It is COLD in Michigan!!

Ok, let me set the record straight. It is COLD here in Michigan. I mean cold. I could excuse the 46 degree water temperature. After all we had a really cold winter. Ice just left the Mackinaw Straits at the beginning of May. But do we have to wear sweat shirts in July? I mean, really? Seriously?

We have had rain, big winds, cloudy, and cold almost the entire trip, except for a day or so of warm weather in Saugatuck at the end of June but that was 2 weeks ago. Not only have we not worn bathing suits, many days we have not worn shorts! Jeans and sweatshirts for us!! Yuck!

Ah well, back to the travel. 

Only July 5 we left Frankfort bound for Charlevoix. It was a perfect day for a ride. We left about 7am in the mist and arrived at Charlevoix about 2pm. Just perfect . Sunshine and almost no waves the entire trip. We napped, read, and chatted the entire trip. It was much calmer to make lunch while riding in 1 to 2 foot waves the whole way. We are back to 10 knots, just moping along, very civilized. 

It was fun to show Paul and Maeo the beautiful Sleeping Bear Dunes with the many sand mountains along the lake. We pulled into one cove and just enjoyed.

Charlevoix is one of our favorite towns with the beautiful marina set right in the heart of town. I particularly love the fountain with kids running through it on even the chilly days. I guess they have thicker skins than we do. 

In Charlevoix we were reminded of the marina book exchanges. We loaded up with all the Clive Cusslers we could find plus some books for me. Kermit and I took our books and sat on a bench by the trout pond or at the tables on top of the marina office and enjoyed the view.

See Conrad's little sailboat across from Good Karma?

We've started be so much more active. According to my FitBit I am walking over 10,000 steps every day. It feels great. Frankly it is the only way to walk off all the ice cream we've been eating.

We wanted to make up for the bad Asian food we ate in Frankfort so Maeo made Thai fried rice the day we arrived. We invited a fellow Looper, Conrad, over for dinner. He is taking the loop in a 28 foot sail boat alone. He said his friends and girl friend took one look at the tiny craft and found other stuff to do so he is going it alone. He is an interesting guy. He worked as a piano tuner responsible for the University otf Iowa and also trained other people to tune pianos. What an interesting occupation!

We are starting to pick up packages. The other day I did the stupid thing I yelled at Kermit for doing about a year ago. At Cocoa FL he dumped a container overboard and mistakenly dumped the little camera. At Grand Haven I mistakenly dumped my blue tooth overboard while emptying my bad of sand. My bad. The new blue tooth arrived at Charlevoix on Monday as we were leaving. Now I am back in business!! I can't believe how little those things are and how much they came down in price.

I tell you this to tell you of the other things we ordered to be picked up in Mackinaw. In particular we ordered new graphics for "Good Karma". Kermit tried applying the new graphics in Grand Haven but he must have had too many Crowns and it got messed up. It took us a while to figure out where to get the new ones so they can be delivered somewhere. That is why when you see pictures of our boat the back is neat and clean without a name. We will remedy that in a few days at Mackinaw.

Project house anyone? 

this one is on the water - it has a heated driveway!!

We walked and biked all over Charlevoix. We saw those cool mushroom houses made by Earl Young over a 50 year period in the 20th century. These homes are gorgeous. I learned that he never was licensed as an architect. Isn't that interesting? We even found one for sale. It looked like a big project. We would need Greg Weaver and I am not sure he is up for that kind of travel.

These homes are made of stone with shake roofs that are flexible. They look like the materials were bent over a flexible frame, like they are bendable.

This one looks like it is wearing a cap

We are most impressed with the landscaping. Everywhere you look are flowers and sculptures. On one walk we stopped into the local community art center to see a wonderful display of photographs. Such awesome talent.

The local library is huge, almost as big as Stark County Library in Canton which is saying something since Canton has 100k people and Charlevoix has 5000. I walked over one afternoon and read for a few hours in a comfortable chair. There is a cool metal sculpture of a butterfly in the rain garden in front of the library that we enjoyed.

 On one of our walks we walked to the beach, invaded the local fishery department then had one of the best lunches of the week at the beach shack. The lady who runs it got sick of working in restaurants so she opened her own just for the summer. She also works at Mackinaw Island resorts. She told us that the Island opened two weeks late this year because of the ice. She was cleaning rooms and setting up two B&Bs while the guests had already arrived! She made a great chicken salad with Michigan cherries!!

Don't let all these pictures of  sunshine and smiles fool you. We had sweatshirts in our backpacks. The flowers are behind as well. We saw tulips in Charlevoix and peonies in Petosky. The flowers are almost a month behind our flowers in Ohio.

Tulips in July?

We were in Charlevoix for two days. It rained both mornings! So we spent a lot of time reading on the boat waiting for weather to clear. We need every one of those books we appropriated from the Charlevoix Marina book exchange!!

The Interview Doctor's Michigan office

The four of us are getting along just fine. I am the weak link. I can handle about 5 hours of togetherness then I need to hide for a while. But Paul and Maeo are wonderful companions. I am getting a lot of work done too! I will have the third book to the publisher by next week. Plus I've had four or five clients on the phone since we left so all is good.

Next: Petosky

Pentwater to Frankfurt MI July 3 and 4, 2014

Left Pentwater about 9am for another rocky ride – we traveled fast at 17 knots at first then slowed down to 8 knots when the lake laid down. We are not getting very good weather reports. The lake was supposed to be calm in the morning then lay down in the afternoon. It was reversed this time.

Entering Frankfort Harbor

We visited Frankfort on the loop in 2012 but this time we liked it much better. They have a great team at the marina breaking in some new help. Everyone doubled up with a partner and nicely showed each other how to handle the pump out and fill up. 

Cheap fuel – Diesel was $3.97 so we filled up again. Interesting we put 122 gallons on one side to fill it up then exactly 122 gallons filled up the other side so the tanks are balanced in usage and the gauges are exact too. 

See the mink on the rocks? 

Critter alert – Mink!  It Plus lots of dogs – best one was a 1.5 year old Chesapeake Bay Retreaver – gosh it was a nice dog – sure miss Rusty. 

Rocket shoe skier - This was pretty wonderful. In town we saw a poster about this then on 7/4 while hanging around the boat we saw this guy with rockets on his feet going up and down on the lake!! AWESOME!! Kermit said I couldn't try it but we were sure Captain Dan Lipka would have done it if he was here.  

Friendly guy at chamber of commerce - We wanted to ride our bikes 5 miles up the road to visit the Betsie Lighthouse near Sleeping Bear Dunes. The weather seemed nice. Why not? We did not want to ride on a busy  highway because that is not fun and also Maeo does not feel she is a strong enough biker. So we went to the Chamber of Commerce for advice. Is there a bike path? The guy was so awful he was funny. "No bike path, have to take the road and boy, that road is really busy." But as we turned to leave he said, "There is a section on the road for bikes". Sort of like a bike path? Yeah, I guess so. We decided not to do it after all. We spent the afternoon of 7/4 reading and relaxing up for the fireworks. 

Locals didn’t seem to know where anything was – said there was an auto parts store at the end of the long street but wasn’t. They have a really cool hardware store – has everything ever “As shown on TV”

Meeting loopers - We met our first loopers of the season here. We had a drink with  Prime Time (met at Ft. Myers last year) and met a new looper who ran screaming away from Kermit and hid from us when we walked to their boat. Not sure what that was about. We had a nice talk with some wanna be loopers on the 4150 Cruisers. You know we are seeing a LOT of Cruisers I guess because they are made across the lake in Wisconsin. 

We ate at a restaurant called Fusion with Thai, Chinese, Korean but we were sorely disappointed. We should have had Maeo cook instead. 

Kermit enjoying the parade

Behind the horses must come
the guy with the wheelbarrow!

Great ice cream – MOO! When you put a tip in the tip jar the whole restaurant mooos. Best ice cream so far -  made just up the road in Michigan. Our favorites: mooberry ice cream w cherry ice cream with cherries, brownie bits, and fudge running through it, cherry champaign sorbet and chocolate with fudge covered cashews. 

Everyone needs squirt guns on a float!

Craft show – Maeo was really happy, met every one. 

The crowds gathered on the beach...

July 4 parade – really big, took an hour, lots of candy getting thrown around

Fireworks were really good

FIREWORKS

The Coast Guard Station that is now
a museum in Frankfort - we missed it

Stuff we should have done but didn’t for one reason or another

• ·         Visit art gallery in coast guard station – didn’t realize it was there till we left
• ·         Bike ride to Betsie Lighthouse because of the bike ride along a road

·          

Green water from Grand Haven to Ludington - I mean Pentwater

Again we got stir crazy staying in Grand Haven. It was time to be on the road again. Plus the Grand Isle dockage is pretty expensive. We left at about 10am after much discussion about the weather.

Our target was Ludington. We had every intention of going to Ludington. We even had reservations. It was white knuckle the entire way from Grand Haven north. We had 5 to 7 foot waves the entire time directly on the beam. But we discovered that the big 480 diesel engines love it. We sped up to 17 knots at 2100 rpm to move as fast as possible through 3 to 5 foot waves that turned into 5+ straight off the beam from the west as we moved north. This means it was coming at us directly at the side - the worst possible way to travel on a boat. We rolled the entire way. I was almost sick. Paul was on deck with Kermit and Maeo was in the back deck watching for fishnets. We rolled over 3 or 4 fishnets without incident but it was scary. We got stuck on a fishnet in Lake Huron and had to bob around for 3 hours waiting for a diver. This time it would have been dangerous with 5 to 7 foot waves. The big waves made it very hard to spot anything in the water.

We also had fog part of the way – fog without flat water was odd. We had the radar on but no GPS. It didn’t work. We are using Garmin charts on the iPad. So far it seems to be working well. We discovered that the reason the GPS doesn’t work is there is no antenna! It goes on the list of upcoming projects!!

Hard to take a picture in the waves

We took plenty of green water (water from waves not just spray) over the top!! We discovered the repairs we made to the window caulking are not enough. We took in water through the side windows although I suspect it was less than we would have experienced before making repairs. We stuck towels along the port windows to stem the worst of it. Then I started to feel raindrops. That was odd! Turns out the bimini canvas is not as solid as we would like it to be. Too bad since the canvas was replaced in 2012. We need some waterproofing! I moved back to sit with Maeo. 

Keep in mind that the water temp on Lake Michigan at about 3 to 5 miles off shore is about 45 degrees. It was wet. It was cold. All that water trickling in from the windows and dripping from the ceiling was COLD. Time for jeans, sweatshirts and life jackets.

We couldn't get there fast enough.

We spent much of the day in this terrible water. It was all we could do to stay vertical. After a while we were near Ludington. I called for reservations. No problem. Kermit handled the entrance the same way he handles entering Sandusky Bay at Cedar Point. He went past the entrance then timed the waves to make a fast 90 degree turn so we didn’t capsize. Of course he did a fine job. We surfed into the harbor.

We looked for the left turn to enter the Lidington Municipal Marina from the channel. There was no left turn! What the…? The blue water tower told the story. We were in Pentwater not Ludington!!

Pentwater is a small town about 10 miles south of Ludington but we were not going back out there. We took a slip at the municipal marina and tied up. Then up to the grass to kiss the ground that we landed safely.

I don’t remember much about Pentwater. The people were nice enough. It had the usual main street with shops. We made quesadillas out of the leftover grilled chicken then went to bed. It was an exhausting day.

On the Road Again - Finally! Saugatuck to Grand Haven June 30 to July 2, 2014

Waving goodbye at Tower

We were determined to leave Saugatuck no matter what. We were getting stir crazy. We were delayed for a few days due to wind and fog but we just had to get moving. We need to get moving if we want to get to the North Channel by 7/15. I know we are not supposed to keep to a schedule but this time we have to. We are pretty far south to make our target and still see some sites along the way.

Leaving Saugatuck -
entrance to Lake Michigan

We waited as long as we could in the morning, not leaving until about 10am because we were hoping it would tur.n into flat water for our first excursion. Kermit was nervous. It was fine. The nice folks at Tower Marina waved farewell.

Maeo and Paul Bates

Kermit was driving. Paul stood much of the time next to Kermit at the helm watching for obstacles and learning how the boat runs. Maeo sat in the corner at the back and I sat in the said bench facing back. It went pretty smoothly for our first trip!

Our target was Grand Haven. Only 40 short miles in that soup. We left about 10am and arrived about 2pm. We traveled with about 3 foot waves coming from the west off our beam - not the best way to travel but we handled it just fine. The water about 3 miles off shore is about 45 degrees. Contrast the cold water with hot air and you have the chance for fog. We found it! The radar works just fine. The wind picked up as the afternoon wore on but nothing uncomfortable. 

Despite the cold waves on the lake, the beach was filled with swimmers enjoying a sunny summer day. It was an odd contrast.

 We couldn’t get a slip in the municipal marina or any of the marinas closer to downtown so we got into Grand Isle Marina at $2.50 per foot – a huge expense. 

The guidebooks warn that the Grand River entrance to Grand Haven does not have a breakwall so swell from Lake Michigan come directly in to Grand Haven and making docking at the municipal marina a very bumpy experience if the weather turns bad and it did. It would have been rock and roll city while we were there. But we were safe from the worst of it while the wind blew every day with flags straight out, even inland. So we stayed for 3 days till it cleared a little.

We filled up with fuel when we arrived. 100 gallons on each side at $4.25 per gallon diesel, contrasted with $5.15 for gas. 

Grand Haven is famous for the dancing fountain light show at 10pm every night in the summer. We saw it last time and wanted to show Paul and Maeo. Grand Isle Marina is about a 2 mile bike ride from downtown Grand Haven. We took inventory and found enough bike lights to have a front light on Kermit's bike and a back light on Paul's bike. That will do. 

We had an early dinner and off we went to explore Grand Haven. Like most towns on the west side of Michigan, Grand Haven was a logging town. Situated at the mouth of the Grand River, loggers took trees from central Michigan in the winter, stacked them on the frozen river then ferried them to the coast at Grand Haven where they were turned into lumber and shipped to Chicago. We visited the Tri-City Museum to learn more about lumberjacks and the influence of lumber on Grand Haven. 

It was really hot. I mean sweat dripping hot. Quite a contrast to the cold wet experience on Lake Michigan. We wandered around a craft show, ducked in the museum for some AC. We were so hot we went to a local restaurant for some ice tea and a snack. We drank a pitcher of ice tea with some really good quesadillas as a snack. 

The light show is interesting but we agreed that classical music would have been better. 

Couldn’t find the ice cream that night but I found it the next day when I rode bike out to beach – it was called “The Pump” and had about 20 different flavors of soft serve that you could select in a cup and pump yourself - get it?. Then they had about 50 different toppings. The whole thing got weighed. I had pistachio, spumoni and chocolate with lots of different toppings then sat in the cool restaurant and wrote some blogs while enjoying the ice cream! 

Grand Haven has a state park right on the beach with campers and tents as far as the eye can see. It looks funny when coming in on the boat and even funnier when walking on the beach!Got sand fleas from riding bike to beach and walking around. We had to spray the bedroom.They have camping right on the beach because it is a state park – looks like of funny. 



We rode our bikes all over. We found Meijers while looking for Walmart then realized later that the Walmart was just beyond the trees. Just beyond the Walmart we found the movie theater and saw Jersey Boys one afternoon. Kermit and Paul fiddled with the sound system trying to figure out how to run the dvd players. No luck yet. 

The absolute best part? A visit from Becky Mikulka and Lynn VonBergen! Lynn called earlier in the day to say they were in Michigan City and could we get together. Sure!!! However none of us knew it was such a long drive. But it was worth it! We had a nice dinner on the boat and caught up. Thanks for coming!! I will figure out a way to get to Chicago to return the visit!!


The next day we took the dinghy out up the Grand River for a while to test how it runs with four people.We hope to keep up with Ron and the others when we dinghy on the North Channel. We should be fine!!

Making Sense out of Chaos

I forgot how much there is to do with a new boat. On old Good Karma everything had a place. Char Houser and I sat on the stops and found a place for everything then we labeled it. When we left Good Karma in the fall we took 7 truck and 2 car loads of stuff off the boat – clothes, equipment and supplies. The boat lifted at least a foot out of the water. The new owners bought a clean but very emplty boat. We sorted and stowed the stuff in the basement over the winter. The mount of stuff looked huge.

To outfit new Good Karma just reverse the process. Oddly enough it only required one truck and one carload. I can’t explain where the other stuff went.

Kermit and I took the first truckload up on June 11, 2014. Cart after cart dumped into new Good Karma.

I sat on the steps without Char this time to figure out where everything should be stowed. Then just as before we put labels on everydoor and cubby to remind us where to find it when we need it. A quick trip to the grocery store and we were set. At least we could now sleep on new Good Karma. 

Our first night we laid awake taking it all in. This will be a good home for us.

We returned home on June 15. The final transition to the boat took some gymnastics. 

Kermit and Paul Bates took the dinghy up to Saugatuck MI on Tuesday June 17. Paul designed a really  neat system to hold the dinghy on the swim platform that allows us to walk across the swim platform bhind the dinghy. He installed two stainless tracks perpendicular to the boat's back wall. Then he secured two 4" PVX tubes across the tracks. The dinghy has straps across the front and middle that hook to the crane. The crane lifts the dinghy and holds it over the water where it is dropped ever so gently into the water. Pretty cool! Set setup allows the 20 hp motor to remain on the dinghy. All in all this system is a huge upgrade over the last dinghy setup.

On Thursday after setting everything up, Paul returned to Canton with the truck and Kermit stayedin Saugatuck to manage some last repairs. A contractor fixed the window leaks that keps the back deck perpetually damp. He poked a hole to remove old inadequent caulking releasiing a deluge of pent up water. We are dry now!

See the fog coming off the lake? 

The biggest headache was the ice maker in the back deck. After 6 trips, the thing still does not make ice. Butit keeps pop and beer nice and cold s I guess we live iwth store bought ice for a while.

On Sunday June 22 I rented a car, loaded up the final load, kissed Jack good-bye for the summer andheaded to Saugatuck.

Sunday was gorgeous. Then it started to fog in and stayed that way until Thursday June 26. We stayed put too. Without a car and in the rain we were kind of stuck. We grilled out or cooked on the boat. It was a quiet way to get accustomed to the new boat.

Saugatuck and Douglas are sister cities between Holland on the north and South Haven on the south. We visited for Labor Day in 2012 on the Loop. That is where we met Charlie Crawford on Bama Belle!! We also hosted Dan and Marilyn Lipka that Labor Day weekend. This time around Dan visited again!! He tested out the new v-berth and pronounced it just fine! We walked into Douglas for dinner in the back garden cafe at Everyday People Cafe. We had a wonderful dinner.

The clouds over the lake are really amazing. The water is so cold (it is in the 40s still) and the air temperature was so hot (in the 80s and 90s that week) that fog and cool clouds were inevitable.

Paul and Maeo Bates came to the boat on June 26. They will be traveling with us for the summer so they settled into the v-berth. The weather did not cooperate much at all. It rained and blew for several days so we walked and biked all over Saugatuck and Douglas, cooked out, and got settled.

Good Karma on the road again

We traveled the Great Loop for 14 months returning home after Labor Day 2013. Adjustment was more difficult than we imagined. We rolled around the house like marbles in a shoe box. The house seemed way too big. We kept losing each other, wandering around the house calling to find the other person.

Rusty the dog was thrilled to be home. He knew exactly where we were going when he got in the truck at the marina. When we got home he burst out of the truck and ran around like a puppy! He was happy to be home! He lay in his favorite spots at the top of the driveway and outside the front door watching people walk by and barking at passing friends.

Our son Dan and his girlfriend Julia housesit for us while we were gone. They stayed when we returned home so we have roommates. It is a very nice, comfortable co-habitation.

Let me share some big events in our lives since we returned home.

Winter

The terrible, cold, snowy winter makes us wish we were traveling again. Mental note to self: no more Ohio winters if we can help it.

My Business – The Interview Doctor

Business was fabulous upon returning. I have done over 25 speaking engagements focusing on recruiting, job search from the candidate and company perspective, and interviewing. Revenue so far year to date exceeds 2013 already. Business is very good.

It is clear to us that speaking engagements help spread the word about the business. I can definitely work on the boat but have to come back to NE Ohio for speaking engagements regularly. Not a problem.

I published two of the three books I wrote on the trip as part of The Job Seeker Manifesto. Book 1 is The Job Search Marketing Plan and Book 2 is Resumes 3.0. Book 3, Tell me about yourself, will be published in September. I have become something of an expert on self-publishing. Go ahead. Ask me anything!

Decisions made over the winter

We made some big decisions over the winter.    

• The house is too big. We have too much stuff.
• We love the cruising lifestyle.

With these factors we decided to sell the house, buy a boat with diesel engines and live on the water for a few years!

This is very exciting!

With these decisions in mind, we had a realtor come look at our house in November. He suggested remodeling the master bathroom and finishing the basement if we could come in under a certain expense level. It sounded like a good challenge. So we did.

Our contractor, Greg, remodeled the bathroom (new floor and new tile in shower) in December. In late January Greg started on the basement. Kermit purchased the materials and acted as laborer / go-fer. Actually he made Greg lunch and stayed out of Greg’s way (per Greg’s request). The project came in a tiny bit above our projected budget but under the level the realtor suggested.

It looks awesome!!! We had a party to celebrate Rusty’s life and the new basement on April 4, 2014. We don’t use the basement any more than we did before but at least it is done.

We originally wanted to sell the house in spring 2014 but too much was going on. We couldn’t get ourselves organized for it. Plus we started to get second thoughts about our plan when faced with the reality. So we plan to hold on to the house for one more year, travel this winter and consider selling the house in spring 2015.

We put all the rental property (2 duplexes and 3 houses) on the market in the spring. Kermit has been a crazy man getting the places ready and putting them on the market. None have sold yet but we will see. Something will happen.

Kermit’s full time (self-appointed) job this winter, aside from the remodeling, was finding a new boat and selling old Good Karma. We did both in May 2014!!

Over the winter he got old Good Karma cleaned out and cleaned up. We had Ishmael, a wonderful upholsterer, reupholster the salon couch and chair in a pretty taupe vinyl – soft like butta. It made a huge difference. Rusty really tore up the original upholstery on the Loop.

Kermit spent most winter evenings considering boat options for our new boat. We wanted diesel engines because they are so much more economical. This will be important when we live on the boat. Old Good Karma had a perfect layout. We could have lived for years on that boat (especially with the new upholstery) except for the gas engines. Gas fuel is usually $.25 to .75 cents more expensive a gallon everywhere except the Great Lakes and fuel usage is about 30% to 50% worse than on a diesel boat. We need to have the better economy that diesel fuel brings. So that factor took old Good Karma out of the running. She had to be sold.

Good Karma sold on Memorial Weekend 2014 to a nice couple from Milwaukee. They immediately left to travel home. We sold the boat with the understanding that we kept the name. So Kermit removed the name. Now we talk about old GK and new GK.

While Ted Patrick, the boat broker, was working on selling old GK, Kermit had him looking at new boats. We settled on a Cruiser 4450 from the 2000 to 2003 vintage. We skipped an entire line of boat, the 4150, because it was just about the same as the 4450 only the earlier model. We wanted the updated features if we intend to live on the boat for the next 5 to 6 years.

In early February we put in a bid on a 4450 Cruisers aft cabin in Virginia Beach and went there for an inspection. We were so excited. Ted the broker flew in too. Kermit arranged surveyors for the engines and the boat itself. We walked on the boat. Kermit was immediately quiet. I knew this was a problem. Nothing worked right. The engines didn’t start. The generator didn’t start. The swim platform lift didn’t work. There was salt water stains on the engines (?). There was a paddle board in the V-birth. It was a mess.

I was at the helm talking to the owners. Kermit called me down to the engine room and asked how attached I was to this boat. I said I was with him. He turned to the surveyor and broker. They both nodded and Kermit said we were done. So we went to the helm and broke the bad news to the owner that we were not proceeding with the purchase. They were mad and ran off the boat. We went home.

On the drive home Kermit checked out a new posting of a 4450 Cruisers located in Saugatuck MI. Over the next week or so Kermit followed up on the boat from Saugatuck. It was perfect. It was in our price range. So we went to look, confirming that the boat was perfect. We made an offer. It was accepted. We own a 2001 Cruisers Express Aft Cabin!!!

New Good Karma has staterooms in the v-birth and aft cabin. The aft cabin has an attached bathroom and shower and there is another bath in the salon next to the v-birth. There is a third cabin with bunk bed under the dining area. There is plenty of storage.

New GK has twin 480 hp Volvo diesel engines (Olga and Helga!) in a spotless engine compartment. It has a swim platform with a crane for hauling the dinghy onboard. There is plenty of seating on the helm area without the steps we had on old GK. Rusty would have liked this boat.

We are thrilled with this boat. We provisioned it this week and last week. Everything is in place. The dinghy comes next week. We take off on 6/23 with Paul and Maeo Bates for a 6 week cruise up the eastern side of Lake Michigan to the North Channel of Lake Huron for two weeks in mid-July. We will be back to Sandusky OH in August.

Our plan is to move east through the Erie Canal to the east coast. We are still negotiating with each other about where to put new Good Karma for the winter. I think Ft. Pierce is winning. We hope to spend a few months in the Bahamas, perhaps at Treasure Key in the winter. We’ve already heard from Marianne and Allen Bernard about Treasure Key. We are talking with Michael and Judy on One September about picking them up at the end of October / early November on the Chesapeake. Marissa wants a week in DC so that is on the agenda. Tony and Shirley from New Zealand will join us next year. We are connecting with Sareanna and Jim's Joy. We hope to see Limelight in the North Channel. Maybe another Loop in the future? Perhaps with All Ports folks? We are open to all possibilities!

This will be our new life. It is exciting. We feel blessed to have this opportunity. New Good Karma is more than we dreamed we could ever have. We look forward to seeing old friends.

Look for more blogs now that we are back in the boating way!!

Saying Good-bye to Rusty

Rusty's last car ride - We will miss Rusty!

Rusty was 12 when we left on the Loop. That is 108 in people years. He managed just fine for the most part. 

At the last few months of the trip he was clearly in pain. We visited veterinarians regularly. In fact vet expenses were a big deal since arriving back from the Bahamas in April 2013. He pooped where he should not and did not climb the steps well at all. Walks got shorter and shorter. The hot weather made it worse.

He enjoyed the cold winter. Actually he preferred cold weather anyway. But after Christmas it became clear he was in pain. On April 2, 2014 at age 14 we took him for his last visit to the vet.

It was difficult to put him in the car for the last time. Dan took his dog house, toys and food to the local shelter while we were gone. Rusty wandered around the vet’s office inside and out, saying hello to other dogs and smelling the smells outside. He knew exactly what was going on. He walked right into the exam room and laid down. He never did that before. I guess he knew.

They gave him a shot then another one. We petted him and cried a lot. The ride home was long and lonely. We drank two bottles of wine and collapsed in bed exhausted from our sadness.

We will miss that dog.