It’s hard to believe that we’re finally getting so close ~ and it’s been quite the journey…….

We sold our home, furniture and most of our possessions in San Diego in late September and took the rest to our Bend vacation home. Rather than move into the home in Bend we decided to keep it as a vacation rental and take a boating adventure instead.

We shopped for boats for months and viewed lots and lots of boats on line. Michael flew out to physically inspect a couple. We made offers on boats and had accepted offer on three different boats but they all fell through for one reason or another. But now we were homeless and we needed to find a boat to take us on the America’s Great Loop Adventure.

We packed the truck, loaded the dogs and headed East. Our first stop was Palacios, Texas to look at a boat whose owner we had talked to months ago but the timing wasn’t right. We drove up to see her …. There she was…….OUR boat……..(do you hear the music playing in the background?) We made an offer, it was accepted, we did our due diligence and closed in eight days. We took possession in late October, renamed her SCOUT and headed to the yard in Oyster Creek, Texas for haul-out.

We spent about three long, long long weeks in the yard getting her bottom painted, prop straightened, some new zincs, etc. We were out of the water, it was freezing cold and wet. We tried to stay on the boat as much as possible but when it was too cold and wet we retreated to a hotel.

Back in the water we headed Kemah, Texas (boating capital of Texas) which is where we are now. We’ve been hanging out for a little over a month preparing her, and us, for the journey. She now has a new inflatable dinghy (Scout About) and motor, a new isinglass, canvas and doggie enclosure, new Automatic Identification System (AIS)- important to be able to see tugs/barges but more importantly for tugs/barges to see us. Yikes….tugs and barges, something we didn’t have to deal with in Southern California.

Anyway, we are about ready to leave what has been our home here at South Shore Harbour Marina for over a month.