Smitten

In the beginning  June 2012

Sometime in mid June 2012, my dear husband called out to me “Let’s retire in Mobile, Alabama. On a houseboat.” Well, that has absolutely no appeal for a couple of reasons. We have lived over 30 years in Arizona. Miles away from rain and humidity. AND he wants to sweat right out of the shower? Are you kidding me?

Secondly, living on a houseboat? I don’t know how that would work. Bobbing up and down as other boats passed. How does it all work? Are the toilets plumbed to land via a flexible hose? OR do you have to drive the boat to a place to dump the poo tank? OR is our “holding tank – aka poo” just jettisoned into the water?

“Hey, how do the utilities and such work on a houseboat?” The husband answered back “Google it!” and went back watching his Saturday afternoon SyFy movie.

One of the first search returns was a discussion on a forum about houseboats on the Loop? What Loop?
“Hey, ever hear of “the Loop”?
“No,” he says.  “Google it.”  Continuing to watch his ScyFy movie.

America’s Great Loop, of course. That Loop, of course? Click here, copy/paste there and I found the most intriguing website… Captain John’s Cruising the Great Loop. http://captainjohn.org/GL-1.html

What loop? I am 59 years old and have never heard about this loop.  What? You can boat/sail around the eastern United States? Really?

“What kind of boat do you use to go around the Loop?
“Something called a Trawler”
“What is that?”
“I don’t know but here…. look at my computer screen…here is one.”
“Really? Hmmm.”

I started finding blogs of people who wrote all about their adventures going around the loop. Trying to find the beginning to the present. I saved a bunch on my bookmarks to go back afterward to read. Found a website ‘yachtworld’ that a lot of boats are listed for sale. A good place for pricing, pictures, and some sense of floor plan.

Saturday morning and my dear husband is watching TV. I am surfing and reading blogs. He finally comes over to fill my coffee cup and notices a picture of a boat. Sits down and starts reading the blog with me. The best part of the blog are pictures of their standard poodle they took with them on their trip! How cool is that? Reading day by day along their trip around the Loop.

I showed my dear husband other blogs and he goes…what does a trawler look like again? Then we surf the yacht world website http://www.yachtworld.com for pictures, prices, etc. Hmmmmm

5 hours later we are saturated with information overload. You can boat around the eastern US and Bahamas? Really?!?! Hmmmm. We could do this. It sounds like an adventure!!

Monday when my dear husband on leaving to go to work says…
“We can rent out the house for 3 years while we do the loop”

Monday evening on returning home from work
“We need to take a boating class or two”

Tuesday evening on returning home from work
“Those side trips? You say we can get to Knoxville? and the Bahamas?”

Wednesday evening on returning home from work
“You know, we could get a 40ft RV and do the same kind of travel. All along the eastern side of US. Although, we really wouldn’t see the same thing, would we?”

Let’s retire on a boat!