSmIa8MkWVJ5BJpQqv14p0GqCZXrEWqPfPOs888YClQ-polzY3j_pqlSY_y_xMA09GftR2YW0fKjm4lYQxJaArOjHjyJkgvbah_o6MZVjPOEJoaaBBQTNmgo6/s3264/IMG_1382.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji7FxYULAYDd6z86vxq4RIFv1oy_RkM6c2irVhOJ4KGIqzeryoSShjpqKM_v5Bilf9bi_TSmIa8MkWVJ5BJpQqv14p0GqCZXrEWqPfPOs888YClQ-polzY3j_pqlSY_y_xMA09GftR2YW0fKjm4lYQxJaArOjHjyJkgvbah_o6MZVjPOEJoaaBBQTNmgo6/s320/IMG_1382.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggpsTSwTdA6vB1OK0ASHWOY0Fa_u9mreN38k-hraPGKwzHkv81LNJ1ARlh0zd7OYLacEIzjCV_w2D82Ca2jPqzUNSxNnRiqwRbrItVDr7LcoFyq12YleRbqywsw4C0MCgw1msJlp6_CNQ8219qYXjreVNaBu5E0Q8JbNpFF2jpm1nRnuZFgmpbouutDRR2/s3010/nap5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2717" data-original-width="3010" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggpsTSwTdA6vB1OK0ASHWOY0Fa_u9mreN38k-hraPGKwzHkv81LNJ1ARlh0zd7OYLacEIzjCV_w2D82Ca2jPqzUNSxNnRiqwRbrItVDr7LcoFyq12YleRbqywsw4C0MCgw1msJlp6_CNQ8219qYXjreVNaBu5E0Q8JbNpFF2jpm1nRnuZFgmpbouutDRR2/s320/nap5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmf13hT-dSYZ6MNGUThsWpoI0hLrzFIs6AbknvlZ3iukN_Ho_VvX5VOLqi_wsSuf3XRQz3dKpS9hNoveCV4OIhuam9WsOI_I_UM6_XvWRC5fUPo0UCddrs3syrK9eh9Lwg4tIVcIofFiGkH30WLCKENR3wQmpOqoD7ZogqxPeK0mY77rp4bx0EhlCiPHZP/s2804/nap6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2623" data-original-width="2804" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmf13hT-dSYZ6MNGUThsWpoI0hLrzFIs6AbknvlZ3iukN_Ho_VvX5VOLqi_wsSuf3XRQz3dKpS9hNoveCV4OIhuam9WsOI_I_UM6_XvWRC5fUPo0UCddrs3syrK9eh9Lwg4tIVcIofFiGkH30WLCKENR3wQmpOqoD7ZogqxPeK0mY77rp4bx0EhlCiPHZP/s320/nap6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7yHT8KAiJxGID1XuUl_L6a2NDoB8Rnrdw-vqd-ClvEqtZKgy6xLMLSA3Lb9LwQvMlU0R94vtJJgwe5HZ8Smaz2mu7k9nwcByOkGS6W8PV3FUwxBq22zGQtMzOrjddpH2AIKS19ISIgGRNvB9ZLN1xpSyRJEjRd2kTII2yoHSJhhpu4nk95durNteDhLWu/s3264/IMG_1496.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7yHT8KAiJxGID1XuUl_L6a2NDoB8Rnrdw-vqd-ClvEqtZKgy6xLMLSA3Lb9LwQvMlU0R94vtJJgwe5HZ8Smaz2mu7k9nwcByOkGS6W8PV3FUwxBq22zGQtMzOrjddpH2AIKS19ISIgGRNvB9ZLN1xpSyRJEjRd2kTII2yoHSJhhpu4nk95durNteDhLWu/s320/IMG_1496.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjulvA3SxL4NuwGUul_E-aozwEY4xFe8gZlT2Z1gbGl41BlPFSn77A3fkDBmImRkLAcFgfRDoxZ0_3DS5n1pjcFmgdC13Eb4dXcbp6xXIRXqAXKBQAe-i1Mltgsf2cyu4qcTpEo1elmsYwtxUyz2O_qwG82rqCiwgplWrqLF36_AOi3b-Hzv-kdSUFfEovI/s2767/nap8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="2767" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjulvA3SxL4NuwGUul_E-aozwEY4xFe8gZlT2Z1gbGl41BlPFSn77A3fkDBmImRkLAcFgfRDoxZ0_3DS5n1pjcFmgdC13Eb4dXcbp6xXIRXqAXKBQAe-i1Mltgsf2cyu4qcTpEo1elmsYwtxUyz2O_qwG82rqCiwgplWrqLF36_AOi3b-Hzv-kdSUFfEovI/s320/nap8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHan7MDrga6SqJH2MlHjcXVZT407vb0LnMv-4_Hw-DOakNGH9H2loghvkyHEm1nWZgo3889JbrE2xYM4jzu2C14ciWQ1xL-Tr5dhdiQ-L1vjVXfTdsm17zWH0leVvgAx2kUa-13HTMST5JGHQxq8MCsSau0x8qNcjDbisHBQz3D1BBtN8xZ-dNBxt0F-z/s3612/nap1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3612" data-original-width="3011" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHan7MDrga6SqJH2MlHjcXVZT407vb0LnMv-4_Hw-DOakNGH9H2loghvkyHEm1nWZgo3889JbrE2xYM4jzu2C14ciWQ1xL-Tr5dhdiQ-L1vjVXfTdsm17zWH0leVvgAx2kUa-13HTMST5JGHQxq8MCsSau0x8qNcjDbisHBQz3D1BBtN8xZ-dNBxt0F-z/s320/nap1.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfx6cCJ61ffcA6fbeQnPunFuC2icw21c_gPmCPEsLwvEtFkqLeMbiZMnf8kpwwlB-Q6S8Zdx-hiAZCK5LaeOrva0m0D7Z6sSBka2M5btonx9bppEKVkYCAdmC5PJWFRgc_LIBQothEM4yqJexn5WHGUw7WZX0lxCDSHsZGNyksAXtMKdzgszh9iabSNC1/s3530/nap3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="3530" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfx6cCJ61ffcA6fbeQnPunFuC2icw21c_gPmCPEsLwvEtFkqLeMbiZMnf8kpwwlB-Q6S8Zdx-hiAZCK5LaeOrva0m0D7Z6sSBka2M5btonx9bppEKVkYCAdmC5PJWFRgc_LIBQothEM4yqJexn5WHGUw7WZX0lxCDSHsZGNyksAXtMKdzgszh9iabSNC1/s320/nap3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHJrAMfvsh247uk2Bh0YS-e_Hkln2TPZ915Y1dhG7cvPSr7Nhd5VjKrZGyg9Eo7UZSfyE6w0ZfppEfy6sXUidgz28o4PU0YyXd65ZC55BonPbRfkm7769j6cSNIs325ZStQOzBmCpmlyFsKugUGp1506erdsmQkhTIYD6bq8IHS_jAgUl0uRaSPv_qfIK/s3673/nap4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3673" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHJrAMfvsh247uk2Bh0YS-e_Hkln2TPZ915Y1dhG7cvPSr7Nhd5VjKrZGyg9Eo7UZSfyE6w0ZfppEfy6sXUidgz28o4PU0YyXd65ZC55BonPbRfkm7769j6cSNIs325ZStQOzBmCpmlyFsKugUGp1506erdsmQkhTIYD6bq8IHS_jAgUl0uRaSPv_qfIK/s320/nap4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">He did a lot of this but especially towards his end. Nothing more soothing than watching your dog sleep. Tears are flowing now so I have to wrap this up.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Thank you to all our friends, family, and random strangers, that became friends, for inviting Kipper into your homes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">One more photo of him doing what he did best...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Soaring</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-t-4coLMdeX2qkUcdB6KP6YUTlC3i2KFPGKKqkWEb-Nupyl131sQ9nHBfqkNAtBGaq0QrIA6ynPE9ru3XDHGSTE8qo5YNs_EPuoolNL8orPVTt6jDlb19YeONSvP9egKY0yEmTJ2Xc7tOrMT8dtlFvY2P9thEttyb0jfclmVHUBohkscV3ARtLuxPLMm/s414/Kipper%20011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="402" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-t-4coLMdeX2qkUcdB6KP6YUTlC3i2KFPGKKqkWEb-Nupyl131sQ9nHBfqkNAtBGaq0QrIA6ynPE9ru3XDHGSTE8qo5YNs_EPuoolNL8orPVTt6jDlb19YeONSvP9egKY0yEmTJ2Xc7tOrMT8dtlFvY2P9thEttyb0jfclmVHUBohkscV3ARtLuxPLMm/s320/Kipper%20011.jpg" width="311" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">RIP </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Kipper Rose</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">?/2008 - 2/2023</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-67834083768649527212017-02-18T10:45:00.000-06:002017-02-18T10:45:00.781-06:002017 So Far...<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We spent the first month of 2017 blissfully unaware of the goings on back in the USA, at least for the most part. We just returned from a trip to Panama, Belize, and Mexico (Yucatan). American politics were covered widely in these areas, especially Mexico, but we managed to stay uninformed with our minimal cell phone plan and intermittent WiFi.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a welcome break and a great way to bring in 2017 on a more positive note.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will be doing some blog posts looking back at the trip. These are all places we had hoped to sail eventually but after visiting some of the Cruiser destinations we're glad we didn't. Details on that later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're back in Austin for the foreseeable future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looks like we'll have to start earning some money to pay for all our slacking off...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More on that later too!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few teaser photos in no certain order:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">First stop: Panama City!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-34235445869081316502016-12-27T23:32:00.000-06:002016-12-28T10:50:54.562-06:00Our Year With a Boat...<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How time flies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We left in July 2015 to do some land travel and look for a cruising sailboat. We found Wings in October 2015 and purchased her, I believe, on October 22nd, or thereabouts. We sold her October 11, 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our year with a live aboard cruising sailboat wasn't entirely spent on the boat s</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">o, here's a summary of what we did:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">October 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We purchased Wings in Punta Gorda, Florida from Dave and Dottie, a lovely couple, that immediately turned around and bought a trawler that they fixed up and now live aboard full time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">November 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We lived aboard at Fisherman's Village Marina, where we bought her, and sailed around Charlotte Harbor to learn the ropes. We also took some Coast Guard Auxiliary courses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">December 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We were in Austin for the holidays and to take care of some business.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">January 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We returned to Punta Gorda, provisioned the boat, and sailed south towards the Keys. We took about 10 days to reach the Keys. As has been our experience, throughout our boating time, there were weather issues...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">February 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Was mostly spent in Stock Island Marina (Key West) but we did make a trip out to the Dry Tortugas. The Dry Tortugas, where Fort Jefferson is located, might be the highlight of our entire time with the boat. Of course, on the way back we got thrashed and had to return to Stock Island Marina for almost a week, again weather...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We sailed up the Keys to Key Largo where we waited at Pennekamp State Park for a weather window to cross over to Bimini.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">April and May 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the Bahamas. We went to Bimini, Providence Island, the Exumas, and Eleuthera. If you read the previous few blog entries you're probably wondering "did you have any fun?". Yes, absolutely, but it was all but eclipsed by our weather related issues...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">June 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Limped back to Florida to handle boat repairs. Most of June was in West Palm Beach where we stayed in a borrowed condo (thank you thank you thank you Herb and Gayle) while working on Wings at Cracker Boy Boat Works. Funny name, we know, the story is that Florida cowboys used to herd cattle with whips and became known as "cracker boys" at least that's what I was told...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">July 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wings was back in the water and we motored her inland via the Okeechobee waterway to be stored at Port Labelle Marina between Lake Okeechobee and Ft Myers. We might have to do a blog entry dedicated to Port Labelle Marina it's a... unique place. We put her on the market and took a road trip to see family in Maryland and Pennsylvania in a borrowed Toyota </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(thank you thank you again Herb and Gayle).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">August 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I (Greg) stayed aboard Wings to continue repairs (not very successfully) and show her to prospective buyers, most of whom were just looky-loos until Scott and his father Wes came along. Almost completed the deal until Hurricane Hermine made us postpone. Meanwhile Angie took a trip to San Diego and we spent a lot of time at my cousin Beth's in Sarasota. In fact, we spent a ton of time at Beth's while we were in Florida the whole year, thanks Beth, Jon, Ryan, Kyle, and Michelle!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">September 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By now we had another van and took a roadtrip to Austin, Colorado, Seattle, Houston, and points in between. Did a bunch of camping and caught up with lots of friends and family (thanks Ryders, Wilsons, Terry, Jerry, Theo, Jason and Kay!). Then we drove all the way back to Florida...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">October 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back to Wings to finalize sale to Scott and Wes. Got delayed a couple of days by Hurricane Mathew but wrapped it up on October 11th. After a thorough survey we handed Wings off to Captain Bob who delivered her to Ft Walton Beach, FL where she lives with her new family! Scott and his Dad, Wes, have got her all ship shape again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Very happy with the outcome for Wings. She's 49 years old in 2017!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">November - December 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back to Austin for a visit then off for a week in West Texas before driving </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving with Rose family (thanks Mom, Dave, Pam, and kids!). Onto Massachusetts to visit Jess, Dave, and Nancy (thanks y'all!); then Virginia to see Herb and Gayle (thanks again!) down to the Florida panhandle to retrieve some tools from Scott, back to Houston briefly (thanks MA and Laurent!) and now we're back in Austin. Whew! Currently staying with Lee and Patti, huge thanks to them!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year everyone!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2017</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Uncharted territory</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">...</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-67621088000403339622016-12-25T19:11:00.000-06:002016-12-25T19:11:05.979-06:00Goodbye Bahamas, Thanks for the Memories<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">June 1st, 2016</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bimini to West Palm Beach, Florida</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We get up in darkness to navigate out of the marina and (t</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ypical of our luck lately) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">discover a storm is approaching. By this time Angie has become an amateur meteorologist, consulting multiple weather, wind, and radar apps. We wait an hour to let it rumble on. At least it's not going our direction but hours are precious when you need to travel almost 80 nautical miles and want to reach your destination by dark, well before dark...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">80 nautical miles doesn't sound like much. You can drive your car 80 miles an hour what's the big deal? Well, depends on your boat. There are power boats that blast back and forth across the Gulf Stream just to go fishing for the day. Not ours. Top speed under power and our average sailing speed is 7 knots (which is great for a sailboat). Also, a nautical mile equals 1.15 land miles so we're looking at a full day. With the help of the Gulf Stream current we should make 7 easily and probably more but we plan conservatively, hence the early departure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just getting out of the marina, in the dark, got us sweating. You'd think the entrance would be all lit up and marked. Nope, just piles of dark jagged rocks on either side and a nice little jog to the left at the end. We successfully get out into the small channel and look for the buoys we saw on the way in. Ha! No lights on those either! That just isn't the Bahamian way. Which I can kind of understand. Why invest too much in something that's just going to get carried away in a storm eventually and why would you be out here in the dark anyway? We pass thru a few anchored boats, most of which have their anchor lights on, and one of them appears to be our friends, First Look, but it's too early to hail them. Sadly we never actually met them in person!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bimini is now in our rearview. We head into the darkness almost straight west for a couple of miles until we know we're in deep water and begin to turn slightly northwest. Soon we'll pick up the Gulf Stream current which will help propel us north. The Gulf Stream is a current that runs up the east coast at anywhere from 1-3 knots, depending on the time of year. It can also be closer to Florida or the Bahamas depending on the season. Because of the current running north it's best to cross with a wind direction that cooperates with it. If the wind is blowing against the stream it becomes a washing machine. Basically, never cross when the wind forecast has an N in it. We had waited for an east/southeast breeze. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The wind was light, as we left, but after sunrise it picked up enough that we actually got to haul up the sails! Once we hit the stream we turned northwest and picked up speed. So far so good. Decent wind, mellow waves on the stern, and a nice 2-3 knot kick from the stream.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't remember exactly what time we dropped anchor in West Palm Beach but with all the elements finally working in our favor we made it easily by mid afternoon. Navigating the inlet, ICW markers, and boat traffic was harder than the Gulf Stream but I won't bore you with all that. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We were exhausted but it was a great day and we had succeeded in bringing the 4 of us safely back to Florida. In 2 days Wings would be hauled out for repairs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We owned Wings until October but this was the last time we actually sailed her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was fantastic and somewhat bittersweet to look back upon. We touched 11 knots a few times on the return from Bimini. The fastest she ever went for us and it was effortless and smooth. At the time we didn't know that we'd never </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">get another opportunity to sail her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The last leg...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's equivalent to 12.5 miles per hour! Woohoo!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Land ho!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's a big boat...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We did it!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-69335650158201493412016-12-24T21:37:00.000-06:002016-12-24T21:37:47.798-06:00After Another Rocky Night on "the Bank"...<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">May 30th, 2016</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We're awoken by thunder as a storm passes overhead. We spent the night in the cockpit, not that we got any sleep anyway with the wave action tossing us about all night. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We escape with just a boat bath but there's more squalls in every direction. Our nerves are rattled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's a meteorologist, Chris Parker, that has made his career specializing in trying to forecast the weather for Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean. All the cruisers listen to his daily forecast or, in our case, get it via email, but we haven't had a signal since Providence Island. He's not perfect, that's impossible, but he's better than most and about the only option out here anyway. We don't have an SSB radio to receive his 7am broadcast but our neighbor boat, First Look, does so we check in with them, via VHF, at 7:30 and... no surprise, anything could happen today. Except actually sailing because there's no wind. Same old same old...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With the Yanmar diesel started we haul anchor and turn east towards Bimini. Just a short 8 hours away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most of the day is sunny and uneventful. There's always a thunderhead, or two, or five, on the horizon but they keep their distance. We take turns at the helm, hand steering, since the auto pilot is zapped. It's tedious and the cockpit is hot without any sailing wind. We go to the bow occasionally to get some breeze and watch the bottom go by, Wings' shadow flying beneath us. You can actually pick out starfish on the sea floor it's so clear. The bank is calm and glassy today, a giant, lazy, swimming pool. So unlike last night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First Look turns southeast to head over to Cat Cay Yacht Club for fuel. They plan to anchor for the night after that. We thank them for their company and part ways. We've had enough of anchoring for awhile and continue on to Bimini Sands Marina where we can get a slip for the night or two. Full circle. Bimini Sands is where we checked in to the Bahamas two months earlier. Seems fitting, I suppose. We almost make it but a brief storm catches us for another boat bath. Not bad...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bimini Sands is sort of similar to Hatchet Bay. A salt pond opened up to form a protected marina but much smaller. Also, like Hatchet Bay, it seems to be between heydays but that aside it's comforting to finally be secured to a dock. Floating docks, which are nice because they move up and down with the tide so your boat is always at the same height against the dock. The place also has fuel, a pool, some food, showers, etc. It's surrounded by condos so there's no breeze. It's stifling hot and nearly deserted except for plenty of no-see-ums. Not familiar with no-see-ums? They're a tiny biting insect that appears at dusk, small enough to fit thru window screens, and impervious to bug spray (even the deet stuff). Bimini Sands is swarming with them and they eat us for dinner every night. We're covered in a rash of bites by the time we leave.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again, as in Hatchet Bay we spend the time figuring out a plan, checking weather forecasts, and finalizing our choice of boatyard. Cracker Boy Boatworks in Riviera Beach. We'll enter at the Lake Worth Inlet by West Palm Beach. It's further than we wanted to go but they can haul us almost immediately and with the help of the Gulfstream we should make decent time, weather permitting of course. Crossing the Gulfstream calls for a specific wind direction or none at all. Now we wait...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A predawn thunderstorm actually made for a very pretty sunrise...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And even a rainbow!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most of the day looked like this</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you squint you'll see that blob is a starfish</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back at Bimini Sands Marina</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We took over this out-of-service pool bar as our office.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Next we jump "the Stream"...</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-18989622144809597782016-12-24T15:04:00.002-06:002016-12-24T15:04:52.878-06:00Great Bahama Bank Video<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">May 29th, 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Great Bahama Bank on route to Bimini</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I discovered a video of our second time crossing the bank!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was taken at dusk after we had anchored for the night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This sums it up pretty well...</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy-qY4MQhklRbR3oNvk2kpuRrEd4zYlZkw7zI_RNPtqCkspvN8ghO7H66BskOKqhp9naQcptWHZ0wHatFkNDw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hopefully you could see it. I had to dumb the file way down to get Blogger to take it which is why we don't do much video...</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-80209016006553616982016-12-19T21:30:00.001-06:002016-12-19T21:30:54.161-06:00The Bank<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Providence Island almost to Bimini</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 28th...ish...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ahhh the Bank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're not talking about that kind of "bank", we're referring to the Great Bahama Bank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Basically, a large, underwater platform that surrounds the island of Andros and stretches for miles in all directions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a weird place. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But we'll get back to that...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're now at a familiar anchorage, West End, which is the west end of Providence Island. Nassau is located at the other side. We stopped here to wait for a weather window, for nearly a week, two months ago when we were on route to the Exumas. We have to wait a day or two for weather again. It's the same old story, possible squalls, which we can't predict but we're going to wait for favorable wind, or at least something that's not working against us. There's no point in trying to fight upwind and with the additional bilge pump there's less urgency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This gives me another opportunity to try to troubleshoot some of our electrical problems. We still have no depth sounder which is really disconcerting. It's nice to have a clue how much water is under your boat! Wings is an old boat so she's had a lot of work and modifications done over the years. The depth transducer, that feeds information to the fried Raymarine unit, is almost for certain toast but Wings still has an older stand alone depth gauge as a spare. I was able to get it to power up but it just gives garbled information so the transducer for that also appears to be ruined. After another conversation with Dave, the previous owner, he tells me that there's a third transducer in the engine compartment. He had quit using it because it was a really poor location since it was so close to the rear of the boat. I dig around the spaghetti nest of cables and wiring and find the old transducer cable! I plug it in, fire up the old depth sounder, and...</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nothing. Bummer... The boat will have to be hauled out to replace the transducer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had unhooked the solar panels and the inverter since the day after the lightning. Something must have fused inside because the inverter got hot, I'm talking lava hot! Even without the solar to charge our batteries we're actually doing ok, power-wise, because the fridge is shot, which was our biggest power draw. Lucky us! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm seeing dollar signs... </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Running the diesel, which still has a functional alternator, has been enough to keep the batteries charged and the 12 volt system running.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So we're not doing too bad!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two months ago when we were in this anchorage there must have been at least a dozen boats, now only a few. One of the few is another trimaran called "Faith". Faith is an old Piver Victress and looks like she's got thousands of nautical miles under her keel. We meet the owners, Dave (yep, another Dave) and Debbie, missionaries currently between missions. They've been out for years, maybe a decade or more, have survived hurricanes, and have all kinds of crazy colorful stories. Our story is starting to sound pretty tame, by comparison, but after hearing our tale Dave volunteers to fix or at least slow our leak with "pool putty". I'm hesitant for him to dig around under there but he swears by the stuff...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He gathers a few tools, mixes the putty, suits up with a mask and fins and dives under the boat. Dave is an old salty sailor and for an older dude he can really hold his breath! He digs around the area of the leak to clean it up but it's kind of guess work with the boat in the water. He squishes the epoxy putty into the crack... no discernible change but it's not any worse. I dive under the boat a couple of days later to check it and the gob of putty is gone. Oh well, I appreciate the attempt. Cruisers are like that, we wouldn't have made it this far without so many people's help and generosity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before leaving West End we take the opportunity to get a few provisions and some diesel. The last time we were here we coordinated with a few other cruisers and split a taxi which ended up costing $70! There's no one else to share a cab with this time and there's no way I'm blowing $70 which meant a little hike and thumbing down a ride. Once again a few errands consume almost an entire day but now we're ready to cross the bank and get to Bimini.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We leave at dawn and head east across the Tongue of the Ocean towards the Northwest Channel marker and onto the Bank. The Tongue is deep blue because it's thousands of feet deep. No depth issues here just ships to watch out for. The Great Bahama Bank is about 15 feet deep on average and looks like a swimming pool on a calm day. We're finally following the trail of bread crumbs on the Ipad which gives us some confidence that we won't rub bottom. No wind again so we're motoring. We plunk along until dusk and drop anchor out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by water. I'm curious how much depth we actually have so I don a mask and get in to have a look. More than I thought, at least 10 feet under the keel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't like the bank. At night the tide and wind seem to have an adverse relationship out here and make strange swells that come beam on and toss Wings side to side. The last time we anchored out here we got beat up all night, didn't get any sleep, and our rudder took such a beating we lost our steering... but that's another story. Looks like we're in for a similar night. Not to mention that it's a bit spooky out here all alone. Then, just before dark, another sailboat appears to the south! I hail them on the borrowed handheld VHF and they quickly respond "First Look". We never met First Look but we heard them regularly on the radio when we were in Georgetown. We chat for a bit and decide to tag along with them in the morning since we're both headed towards Bimini. It's nice to have someone within radio range for the night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tomorrow Bimini...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">West End anchorage to the midway point on the Great Bahama Bank enroute to Bimini.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-40103432665513204492016-12-12T16:40:00.001-06:002016-12-12T16:40:04.377-06:00Hatchet Bay<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera, Bahamas</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">May 25-?, 2016</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When your best option is to take shelter at a place called "Hatchet Bay" you might be in deep doodoo...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But sometimes a name is simply a name.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> After a heart to heart conversation with Angie, which included the option to fly her and Kipper back to Florida (which was ixnayed pretty quickly), we left Governor's Harbor and motored 20 miles north to Hatchet Bay. There was no wind. It had blown itself out the night before. Twenty miles doesn't sound like much but this was our first time to take Wings out since the squalls so we were edgy, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">to say the least.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hatchet Bay was originally an enclosed salt pond. In the 1930's a 90-foot opening was dynamited to form a protected bay for a dairy and poultry plantation which thrived for a decade, or two... until a hurricane... or two... and some political turmoil...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">shut it down completely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Which is kind of the story of the Bahamas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hatchet Bay isn't your typical cruiser's destination but it had what we needed. Primarily, protection and just enough services to figure out our next move. Wings' engine was running fine and thankfully the alternator wasn't fried by the lightning and neither were the batteries. We arrived to Hatchet Bay by mid afternoon without any drama...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first person we met was Francis, he runs the Front Porch restaurant. There are some old mooring balls that he rents, which are sketchy, but so was our anchor at this point so we chose the best available and tied on. Francis has mixed reviews among cruisers but he was a saint to us. We spent a couple of days surfing his wifi, drinking rum punch, making calls, having some great food, getting his advice, and he even flagged me down a ride to get some diesel up the road in Gregory Town.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We called all the boat yards in Spanish Wells in an attempt to repair Wings in the Bahamas but everyone was booked or unwilling to take on our electrical problems. Which was probably for the best anyway since we would have had to navigate some unfamiliar water without a depth sounder just to get to Spanish Wells, notorious for being a challenging area even with all your equipment working. We had also lost our Raymarine GPS and chart plotter but, thanks to Angie, we had an IPad loaded with nautical charts and a Bluetooth enabled GPS locator that was independent of the boat's systems and unaffected by the lightning. Angie had been using the IPad about half the time already because it was easier to plot our course than the Raymarine plotter attached to Wings. This meant we could backtrack and pick up our old course from the trip out, at least as far as Bimini.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So we started calling Florida boatyards...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Meanwhile, on Wings, I dug through the spares left by Dave, the previous owner, another saint. Dave was a well prepared guy. I found an extra bilge pump, a switch, a bag of hose clamps, and enough scraps of hose to rig up an extra pump in the aft cabin, closer to the leak, to reduce the load on the main bilge pump. Now we had a pump by the leak running about every 10 minutes so that the main bilge only ran maybe once an hour, depending on conditions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After calling a bunch of boat yards we finally found one in Riviera Beach that could haul Wings out within 2 days of our arrival back in Florida.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now we had a plan!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The plan: sail from Eleuthera 70 nautical miles straight to New Providence Island where we had anchored on our route out from Bimini to the Exumas. There we could pick up our old trail from New Providence across the Bahama Bank to Bimini. After that we would be winging it into Florida but we had the IPad and recent paper charts, thanks to Peter and Helen from One Love (the other lightning boat, which was a total loss so they flew home).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The day we sailed for New Providence we left at dawn so we could see our way out the cut from Hatchet Bay. We were, literally, surrounded by squalls the entire day. On every horizon, there was a storm cell, complete with lightning and audible thunder. We slowed to let some cells pass in front of us and speed up or changed direction to get out of the way of other cells. None of the wind in these storms made it to our sails so we had to motor the whole way. Seventy miles doesn't sound like much but at 7 knots it's a full day especially when you're zig zagging to avoid squalls.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We made it unscathed by late afternoon, followed our old trail into the anchorage, and dropped anchor where we had almost 2 months earlier. Once the anchor was solidly set in familiar sand we toasted with warm shots of good 'ol Ricardo Rum.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hatchet Bay from above. The arrow marks the man-made entrance. We approached from the South. You can't even see it as you approach, luckily a boat was leaving as we arrived.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saint Francis' rum punch at the Front Porch. I could go for one of these right now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Angie dozes...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hatchet Bay was an opportunity to finally catch up on some much needed sleep</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Angie saved our bacon by loading the IPad with charts and having the forethought to bring an extra GPS locator independent of the boat electronics. These are waypoints to reach our old anchorage at the west end of New Providence Island.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hatchet Bay to West End, New Providence</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dawn departure from Hatchet Bay</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Safely at West End as another squall passes.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-83367208649961607292016-12-06T21:05:00.000-06:002016-12-06T21:05:38.935-06:00Why do these things always happen at night...?<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>This is something I wrote after a couple of days of getting hammered by bad weather at an anchorage in the Bahamas. This is a journal entry that I didn't intend to publish but this blog is primarily for us to keep a record for ourselves so here it is. We are safe and sound and so is Wings, with her new family! More on that later...</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Governor's Harbor, Eleuthera, Bahamas</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">May 22-24, 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by Greg</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm sitting in the cockpit as I write this, Angie dozing beside me, Kipper in her lap. He's panting slightly, anxiously, and giving me his best "what the hell are we doing here" look. He's had plenty of opportunity to perfect that look recently. At home we would have never let Kipper lay anywhere but the floor or his own bed. On the boat that's all gone out the window and at the moment he deserves a little tlc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We're weathering another storm. My writing looks shaky and drunk. I wish. The only thing I'm drunk on is sleep deprivation. I'm illuminating the page with a small flashlight, a full moon that just appeared from the clouds, and the occasional flash of lightning. Wings is pitching and rocking in anger and frustration, probably in pain as well. It's been a trying couple of days. No one has had more than a few hours sleep, we're all exhausted, even Wings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've just come back from bucket bailing the aft cabin where she's slowly taking on water. I've unclogged and enlarged the drain holes that lead down to the main bilge where the pump should take care of it. Ang' and I are taking shifts to monitor the leak, bail if needed, and watch our mooring lines. We're riding out this storm on a mooring ball, thank God. The anchor hasn't been anchoring the last couple of days so a mooring is a welcome relief. We caught this one in pitch black darkness just before the storm, lightning flashing on the horizon. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We don't make a habit of grabbing mooring balls, anchoring, sailing, or even moving the boat after sunset. We don't even like to be in the dinghy after dark. The last couple of days have been exceptions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We ran aground today and were struck by lightning the night before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If Wings had emotions I'm sure she'd be shrieking in pain. Our poor boat. There's not an apt way to describe the feeling as you watch your boat listing on a sandbar, standing helplessly by in driving rain. Nor the sheer terror and fear as lightning strikes all around you and finally your mast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the fourth storm at this anchorage, in 2 days, and they're taking a toll on all of us. The boat is a mess; tools everywhere, flashlights, wet clothing, towels, bucket and sponge for bailing, floor pulled up, flip flops, a gas can, and Kipper's tennis ball swirl in the rain filled dinghy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's predawn now and I can finally get a glimpse of the boats around us. Three other sailboats and a little trawler, although it's probably bigger than Wings. A little while ago they were just apparitions with a few twinkling lights getting tossed around along with us. On my left is a large catamaran called "Tribe". Tribe is a serious ocean capable big cruising cat, 60 feet long, and beautiful in a shiny sleek modern way. We met her professional Captain, his fiance, and some of his crew and companions yesterday. They came by to check on us having seen the lightning strike. We weren't the only boat hit either. Our buddy boat "One Love", anchored about a hundred feet from us was also struck, probably by the same bolt of lightning. They're worse off than us. They took a direct hit and the lightning exited thru their hull. They took on water almost waist deep. Fortunately, being a trimaran, the extra hulls kept them afloat. Unfortunately the boat was a total loss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Spike, Tribe's Captain, is in Governor's Harbor to be married. He's already loaned us a handheld VHF radio and portable running lights so we can limp back to Florida or perhaps Spanish Wells for repairs. Terrific guy, we owe him for sure. All our navigation, auto pilot, VHF, running lights, inverter, and even the damn fridge are fried. If we can just get a few days of clear weather we'll make a dash to a boat yard. At the moment we might be stuck on this mooring ball.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Better than the sandbar we found ourselves on yesterday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At dusk a squall blew us into shallows, as the tide went out, and there was a full moon just the day before making it an especially low tide. I take responsibility. We should have relocated to deeper water. I was in a fog all day. Making calls and trying to repair whatever I could after the lightning strike. The night of the lightning strike we dragged anchor but were able to react quickly and keep the boat in relative safety by using the engine to take pressure off the anchor until the storm subsided enough to re-anchor. All in the dead of night, of course. Without the chart plotter we used Google Earth on our phones to maintain our location...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We had no time to react the second time. Suddenly we were just sideways on the sand taking waves on our starboard beam. No time to do anything but get safely off the boat. Once ashore, Angie got a ride up to where the Tribe crew were staying and moments later Spike and another professional Captain, John, both Aussies, were headed towards Wings in their powerful tender to help me. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By now, Wings had turned into the waves and was perched on her keel, rocking side to side.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pulling her off was unsuccessful with the tide still out. They suggested a second anchor which they hauled out and dropped for me in their tender. By now it was dusk and they had to get back to their plans. There was nothing else to do until the tide turned anyway. Poor Wings' exposed rudder was taking a beating as she rocked backwards with the incoming swells but soon she began to lift. That additional anchor was the solution. Within about 30 minutes I was able to pull her off by hand, alternating between the two anchors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fortunately, no damage to the prop. Unfortunately, the rudder hammered a small crack in the hull, hence the bilge water...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With Wings afloat and Angie back on board I dinghied towards the mooring area and marked the last available ball with a lantern so we could find it, and here we sit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I just noticed the trawler moored nearby is named, "Dream On".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pretty appropriate, comical really, since we're supposedly</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"living the dream"...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wonder if they know that's an Aerosmith song?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Kipper, with Wings in the background, back in the States)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the lightning struck, I (Angie) was relatively calm. It was scary of course, but I kept my cool and was able to help navigate the storm. It's silly, but my biggest concern was "how much is all this going to cost?" The next night though, when we ran aground, I lost it. It wasn't the running aground that did it. It was the sudden deafening noise and intensity of the storm. The wind was blowing so hard we couldn't hear each other speak. Being outside in that kind of weather....well, you just don't do that. It's cliche, but it really does sound like a train. And it hurts. You're being pelted with sand and twigs and water and there's a roar in your ears and you just can't think. And of course we're all sleep deprived, making it harder to deal with things and put things in perspective. I saw Greg in shock, which is a shock in itself as he's so cool and in charge most of the time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The other thing that made me lose it was the heartfelt kindness we experienced from complete strangers. Greg has already mentioned Spike and his now-wife Anna. They went above and beyond to help us. Which is even more impressive when you remember that they were there for their wedding! And they had wedding guests to take care of! They've got a lot of good karma coming their way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another woman helped us that night. Her name is Monique and she was driving home with her 3 kids in a tiny hatchback car when she saw us running from the beach to a semi shelter behind a building. She drove over to us and asked us if we were ok. When she heard our tale of woe, she offered us a ride. She put me (soaked to the skin), Kipper (soaked to the skin) and our three backpacks in her tiny car with all her kids and drove us up the hill to where Spike and Anna were staying. And then she stood in the rain and hugged me while I cried (some more). It doesn't seem like that big of a deal now that I'm typing the words, but it meant the world to me then and I will always remember her kindness. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, that's the story of our time in Governor's Harbor. W</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e got the heck out of there first thing in the morning. Maybe someone with more experience could've looked at the weather patterns and known what was coming. For sure someone with more experience would've known that our anchor was not the right one to hold in the grassy bottom of that anchorage. Maybe they would've forced themselves to sleep the day after the lightning strike so sleep deprivation wouldn't have been a factor in future squalls. Or they would've moved anchorages. Or gotten a mooring ball. It's easy to think about would've, could've, should've, but you can't change what happened, you can just learn from it.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-38304382749019444282016-12-04T18:30:00.000-06:002016-12-04T18:44:57.709-06:00Still Here!<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Obviously our blog has been dormant for awhile. Even in these modern go fast times WiFi access is not as reliable and prevalent as you might think and when you do connect it typically doesn't have the juice to upload photos, etc, not via computer anyway. That has pretty much been the case for months so hopefully anyone who cares to know what we're up to has been following the Tumblr posts. Now that we're back in the USofA we'll begin compiling some posts, photos, videos, etc of the last few months of cruising and driving around.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is December of 2016 already! It'</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">s been a crazy year (personally, nationally, you name it) but we're trying to go back in time and get some stuff published before moving on to 2017. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We are safely on land visiting friends and family so if</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> you read anything alarming, it's already happened! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A brief recap: In October 2015 we bought a boat, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">learned to sail it and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">cruised the southwest coast of Florida, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">down to Key West, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">out to the Dry Tortugas, and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">up to Key Largo, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">crossed to the Bahamas for two months, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">had some issues and limped</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> back to Florida to haul the boat out,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">fixed the boat and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">took her across the Okeechobee waterway to western Florida, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">where we kept Wings until we sold her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, we did give "living the dream" a chance, i.e. life aboard a sailboat, with all the promises of s</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">un, fun, sand, turquoise water, umbrella drinks, etc...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That particular "dream", for us, also included</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">lightning, running aground, stress, weight loss, panic attacks, and monetary loss...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Funny thing is now that we've been solidly back on dry land for a while, I (Greg) miss some of it! Angie and Kipper... not so much, at least not yet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We'll land travel for now and see what happens...</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-46450031370569652982016-03-30T20:41:00.009-05:002016-03-30T20:41:21.256-05:00B!M!N!<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We successfully crossed the scary Gulf Stream and made it to Bimini!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's a whole 50 miles from Miami... but a world apart!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Doesn't sound like that bid a deal when you say it like that but it's a big deal to sailors because it can go terribly wrong if the wind and waves don't cooperate. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In our case they did, for the most part. We started out at 2am, to guarantee that we arrived in daylight. Our first time to sail at night so that was new and terrifying, I mean exciting...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were some rough portions but the winds moved from East to Southeast during the day and we were able to sail at least half the time and managed 7-8 knots for a couple of stretches both under sail and on the engine, with the help of the Gulf Stream's current. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We made it in a blistering 11 hours! That would be hilarious to most power boaters but hey, we used less than 5 gallons of diesel!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We'd love to show you a bunch of photos of the sunrise under sail, the ships and freighters we passed, the incredible blue water because it's thousands of feet deep, etc... </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">but the wifi at the marina sucks so that'll have to wait.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the meantime please look at the Tumblr posts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Heading to the Berry Islands next!</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-11602800718361913212016-03-27T14:19:00.000-05:002016-03-27T14:19:26.105-05:00Pennekamp State Park<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We've been hiding out at John Pennekamp State Park for about a week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We heard about the place from another cruising couple (hey Paul and Nancy!) that waited for their Bahamas weather window here too. We've never even technically met them! A friend of a friend (hey Nancy W.!) told them about us and they reached out to us via email. We were hoping to catch up to them but they've been in the Bahamas for almost a month now. Who knows we might pass them on their way back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway, Pennekamp is a fantastic park. There's several beaches, a small marina, dive shop, camping facilities, mooring balls, etc. Mooring balls are similar to anchoring but more reliable in adverse conditions and they're much cheaper than a marina slip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here're some photos of our time here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were some grey days and we rode out a thunderstorm but this was usually our view from WIngs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were always a few other boats in the mooring field but it was never full.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of several nice beaches and good snorkeling.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1oasaDn_1NA/Vvgs3L56EZI/AAAAAAAATb0/vz2Mka2TagcFsbptKK_dyNMx7nKgcK4OA/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1oasaDn_1NA/Vvgs3L56EZI/AAAAAAAATb0/vz2Mka2TagcFsbptKK_dyNMx7nKgcK4OA/s640/4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The little marina is mostly for the park's boats and for use of the boat ramp but there's also 3 slips you can rent. Our boat is a little too wide and you have to back in anyway. We don't do backwards so well. That's "Outta the Loop" (hey Paul and Jackie!) in the back. We've crossed paths 3 times now! They spoiled us to a fantastic steak dinner aboard their beautiful boat, what a treat!</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Il_Q6awYINE/Vvgs4A0DyDI/AAAAAAAATb4/-Rx_0EGttoYj8BpAHNh_XkJ39GRSlsnyg/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Il_Q6awYINE/Vvgs4A0DyDI/AAAAAAAATb4/-Rx_0EGttoYj8BpAHNh_XkJ39GRSlsnyg/s640/5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The park runs snorkel and dive trips out to the many nearby reefs.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7rvPohKWc9w/Vvgs5M_Oz4I/AAAAAAAATb8/HIXaLm0nygsEbYzy-W7cpxRwQTGaUJuRA/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7rvPohKWc9w/Vvgs5M_Oz4I/AAAAAAAATb8/HIXaLm0nygsEbYzy-W7cpxRwQTGaUJuRA/s640/6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kayaks and paddle boards for rent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The visitor's center has a bunch of aquariums with coral and sea life. Note the Caribbean lobster, hopefully we'll be eating some of these very soon...</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5AYU8I0uvnk/Vvgs8nEUjwI/AAAAAAAATcE/IkUsYXuPfcYuH9sg8yO4IA_TD11wU6l-g/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="622" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5AYU8I0uvnk/Vvgs8nEUjwI/AAAAAAAATcE/IkUsYXuPfcYuH9sg8yO4IA_TD11wU6l-g/s640/8.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This huge aquarium is in the center of the visitor's center.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kipper got plenty of land time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've been wearing out the new (to us) dinghy. Little guy requires a few pumps of air daily but is much roomier than the old one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It'll be getting even more use in the Bahamas...</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-68472575471320162582016-03-24T14:34:00.001-05:002016-03-24T14:34:32.119-05:00Bahia Honda State Park<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a great trip to the Tortugas we headed back towards Key West. As has been our luck the weather began to deteriorate as we headed back. No storms just gusty winds and uncomfortable waves. Even though Wings is pretty stable she rocks just as much as anything else if the waves are from the wrong direction. We made it back to Key West and dropped anchor for the night near Stock Island. The anchorage was fine until the next morning when the wind changed direction and the waves built. Studying the various weather forecasts we came to the conclusion that we'd be stuck on the boat for nearly a week! So we called good 'ol Stock Island Marina Village and begged for a slip...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully, they took pity and let us come back. We never planned to spend so much time in marinas but sometimes there's no choice if you want to maintain your sanity. Another week slipped away but it was time well spent. We got to see some family, gather more Bahamas documents, more prep, and talk to a lot of other cruisers. We've met some great people that have been incredibly helpful. We also scored a deal on a new (to us) dinghy right in the marina! We're still using the same engine but it works much better on the new hard bottom dinghy compared to the soft roll-up we were using.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pdHOLzI-xSk/VvQ6u4HP4kI/AAAAAAAATak/SsrBBM7YMOYzqhScB3PYVeXMi-OznefXA/s1600/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pdHOLzI-xSk/VvQ6u4HP4kI/AAAAAAAATak/SsrBBM7YMOYzqhScB3PYVeXMi-OznefXA/s640/1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While at the marina we had a nice motor yacht beside us that had these blue lights, under the swim step, illuminating the water. The bright cluster on the left, in the distance, is the fleet of shrimp boats. Even they weren't going out.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9WeC_FIJORQ/VvQ6ztM4TkI/AAAAAAAATas/Jx-uStrojTA3at_SgOYcoEOTVU4hO4dnw/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9WeC_FIJORQ/VvQ6ztM4TkI/AAAAAAAATas/Jx-uStrojTA3at_SgOYcoEOTVU4hO4dnw/s640/2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally the day came and we were free again!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Except for all the crab pots. Zoom in, you'll see them.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-msVJpQp7F9M/VvQ6yo81CzI/AAAAAAAATao/-JSSDw1XCs0PTviABru-7RSbsvK5kzBOA/s1600/3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-msVJpQp7F9M/VvQ6yo81CzI/AAAAAAAATao/-JSSDw1XCs0PTviABru-7RSbsvK5kzBOA/s640/3.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Crab pot watch...</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0I4-WHBPG30/VvQ6795RP2I/AAAAAAAATa4/HY6y0j2X8JQ7YgfVgq0rOw7DXYaaevp0g/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0I4-WHBPG30/VvQ6795RP2I/AAAAAAAATa4/HY6y0j2X8JQ7YgfVgq0rOw7DXYaaevp0g/s640/4.jpg" width="580" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We anchored at Bahia Honda State Park for two nights. It's a great spot. We even found a grassy patch for Kipper which is a big deal these days.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8daVo2n9SiY/VvQ68eqtLgI/AAAAAAAATa0/aV1EVdVJ7g0QBTbfcFDmHOYaveJActThQ/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8daVo2n9SiY/VvQ68eqtLgI/AAAAAAAATa0/aV1EVdVJ7g0QBTbfcFDmHOYaveJActThQ/s640/5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Met some of the locals...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also met another cruising couple on "Outta the Loop", the boat anchored in front of Wings. We had anchored near them at the Dry Tortugas but never had an opportunity to meet them. Great people and we just ran into them again at Pennekamp!</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kuLCP51acAk/VvQ7ADH2wpI/AAAAAAAATa8/o8KQp7taNSc9Shz2Rd_8pjdXGv-XYvhBw/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kuLCP51acAk/VvQ7ADH2wpI/AAAAAAAATa8/o8KQp7taNSc9Shz2Rd_8pjdXGv-XYvhBw/s640/7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition to the great beaches and snorkeling Bahia Honda is also known for this section of the old Flagler railroad bridge that dates back to the early 1900's. Most of the railway was destroyed in the 1935 hurricane. This section was reused for car traffic by adding a concrete deck on the top of the trestle until the "new" road was built, on the right. It's scary looking to say the least. One small section, to the left of the removed section (for sailboats...), has been restored for pedestrians to take in the view. The anchorage is between the two bridges.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a beautiful spot, go there!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On to Pennekamp State Park...</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-83324027039800719692016-03-23T18:41:00.000-05:002016-03-23T18:41:04.720-05:00Dry Tortugas - Fort Jefferson<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've been remiss in keeping the blog updated due to intermittent wifi. Hopefully anyone interested has figured out how to follow the Tumblr updates, they're much easier since they can be done with our phones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're currently at Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo waiting for a weather window to go to the Bahamas. We think we see it on the horizon but more on that another time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After leaving Stock Island we headed West to the Dry Tortugas where Fort Jefferson is located. Great trip and quite a place. A bit surreal that it's even there at all. The fort was never completed but it saw use as a refueling station for coal burning steam ships and a prison, among other things. It's most notable resident was Dr Samuel Mudd who was imprisoned there for treating John Wilkes Booth's broken ankle after he had assassinated Lincoln. He was eventually pardoned after taking over as the fort's doctor when Yellow Fever swept thru the population killing the original doctor. The history of the place is fascinating and overall pretty horrible... but it sure is beautiful now!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enjoy some photos!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The trip out was fantastic and we actually got to sail the entire way.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rnqbrCeNF0Y/VvMgePTPZ1I/AAAAAAAATYo/fQYJxEhqg5sDpBOXoLyTDTTJ6hC99WqYQ/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="602" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rnqbrCeNF0Y/VvMgePTPZ1I/AAAAAAAATYo/fQYJxEhqg5sDpBOXoLyTDTTJ6hC99WqYQ/s640/2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The conditions were ideal.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cW7oeVtbbgg/VvMgirpRyOI/AAAAAAAATYs/Z15pSbpSP2A1PPAjo9j-v7STal27bF27A/s1600/3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cW7oeVtbbgg/VvMgirpRyOI/AAAAAAAATYs/Z15pSbpSP2A1PPAjo9j-v7STal27bF27A/s640/3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We anchored the first night at the Marquesas about 20, or so, miles from Key West.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These homemade Cuban refugee boats are all over the beach. The ingenuity is pretty impressive but looking at some makes me wonder how many didn't make it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qC36PtOXdAE/VvMgjo8artI/AAAAAAAATYw/cycZ9f_R1XMVqv0xlbZbKLZO-xVw8YfNQ/s1600/4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qC36PtOXdAE/VvMgjo8artI/AAAAAAAATYw/cycZ9f_R1XMVqv0xlbZbKLZO-xVw8YfNQ/s640/4.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some are better than others and this one looked like it could make another trip.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UMAHp-WW4qU/VvMgldMNdSI/AAAAAAAATY0/jNI_q5foYZAzLFZRaoFngBcqrAuP4yQ0Q/s1600/5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UMAHp-WW4qU/VvMgldMNdSI/AAAAAAAATY0/jNI_q5foYZAzLFZRaoFngBcqrAuP4yQ0Q/s640/5.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next day we reached the Dry Tortugas. Angie stands at the entrance over the moat. Dr Mudd's cell was those small windows over the Sally Port.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6y-m12Q_4eU/VvMgmvwGQFI/AAAAAAAATY4/B4PvrF01GTkRr6uudmarc967fHkMrR6OA/s1600/6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6y-m12Q_4eU/VvMgmvwGQFI/AAAAAAAATY4/B4PvrF01GTkRr6uudmarc967fHkMrR6OA/s640/6.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's a lot of brick! The moat has suffered some damage over the decades but is overall intact. Shouldn't there be sharks in it or something....?</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cpWcs1IIP1s/VvMgpmofN-I/AAAAAAAATZA/ub9xLNCN-hYGPFYuT_00fTuOf7S6aVWdw/s1600/7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cpWcs1IIP1s/VvMgpmofN-I/AAAAAAAATZA/ub9xLNCN-hYGPFYuT_00fTuOf7S6aVWdw/s640/7.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Huh, what's that?</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OTKReOlSrSY/VvMgpQ0_AzI/AAAAAAAATY8/zxqVLcTBLeMejx9QmMaCjw9-Ax6nXYcFg/s1600/8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OTKReOlSrSY/VvMgpQ0_AzI/AAAAAAAATY8/zxqVLcTBLeMejx9QmMaCjw9-Ax6nXYcFg/s640/8.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Uh, seriously, what is that!?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a crocodile!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right after this photo was taken he swam thru a breach under the wall into the moat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The photo is deceiving, he's at least 6 feet long. He's been nicknamed Oscar. The theory is that he was blown out in a storm and is stuck there. So far he's behaved and hasn't bothered anyone...</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ttAZc3kHMbQ/VvMgs8IqBVI/AAAAAAAATZI/rEvfkMq-x_EUnT2WZhKKLVOy_sgHfB8uw/s1600/10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ttAZc3kHMbQ/VvMgs8IqBVI/AAAAAAAATZI/rEvfkMq-x_EUnT2WZhKKLVOy_sgHfB8uw/s640/10.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The moat surrounds the entire complex.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A ferry comes from Key West everyday with passengers and brings a little bit of civilization for a few hours. There's food, ice, a bar, and outdoor showers on the stern. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's about a dozen primitive campsites on the island and the campers arrive via this ferry.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cJb2Vbzs7BY/VvMgvuitw9I/AAAAAAAATZQ/BC6jw7Sf5x0zho2VAv4Lxo_BDot6hDTew/s1600/12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cJb2Vbzs7BY/VvMgvuitw9I/AAAAAAAATZQ/BC6jw7Sf5x0zho2VAv4Lxo_BDot6hDTew/s640/12.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you really want to get there in a hurry this seaplane makes 3 or 4 trips a day. He passed us at least that many times while we were on route! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the ferry and seaplane leave the place gets pretty quiet. The campers and boaters have the entire fort to themselves.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k_b4RhWmhjU/VvMgw90RU8I/AAAAAAAATZU/u81O-3qzQ9wXZUEln76Mb6Z4KG1M1B5wA/s1600/13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k_b4RhWmhjU/VvMgw90RU8I/AAAAAAAATZU/u81O-3qzQ9wXZUEln76Mb6Z4KG1M1B5wA/s640/13.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note the stalactites and stalagmites gradually forming as rain water leaches the lime out of the masonry.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_Se2IXoowPo/VvMgySGQyRI/AAAAAAAATZY/aPMIPq0m7roYKW6AOunlO_4fi5nMVgv3A/s1600/14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_Se2IXoowPo/VvMgySGQyRI/AAAAAAAATZY/aPMIPq0m7roYKW6AOunlO_4fi5nMVgv3A/s640/14.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Atop the walls the view is pretty incredible.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hMrhWsLATbw/VvMg0B-TpsI/AAAAAAAATZc/XY1Yarur3d0cBwJs40XXNGYZ8uLoyRM5w/s1600/15.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hMrhWsLATbw/VvMg0B-TpsI/AAAAAAAATZc/XY1Yarur3d0cBwJs40XXNGYZ8uLoyRM5w/s640/15.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wings is among the boats anchored in the background.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QWK9VBCjfXA/VvMg4EfTonI/AAAAAAAATZo/bgTyjh8WdLwaFKoaNf1JcftG4VLNv9pdA/s1600/18.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QWK9VBCjfXA/VvMg4EfTonI/AAAAAAAATZo/bgTyjh8WdLwaFKoaNf1JcftG4VLNv9pdA/s640/18.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A couple of miles away is Loggerhead Key with 150 foot tall lighthouse built about the same time as the fort.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TUDQr87M4jE/VvMg5wZUWhI/AAAAAAAATZs/Bg3H05YI4cc_yEi49fD6exhDwIrJ81GVg/s1600/19.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TUDQr87M4jE/VvMg5wZUWhI/AAAAAAAATZs/Bg3H05YI4cc_yEi49fD6exhDwIrJ81GVg/s640/19.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's out of service and can't be climbed due to the iron stairs and infrastructure rusting away.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-76PgbxAP57k/VvMg7awFV3I/AAAAAAAATZw/aOgiUe__lhkpuVo2QbrscnKsIAhQNtipw/s1600/20.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-76PgbxAP57k/VvMg7awFV3I/AAAAAAAATZw/aOgiUe__lhkpuVo2QbrscnKsIAhQNtipw/s640/20.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did I mention it's built of brick!?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The morning before we left the anchorage was like glass...</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vZR340lB5tY/VvMhBUoj4QI/AAAAAAAATZ8/QNspsmf-_kIR4kXdwMtsYegHRB1OH9Ccw/s1600/22.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vZR340lB5tY/VvMhBUoj4QI/AAAAAAAATZ8/QNspsmf-_kIR4kXdwMtsYegHRB1OH9Ccw/s640/22.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where does the sky start?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nothing West of here until Mexico...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We anchored just past the Marquesas on the return trip which unfortunately was not as smooth going as the trip out. For now we're safely on a mooring at Pennekamp.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More about all that another time!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-79090987171729775912016-02-29T15:12:00.000-06:002016-02-29T15:13:39.752-06:00Cutting the cord!<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hallelujah! We're leaving the marina!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We might just go around the corner and drop anchor but at least we're cutting the cord and moving out. We have several options. We'll probably do all of them eventually so it doesn't really matter what order they happen in. We'll just let the weather continue to dictate what we do, or rather, DON'T do. Dry Tortugas, Middle and Upper Keys, and the Bahamas are the short list but we'll see how far we get. We finally have Kipper's pet permit from the Bahamas so we just need to get him checked by a Vet and get a form from them. The Vet form is only good for ten days so we'll have to commit to a weather window, visit the Vet, and get over there! Fingers crossed...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's a few photos of what we've been up to in the meantime. Sorry they got a bit fuzzy going from phone to email to computer to blog... there's probably a better way to do this...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lot's of beautiful sunsets</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boat Maintenance</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MRN9svbmTCQ/VtSsatkrcqI/AAAAAAAATWk/X8ksNX_GPBc/s1600/3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MRN9svbmTCQ/VtSsatkrcqI/AAAAAAAATWk/X8ksNX_GPBc/s640/3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A nearby botanical garden has a collection of these Cuban refugee boats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pretty impressive ingenuity went into making some of these. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were lots of wooden boats but also several of these foam constructed types. Someone used tarps to give it shape and reinforced it with rebar. That's the engine sticking out, borrowed from a Fiat car and mated up to a propeller!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We loooove our boat but sometimes miss the simplicity of camper van travel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seems like every time we turn around we're being taunted by a cool van!</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oYCTZ4PZJAU/VtSsbYHemTI/AAAAAAAATWw/MhpX_BR_JSk/s1600/5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oYCTZ4PZJAU/VtSsbYHemTI/AAAAAAAATWw/MhpX_BR_JSk/s640/5.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Checked out the downtown art festival with friends, Dave and Wendy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cool tree</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Amigos Tacos</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Go here if you visit</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We participated in the "Wrecker's Race" as crew on our friends, Joe & Lisa's boat, "Borrowed Horse"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Great fun! It's a treat to see so many great boats especially the classic schooners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They really fly!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also, spent some time with family (thanks Christy, Paul, and Kitty!), got our tax docs off to our CPA, and some other constructive stuff while here. All in all, time well spent. It's been especially nice to meet experienced cruisers, gather information, and get all sorts of good advice. It's a great community.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We'll continue to do more frequent updates on Tumblr, whenever we have phone signal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cheers to all!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-58143846560660526492016-02-13T10:27:00.000-06:002016-02-13T10:27:01.394-06:00Stuck Island...<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're still in Key West, technically Stock Island, the neighboring island.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I like to call it "Stuck Island" because we can't leave until the weather is absolutely perfect, which might never happen! It's a nice place to be stuck so I'm not complaining. We have everything we need and are learning a lot talking to experienced cruisers. Mainly that our timing is wrong to attempt the Bahamas and the weather pattern has been unusual on top of that. In the meantime we're reading cruising guides and gathering all the documentation that we didn't know we needed. There's a decal for the boat, a boater's card for us, a Bahamian permit for Kipper, and we're waiting for our USCG documentation paperwork, for Wings, to catch up with us. The marina has been very accommodating, considering we didn't have a reservation, and this is the busy season. We have to change slips occasionally but they always find somewhere to put us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's some photos of where we're spending most of our time:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of the marina looks like this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of the local charter catamarans and fishing boats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's also a fleet of shrimp boats nearby...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...and a boat yard across the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've been watching this Wharram designed "Tiki 30" take shape over in the boat yard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The owner built it from scratch over a year and just launched it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the other end of the spectrum are yachts such as "Erica" from New Zealand. 179 feet long, 130 foot tall mast, and a 15 foot deep keel...</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vgcnkxS0tBM/Vr9WSJgufcI/AAAAAAAATMc/LaArgYp_29I/s1600/IMG_0228.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vgcnkxS0tBM/Vr9WSJgufcI/AAAAAAAATMc/LaArgYp_29I/s640/IMG_0228.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...and the mega motor yacht, "Atomic".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teak decks, very classy...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's a dog park...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...a community garden with this cool rain water cistern...</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3fBUyfFx_tc/Vr9XtWSHx_I/AAAAAAAATM4/BZxqeppoR04/s1600/IMG_0251.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3fBUyfFx_tc/Vr9XtWSHx_I/AAAAAAAATM4/BZxqeppoR04/s640/IMG_0251.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...and a flock of Guinea Hens?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, feral roosters and hens are everywhere, it wouldn't be Key West without them!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-35278278922378676852016-02-03T21:18:00.000-06:002016-02-03T21:18:05.547-06:00Punta Gorda to Key West<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We left Punta Gorda on January 24th and arrived in Key West February 2nd.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suffice it to say we took our time doing our first 200 or so mile sail. A distance that could have been driven in a little over 5 hours or sailed in a full day by someone that isn't afraid to sail after dark. We're not there yet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We experienced rain, fog, thunder, and lightening. Large waves and heavy wind that were scary, I won't lie. We were forced to move a couple of times from anchorages that became exposed to wind and waves (see #3). </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've gotten really good at handling the anchor and we're still married.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We learned a lot on the way:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. This is hard</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. This isn't easy</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. You can't trust any of the weather forecasts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. The paper charts and even the electronic ones aren't trustworthy either</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. There's a lot of random stuff randomly floating about (or just under the surface)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Florida waters, at least on the West coast, are SHALLOW</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Wings is very forgiving and we're so glad she only drafts 3.5 feet...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are now safely docked in Stock Island Marina, taking a break, and enjoying our time in Key West. We'll be doing boat maintenance, provisioning, and deciding where to go next.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please enjoy some photos from the cruise!</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R6rCL_4KH3k/VrK6YJmroLI/AAAAAAAATKQ/u8xgL4yvzLo/s1600/1Angieathelm.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R6rCL_4KH3k/VrK6YJmroLI/AAAAAAAATKQ/u8xgL4yvzLo/s640/1Angieathelm.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Angie at the helm with first mate KP</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CpXNwZCp7Vg/VrK6Z_6bLOI/AAAAAAAATKU/Ee86eha2K7c/s1600/2wingssails.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CpXNwZCp7Vg/VrK6Z_6bLOI/AAAAAAAATKU/Ee86eha2K7c/s640/2wingssails.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We love our candy cane sail!</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hJjg4tbVyfw/VrK6bTTEIGI/AAAAAAAATKY/k2pxG4Zk46k/s1600/3Angiedingy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hJjg4tbVyfw/VrK6bTTEIGI/AAAAAAAATKY/k2pxG4Zk46k/s640/3Angiedingy.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our dinghy is not up to the task...</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E_Nhh7RmDQg/VrK6cxCm--I/AAAAAAAATKc/0zVok-tHmHQ/s1600/4Formulas.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E_Nhh7RmDQg/VrK6cxCm--I/AAAAAAAATKc/0zVok-tHmHQ/s400/4Formulas.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I'd known about all the math I might not have done this. The other fun math is estimating our diesel fuel consumption with our goofy fuel gauge. We're getting pretty good at using the hour gauge like an odometer but it's not a perfect science.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DE8tS7kW-X0/VrK6egUKa5I/AAAAAAAATKg/XcCVr3yGgTI/s1600/5Kippernap.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DE8tS7kW-X0/VrK6egUKa5I/AAAAAAAATKg/XcCVr3yGgTI/s640/5Kippernap.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kipper napping underway.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He actually likes to sail and prefers it over running the engine.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kMLz7obEJA0/VrK6gFYwhWI/AAAAAAAATKk/lyBzZVpwd4Q/s1600/6Wingssailandsun.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kMLz7obEJA0/VrK6gFYwhWI/AAAAAAAATKk/lyBzZVpwd4Q/s640/6Wingssailandsun.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had some great days!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But some grey ones too.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T0oXmwMfmp4/VrK6i8v5wbI/AAAAAAAATKs/x_vcimIBe9U/s1600/8Wingseverglades.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T0oXmwMfmp4/VrK6i8v5wbI/AAAAAAAATKs/x_vcimIBe9U/s640/8Wingseverglades.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We hunkered down in the Everglades for a couple of days waiting out some bad weather.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HkBlox0GWEs/VrK6lHtqCII/AAAAAAAATKw/Mey04OxbD38/s1600/9Angiedingyrain.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HkBlox0GWEs/VrK6lHtqCII/AAAAAAAATKw/Mey04OxbD38/s640/9Angiedingyrain.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But a little rain doesn't keep us out of the dinghy!</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-178i0ZmQxMA/VrK6nPXLV_I/AAAAAAAATK0/09xXTQefe88/s1600/10Gregdingy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-178i0ZmQxMA/VrK6nPXLV_I/AAAAAAAATK0/09xXTQefe88/s640/10Gregdingy.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It really doesn't matter if it rains because our dinghy is always a wet ride...</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8WcJhvp3kVs/VrK6o2mlVlI/AAAAAAAATK4/ziCinimVZe4/s1600/11Sunset.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8WcJhvp3kVs/VrK6o2mlVlI/AAAAAAAATK4/ziCinimVZe4/s640/11Sunset.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anchored at Shark River. Our first sunset, at anchor, without any land in the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Too cloudy for a green flash but we'll have plenty more chances.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wGmtgZ0TWzc/VrK6qWl6xAI/AAAAAAAATK8/u7NCZOwdJdA/s1600/12buoybomb.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wGmtgZ0TWzc/VrK6qWl6xAI/AAAAAAAATK8/u7NCZOwdJdA/s640/12buoybomb.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We must have passed a thousand of these crab trap buoys, no joke, there was a mine field of these things almost everywhere we went. We got pretty good at adjusting our course to avoid them...</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xbPdONfYWs0/VrK6sM5dAgI/AAAAAAAATLA/7BLjHygPqLI/s1600/13proptangle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xbPdONfYWs0/VrK6sM5dAgI/AAAAAAAATLA/7BLjHygPqLI/s640/13proptangle.jpg" width="478" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But we didn't miss them all!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one got wrapped up in our prop and we had another one get caught in the rudder when we were under sail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good times</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lcdTuUBawj4/VrK6uN35H3I/AAAAAAAATLE/c-DTO359v5U/s1600/14Angieondeck.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lcdTuUBawj4/VrK6uN35H3I/AAAAAAAATLE/c-DTO359v5U/s640/14Angieondeck.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anchored at Turkey Key. This was a good one. Well protected with a beach nearby for KP.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bTox22rXJl8/VrK6v2eqA1I/AAAAAAAATLI/tbZCr_NYakY/s1600/15sevenmilebridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bTox22rXJl8/VrK6v2eqA1I/AAAAAAAATLI/tbZCr_NYakY/s640/15sevenmilebridge.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The underpass at 7 Mile Bridge. We made it!</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HL-hYXLf1K8/VrK6xF86huI/AAAAAAAATLM/KSSgeqByNgk/s1600/16wingssunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HL-hYXLf1K8/VrK6xF86huI/AAAAAAAATLM/KSSgeqByNgk/s640/16wingssunset.jpg" width="478" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More to come...</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-75134233348803090922015-10-27T18:01:00.000-05:002015-10-27T18:01:48.439-05:00WINGS!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Most of our family and friends are aware that we've been looking at boats. It was our goal when we left Austin to find a safe, capable, cruising sailboat on a budget. We decided early on not to be too chatty about it since we don't have a clue what we're doing. We've done extensive research, looked at dozens over the last few months, from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay, and it's been challenging.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3KFEpnFfqS0/Vi_x-ksgnxI/AAAAAAAASlc/d00u87GNApM/s1600/2015-10-06%2B18.12.53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="393" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3KFEpnFfqS0/Vi_x-ksgnxI/AAAAAAAASlc/d00u87GNApM/s640/2015-10-06%2B18.12.53.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: large;">All the while travelling around, camping occasionally, but mostly inflicting ourselves on unsuspecting family and friends who have graciously opened their homes, fridges, and liquor cabinets to us.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5XeSdB5vGa4/Vi_zQfLEd5I/AAAAAAAASlw/x9QEP3i9WcM/s1600/2015-08-07%2B16.39.45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5XeSdB5vGa4/Vi_zQfLEd5I/AAAAAAAASlw/x9QEP3i9WcM/s640/2015-08-07%2B16.39.45.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NkfMAOted-k/Vi_zSj7x0zI/AAAAAAAASmE/ljJkVkDwLDw/s1600/2015-08-19%2B13.37.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NkfMAOted-k/Vi_zSj7x0zI/AAAAAAAASmE/ljJkVkDwLDw/s640/2015-08-19%2B13.37.13.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WRVoNJFFa_Y/Vi_zS_xZrvI/AAAAAAAASmI/vAD_aC4RW8Y/s1600/2015-08-22%2B13.07.45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WRVoNJFFa_Y/Vi_zS_xZrvI/AAAAAAAASmI/vAD_aC4RW8Y/s640/2015-08-22%2B13.07.45.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Aj9Qt5GfB-A/Vi_zTFDNVTI/AAAAAAAASmQ/KhA10gLFgpg/s1600/2015-08-28%2B15.59.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Aj9Qt5GfB-A/Vi_zTFDNVTI/AAAAAAAASmQ/KhA10gLFgpg/s640/2015-08-28%2B15.59.56.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AGpjOfyxdc0/Vi_zUXw1LHI/AAAAAAAASmY/v6Wjecm6yi8/s1600/2015-09-07%2B20.19.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AGpjOfyxdc0/Vi_zUXw1LHI/AAAAAAAASmY/v6Wjecm6yi8/s640/2015-09-07%2B20.19.37.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mLUtqS29Pug/Vi_zU7kcjAI/AAAAAAAASmg/eW9Z2k4bzCM/s1600/2015-09-14%2B10.01.15-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mLUtqS29Pug/Vi_zU7kcjAI/AAAAAAAASmg/eW9Z2k4bzCM/s640/2015-09-14%2B10.01.15-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YO9r_RhEfBI/Vi_zWxZM1aI/AAAAAAAASm4/hewMN3FO8jU/s1600/2015-09-14%2B12.08.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YO9r_RhEfBI/Vi_zWxZM1aI/AAAAAAAASm4/hewMN3FO8jU/s640/2015-09-14%2B12.08.15.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U5v_aRdQBEc/Vi_zW9JA2RI/AAAAAAAASm0/ghy2YtuZIl4/s1600/2015-09-16%2B21.22.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U5v_aRdQBEc/Vi_zW9JA2RI/AAAAAAAASm0/ghy2YtuZIl4/s640/2015-09-16%2B21.22.27.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IvtRk_bf8PI/Vi_zW8FCW4I/AAAAAAAASm8/Y5O35s_V-v0/s1600/2015-10-04%2B12.34.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IvtRk_bf8PI/Vi_zW8FCW4I/AAAAAAAASm8/Y5O35s_V-v0/s640/2015-10-04%2B12.34.19.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: large;">We started off wanting a catamaran for the living space and stability but quickly discovered that everything in our price range was low quality, a project (or both), and we were even discouraged from buying a couple by their sellers, stating that they just didn't sail that well.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m3X8HRqhETQ/Vi_06fe1MpI/AAAAAAAASnQ/DFuJgLEYwqc/s1600/2015-09-20%2B15.19.52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="634" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m3X8HRqhETQ/Vi_06fe1MpI/AAAAAAAASnQ/DFuJgLEYwqc/s640/2015-09-20%2B15.19.52.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v8TLNhtJl6Y/Vi_0689cGvI/AAAAAAAASnU/wYUlGbZqKf8/s1600/2015-10-03%2B11.25.20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v8TLNhtJl6Y/Vi_0689cGvI/AAAAAAAASnU/wYUlGbZqKf8/s640/2015-10-03%2B11.25.20.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P1RIEq2dldA/Vi_09LbB0jI/AAAAAAAASng/uZZT4GkjaVw/s1600/2015-10-06%2B14.53.09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P1RIEq2dldA/Vi_09LbB0jI/AAAAAAAASng/uZZT4GkjaVw/s640/2015-10-06%2B14.53.09.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-obPoL-gjsj4/Vi_0-ViKKNI/AAAAAAAASno/FdH1JZTESLc/s1600/2015-10-06%2B14.53.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="524" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-obPoL-gjsj4/Vi_0-ViKKNI/AAAAAAAASno/FdH1JZTESLc/s640/2015-10-06%2B14.53.41.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QyoScLuxxrI/Vi_0-uLx7EI/AAAAAAAASns/pisOiAIoIUg/s1600/2015-10-10%2B11.01.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QyoScLuxxrI/Vi_0-uLx7EI/AAAAAAAASns/pisOiAIoIUg/s640/2015-10-10%2B11.01.27.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: large;">So we looked at monohulls. Many more options in our budget and we even saw a couple that would have been fine but nothing inspired us.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uGVjZEm2ggo/Vi_2x8rOjJI/AAAAAAAASn8/k5uGtpUdUeQ/s1600/2015-09-23%2B11.25.57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uGVjZEm2ggo/Vi_2x8rOjJI/AAAAAAAASn8/k5uGtpUdUeQ/s640/2015-09-23%2B11.25.57.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vJCZj4ct614/Vi_2x6YAhQI/AAAAAAAASoA/dgMMZ-Zkhh4/s1600/2015-09-27%2B13.15.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vJCZj4ct614/Vi_2x6YAhQI/AAAAAAAASoA/dgMMZ-Zkhh4/s640/2015-09-27%2B13.15.14.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RTiyYnLrDbA/Vi_3YY_NUNI/AAAAAAAASok/eXJCj5FLsJc/s1600/2015-09-28%2B14.35.08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RTiyYnLrDbA/Vi_3YY_NUNI/AAAAAAAASok/eXJCj5FLsJc/s640/2015-09-28%2B14.35.08.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GwiLCy894MA/Vi_3BttxOoI/AAAAAAAASoU/A7bTZlnjG6k/s1600/2015-09-29%2B12.59.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GwiLCy894MA/Vi_3BttxOoI/AAAAAAAASoU/A7bTZlnjG6k/s640/2015-09-29%2B12.59.13.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Fkdug6TnR8/Vi_3OxXOEtI/AAAAAAAASoc/8sAKmBuk9Ow/s1600/2015-10-08%2B12.24.33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Fkdug6TnR8/Vi_3OxXOEtI/AAAAAAAASoc/8sAKmBuk9Ow/s640/2015-10-08%2B12.24.33.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hxDkU6BU6zA/Vi_3jQd0TcI/AAAAAAAASos/OryLP_ar5es/s1600/2015-10-10%2B11.35.36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hxDkU6BU6zA/Vi_3jQd0TcI/AAAAAAAASos/OryLP_ar5es/s640/2015-10-10%2B11.35.36.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then we stumbled on a third option...</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: large;">a sort of hybrid of mono-hull and catamaran... </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-527UtHRfHLk/Vi_6-dDs1CI/AAAAAAAASo4/ftSj2D1ATn4/s1600/2015-10-14%2B09.58.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-527UtHRfHLk/Vi_6-dDs1CI/AAAAAAAASo4/ftSj2D1ATn4/s640/2015-10-14%2B09.58.41.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: large;">Trimaran!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is our boat:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Wings"</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_kVVcGu_Kc/Vi_6_LnfpYI/AAAAAAAASo8/opDlo6HHKM8/s1600/2015-10-19%2B08.53.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="526" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_kVVcGu_Kc/Vi_6_LnfpYI/AAAAAAAASo8/opDlo6HHKM8/s640/2015-10-19%2B08.53.10.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-32EruqjCsAo/Vi_6_wFRdoI/AAAAAAAASpM/BdEST8ewmms/s1600/2015-10-19%2B08.53.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-32EruqjCsAo/Vi_6_wFRdoI/AAAAAAAASpM/BdEST8ewmms/s640/2015-10-19%2B08.53.14.jpg" width="508" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sd41hdsBPiY/Vi_6_4fSqvI/AAAAAAAASpg/P4bSznCn82o/s1600/2015-10-21%2B17.54.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sd41hdsBPiY/Vi_6_4fSqvI/AAAAAAAASpg/P4bSznCn82o/s640/2015-10-21%2B17.54.06.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The deal is done!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Couldn't have purchased her from nicer people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thanks </span><span style="font-size: large;">Dave and Dottie!</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QmrM3Mh3Sdw/Vi_7AqopAhI/AAAAAAAASpk/0oJxMIHLCck/s1600/2015-10-26%2B14.32.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QmrM3Mh3Sdw/Vi_7AqopAhI/AAAAAAAASpk/0oJxMIHLCck/s640/2015-10-26%2B14.32.37.jpg" width="446" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, you're all wondering how Kipper is adjusting. No worries, he's adapting just fine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">More to come...</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-84740799710942799342015-08-23T20:40:00.000-05:002015-08-23T20:40:15.802-05:00Camping and kayaking in western Virginia<div style="text-align: center;">
August 23, 2105</div>
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We broke away from the Chesapeake area for some quality time with other family members, further inland to the west. </div>
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First up, camping with my brother Vince and sister-in-law Ramsey at Hungry Mother State Park in western Virginia. They were in the area for a wedding and took the opportunity to go on a 2-week camping/B&B tour of the area. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8ygLm5ukkEY/VdptlRFSt8I/AAAAAAAASF4/kx0fXQj6gto/s1600/V%2Bbuilds%2Bfire.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8ygLm5ukkEY/VdptlRFSt8I/AAAAAAAASF4/kx0fXQj6gto/s640/V%2Bbuilds%2Bfire.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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The campground was very nice and was our first chance to actually camp! The Mystery Machine did very well, even providing some shelter during the frequent rains. Fortunately, Vince is a wizard at making camp fires, managing to keep it lit for dinner and warmth. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f-S8ga6B8_g/VdptlVurpTI/AAAAAAAASF8/eSEFV-7vpsE/s1600/Resting%2BAfter%2BHike.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f-S8ga6B8_g/VdptlVurpTI/AAAAAAAASF8/eSEFV-7vpsE/s640/Resting%2BAfter%2BHike.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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We hiked up to Molly's Knob. It was quite a hike, not too long, but very steep. Here we are, resting before our descent. The view was worth it!</div>
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After saying goodbye to V & R (thanks for a great visit, y'all!), we headed just a short ways south to Greg's cousin's house near Independence, VA, on the North Carolina border. Steve has quite a spread on some land overlooking the New River. He's grows all he can eat plus some, has some chickens, and leads a very satisfying life in a very beautiful place. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LNqfBkdoq8E/VdptrwvRlSI/AAAAAAAASGM/8ePo3EOb-TQ/s1600/Kipper%2Bat%2Bthe%2BHelm.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LNqfBkdoq8E/VdptrwvRlSI/AAAAAAAASGM/8ePo3EOb-TQ/s640/Kipper%2Bat%2Bthe%2BHelm.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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He showed us around the area and took us on 5-hour kayak ride on the New River. It's truly one of the prettiest and friendliest rivers I've ever seen. It's one of the oldest rivers in the world and is clear, cool, and shallow. We had a great time!</div>
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We left Steve's laden down with tomatoes, herbs, homemade goodies, and our promise to return. Thanks Steve!</div>
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More at <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ontheroadwiththeroses" target="_blank">Tumblr: On the Road with the Roses</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3340203823771210426.post-63443953930630134162015-08-14T13:51:00.000-05:002015-08-14T13:51:53.307-05:00On the Road Again!<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">August 14, 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On July 31, we left Austin for another trip. We sold (or gave away) most of our stuff, including our cars, and said good-bye to our jobs, friends, and family. Don't worry, Kipper is with us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Completing the new dream team is a 1991 Dodge Ram "Roadtrek" Van, affectionately called the Mystery Machine due to all the mysterious bells, buzzers, and occasionally odors that emit from it. Not to mention the mysteriously varied MPG (sometimes it's 10mpg, sometimes 20!). It's super comfy and an improvement over LeTigre (R.I.P.). No more leaky pop-top or loft bed...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our first stop was Herb and Gayle's place in the Chesapeake area. It's one of our favorite places in the world!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The master plan this time is that there is no master plan. Our timeline is flexible, so we have as many options as we can dream up (within our usual tight budget). One thing is for sure though, we will not be updating this blog as much. It's clunky, requires strong wifi for photos, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and can be hard to use. But we'll be frequently posting on Tumblr at:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ontheroadwiththeroses</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We'll see you there!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0