First Blog

1 AUG 2021   SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA

CAPTAIN’S LOG

Welcome to our Blog. Blogging is a new experience for us so it will be a work in progress about two people on the front end of a learning curve called boating.  The tag line for the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association (aka AGLCA) is “The Adventure of a Lifetime,” and I’m sure two people ages 78 (G) & 81 (A), going 6,000 miles in a full year on our own, will be full of Joy and Challenges.  Our various Sprinter van trips over the last three years have shown us that we are really happy traveling “the road less traveled” and that being together in a small space 24/7 can be a real joy. The writing will be mostly from Annie, and I will contribute the images and hopefully some videos so you can travel along with us. The Blog is interactive, so if you have questions, comments or topic ideas, please send them along. For now,

LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!

FROM THE FIRST MATE

After nine months of research, boat shopping, planning, training, getting our home ready for year-long tenants and continuous list-making (!!!), we are off on our most exciting adventure ever—cruising over 6,000 miles through the inland waterways of the eastern United States called “America’s Great Loop.” We’ll be traveling in our own boat, just the two of us, on a 41’ Cruiser that we have named “S.L.O. Dancer.”

S.L.O. stands for San Luis Obispo, CA, which is just 12 miles east of our small hometown of Los Osos on the Central Coast, overlooking Morro Bay, Morro Rock and the Pacific Ocean.

Why “Dancer?” Many years ago we heard the lyrics to a song that we’ve never forgotten:

                        Life’s a dance, you learn as you go

                        Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow.

                        Don’t worry ‘bout what you don’t know.

                        Life’s dance, you learn as you go.

Our life IS a dance that we continue to enjoy. And never before have the words to the third line been more meaningful. Countless hours of preparation will certainly benefit us, but we don’t pretend to know everything. In fact, early in this cruising dance Gary said, “I’m not sure I even know what I don’t know!”

We continue to learn, continue to plan, continue to brush up on our boating and navigation skills, and will simply take each day one day at a time, doing our best to enjoy the boat, the cruise, the journey and each other. One thing we know for sure is that it’s not about the destination…THE JOY IS IN THE JOURNEY!

And so it is!