Cheryl & Scott on sv Sally B in Balitmore, MD

Day 1 of our road trip: we drove 10 ish hours to Nebraska, to stay with some friends Scott met at the Schooner race. We decided to stay 2 days instead of 1 so I could take their little sail boat out on a nearby lake ( my first sailing lesson).
Day 3: we only drove 4 hours to Newton Iowa to stay with cousins Jane & Dan and their kids Jenny and Rebbecca. We stayed 2 days and managed to go to Rebecca's open house at her school! ( I think she scored some extra brownie points for bringing the extended family and it was fun and a long time since we'd been in a middle school). We found an antique MALL and found a bunch of non-electric stuff for the boat including an acoustic guitar for me. We also left with some home ground YUMMY cherry tomatoes that we ate in the car and on a salad at our next destination.
Day 5: on our way to St. Louis to stay with Scott's college buddy, we stopped in Hannibal to eat lunch and check out the Mark Twain & Mississippi River sights. We also found a music store so I could restring the guitar I bought in Newton, Scott bought a harmonica which Hilo seems to like the sound of. Chris and Julie had a very nice outdoor dinner bar-b-que with some friends and neighbors for us the first night. It is like July in CB here: nice and warm & we're even able to hang outside without some kind of fleece jacket, hat, gloves......We caught the arts fair and went out to the very cool Oyster Bar on Saturday.

Day 14: 10 &3/4 hours (that's what the map said) drive from Louisville KY to Virginia. On the way we took a 'short cut' off the main highway and it turned out to be a 'scenic' drive through the heart of West Virginia: coal mine after coal mine, then we ran into a state park that was BEAUTIFUL (we stopped to pee), so we acted like the tourists we could be and read all the historical markers, hiked around a bit and took pictures. The parks buildings were all made out of stone - very nice restrooms especially!
Got to the east coast around 6:30 pm to cousin Stacey's town home (very nice place!). Cousin Marty and wife Ellie stopped by to say Hi and bring food!! They are great!

Day 15: Ran the 495 Beltway 'gauntlet' (got more cars than a beach got sand - Dave Matthews Band), barely escaping with our lives, to Scott's aunts house to visit, have lunch and drop off the kayak: as they live right on a bay and have a dock in their back yard! Turns out the West Marine store was right on the way too, so we got some of the pre-sailing class shopping done (I needed boat shoes and Scott & I - foul weather gear). Ran the 495 Beltway 'gauntlet', barely escaping with our lives back to Staceys, then back on the road to visit with cousin Marty - got lost and had to have Marty talk us in on the cell phone! He said he felt like an air traffic controller. They gave us some more detailed maps and highlighted our route for our way back and to various other places we'd be going to soon. Thank God!

We think Hilo likes Stacey's place as he has been launching off her 2nd story loft onto the couch in the 1st story living room on a regular basis.

Day 16: I did some 'walking laps' around Stacey's town home complex for exercise in the morning while Scott worked on his sailing homework ( we decided to stay off the Beltway to give ourselves a break). Then off to meet up with Marty to join him on their weekly Wednesday sailing race: there turned out not to be much wind so it was a very short race, but it was good for me to get any experience (other than reading about it).

Day 17: Off to NJ, my old stopping ground. We are leaving Hilo here to stay with Stacey for about 3 weeks. Scott went through an EZ Pass lane on the first toll bridge since this was his first experience with them and the toll bridges (we were both busy looking for money), we'll let you know how much that $2 toll will wind up costing us - Ahhhhh. Scott was impressed with my part of NJ with all the trees and such. Drove by the old neighborhood to see what's left, seeing how it has been a Super Fund Clean Up Site (it was build over a creosote factory - great): drove by the old prison- I mean the house I grew up in (the life I left behind me was a cold one - Sarah M.) and it was GONE!, one of about 5 house on my block that were the worst of the clean-up. Hmm, I'll try not to worry about my health, huh?! Got over to Rachels about 5pm, had dinner and a walk around here neighborhood: they had a serious flood in 99 and some of the land and houses were bought up by FIMA and now no one can build on them (what a switch-what's that Talking Heads song about buildings being gone and the area 'all covered in daisies'?). Any way it was WEIRD to be back yet very good to see Rachel again.

Day 18: We left the truck at Rachel's and drove around with Rachel while she did some errands and showed Scott some of my other old stomping grounds: Flemington and my middle and high school. We ate lunch at a typical cute little restaurant where the owner was really friendly and so New York. Rachel had to stop at the Girl Scout office and I found a Camp Dewitt t-shirt for $5 - so I bought one as a memento of my days at Camp Dewitt. Rachel dropped us off at the train into NYC to visit Scott's college friend. A very nice business man helped us find the A train, he volunteered his help, I gather since we looked so lost. We met up with Rebecca at a bar in Manhattan, walked by CGBGs (for Scott) and found an Indian restaurant were a guy was stationed out on the street offering free ice cream as dessert to get people to come in. The food wasn't to great yet it was cheap. We got a bottle of wine and hung out at Rebecca apartment in Harlem and managed to get some sleep despite the very loud rap music across the street and later people yelling at each other.

Day19: Rebecca took us to a restaurant for brunch that served free Bloody Marys then we went to a beautiful church across the street that had some art 'exhibits' in it - Scott was VERY impressed as he hasn't seen to many churches on that scale (it is tall enough to fit the statue of liberty in), through Central Park to Pier 68 (?) to see a play that Rebecca's martial arts class was involved in. It was really fun; a comedy about pirates and it actually took place on an old boat! Afterwards we hung out on the pier and had beer and watched to the boats and 'water taxi' coming and going. Back to Harlem, Rebecca took us to a Moroccan restaurant for dinner that turned out to be great! We were to exhausted from all the walking to go out to Ding Dongs ( a club) so we just hung out at the apartment.

Day 20: Off to the Met to get our 'every 5 year' fill of art. I HAD to have a street pretzel (they have different 'flavors' now, what's up with that?). Scott said it was very good as this was his first one, go figure. More walking thru Central Park (who thought we would get more exercise in NYC than anywhere else on our trip) back to Rebecca's to relax before getting back to the train for NJ. On the very crowded train, a couple of nice guys from Amsterdam moved their backpacks for us to sit. It was a very tight squeeze so you can imagine our silent relief when they told us they were getting off in 15 minutes at the airport. Scott had a very interesting and good political conversation with one of them. Rachel picked us up at the train station and then we got the truck and busted over to PA to visit with one of my high school friends, Kim, that I hadn't seen since graduation day! She married her high school sweetheart and they have 2 great kids. HI Kim! We got back in touch thru classmates.com and have been e-mailing for a year or 2 now. We have a bunch of common interests as it turns out, so even Scott got to have a interesting visit chatting with Kim and her husband Phil. We talked most of the night and alittle bit the next morning before Kim had to go to work (it was Monday).It was SO great to see them again - we hope to hook up on the boat in the future.

Day 21: Phil took us to High Rocks, a park very near their house for a little morning hike. It was good to get some pre-car exercise and to show Scott that one can actually find neat places to hike east of the Mississippi - thanks Phil! We were wanting to go back and hang out with Rachel again but there was some weather coming in from the hurricane so we decided to leave that afternoon. I took Scott through New Hope, PA to show him yet another one of my old stomping grounds - we wound up walking through the quaint tourist town to look for a lunch place. New Hope is on the Delaware River and is a very touristy - artsy town. We stopped in a couple of stores and found an inexpensive pizza place to eat. We had forgotten about the whole east coast pizza thing, so I was extremely happy to find it. We took Phil's advice about taking 95 all the way back to the DC area which was great! and managed to get back to Marty and Ellies in time for dinner!!


Day 22: Went and visited Hilo - he seemed fine! Back to Marty's house we did little things like RELAXED then Marty and Ellie threw a birthday dinner for Scott - surf and turf grilled in the rain (hard rain from the hurricane all day). Finally met Marty and Ellies other daughter, Suz at the dinner and Stacey reports that Hilo is still enjoying launching off her balcony. Day 23: Repacked my sailing bag twice, I was do to be on board the vessel around 9 pm. I was e-mailed a class list and unless 'Chris' is a girl I am the only female in my class - no worries- figure I'll get the cabin (the only bit of privacy on a boat. We were off to take part in yet another of the Wednesday night sailing races on Marty's boat at 6pm and there actually was more (not saying much though) wind. After dinner at the marina, Scott drove me to the class. Someone told us the drive was only 45 mins but I know that was incorrect by looking at the map, regardless we left at 8:45pm and arrived at 10:45pm. Poor Scott had to drive back the 2 hours and I had to creep aboard without waking any of my 2 fellow classmates (but I got the cabin!!). Andrew introduced himself in the dark and I found out later on they had gone to bed at 9! Ahhhh. Day 24: 1st day of sailing class - my 2 boat mates left for breakfast and I met John and Ryan (the other 2) and Captain John. Andrew and Chris (yes he is a guy) showed up shortly and we stared class. Johns and ex-Iraqi solider, 25 years old, never sailed before- Ryan an undercover cop from Baltimore, 30 ish, never sailed before - Andrew and Chris are 2 blocks from England, 50ish, never sailed before, I was the only one with a boat. No one believed me that I had little experience sailing after saying things like 'but the racing sailboat I was on last night.....' and made it worse with 'My boat is....', until I took the helm of course. - Our first day was just learning the names of the parts of the boat and doing some motoring exercises (docking backwards into a slip, man overboard etc.). Chris and Andrew kept us in stitches & beer the whole time - they were SO very funny. We all (except the Captain) went out for a crab feast - we didn't even get plates, they just covered the table with paper and we all made a mess. Thank god Ryan was there to show us how to eat the whole crabs. I discovered I didn't manage to bring either of the 2 hairbrushes or combs that we brought on this car trip with me so I figured I'd live without one seeing how I had to keep my hair pulled back most of the time anyway. I didn't bring a pillow either so I just laid a towel over my toiletry kit and used that. It is amazing what one can live without when one has to or chooses. Day25: 2nd day of class - after the usual 2 hours of classroom on board we took the boat our and rigged up the sails! There wasn't much wind when we left but it managed to come in soon and I, the first one at the helm, was sailing 6 knots under full sail! Later Capt. John brought us back to his boat to show us how he has everything rigged up. Nice boat he had with very nice below decks. I thought I wanted a different boat until I found out how much he paid for it. After some beer, we all piled into the car and headed out for dinner (me and the boys). Day 26: 3rd day of class: I tried to call Scott with no luck and when I finally called Ann & Norms he wasn't even there. Oh well. Class included a lengthy discussion about navigation and I started getting overwheled and wanting to crap out on the whole boat thing, but navigation is like that. We took the boat out again and hosted the sails to practice what we learned yesterday. Captain John annoyed me this day by not helping me with my lack of understanding steering and being PMSy spent the next 20mins trying not to cry, than god for sunglasses (I seriously considered jumping ship and swimming back to the marina - just kidding- no I'm not). So I refused to take the helm and prayed we weren't going to each take a turn at the man overboard drill under sail - we didn't. So I asked Captain John how you do man overboard with only 2 people on board (which is all I was really concerned with) and he said, 'Drop the sailes and start the engine.' Sounds good to me. I did get my nerve back and docked the boat back into the slip though. Another evening of dinner, beer and fun conversation with the boys. My favorite part was how one of the boys would unlock the women's room at the marina for me when we were all passing by and I didn't have a key. We also had a test coming on our final day, tomorrow. Day 27: 4th/last day of sailing - today's plan was to anchor just under power, take the test, dock, refuel and pump out though I thought I'd have a hard time concentrating since I was excited to see Scott again. Anchoring went well and we stayed anchored while taking the written test, ate lunch, found out who got what wrong (I gather embarrassment is an effective learning tool)and our grades. We also have a survey to fill out that would go straight to the school without the instructor seeing and I managed tactfulness with my complaint. While eating lunch we got to see another boat being towed off of going aground, probably due to the rapid tide change. That was interesting. I steered the boat over to the fuel dock and Ryan took her in to the dock for pumping out and getting back to the slip around 3pm. Oh yeah, I passed the test with a 95.3!Scott showed up just as we were getting the last of our stuff of the boat and he sat and had a final beer with the group. John and Ryan were staying for the next level class, which Scott was taking. They said they felt like a family member was coming. We said good-bye and Scott and I went out for some seafood before I drove him back and got him settled aboard his vessel. I drove to Ann & Norms in Annapolis to stay until I go pick up Scott in 4 days. Managed to get there at a decent time - 8:30pm. What Scott did while I was in class: Scott didn't get back to Annapolis until 1:30 am after dropping me at my class so he took advantage of cousin Marty's invitation to sleep on the boat we do the races on. Scott made some money helping cousin Dan finish up a construction job and Hilo peed on the bed we slept on at Stacey's house!!! Day 28: I had to re-orient myself to living out of the truck again so spent the morning re-organizing it. Cousin Dan (Ann & Norms son) came over for lunch so it was great to finally see him! After lunch I went for a much needed walk around the neighborhood and found a beach!! at the end of the street. It was hard to pass it up to continue my walk but I came back to it afterwards. The same freighter channel that we sailed across in class was visible from the beach so it was fun to watch the gigantic boats slowing sailing along. I also thought it would be a good time to go over some things from the class that I was confused about and start reading the West Marine catalogue - they have very informative pieces on things I need to know about for our boat like single sideband radios (vs. VHF), email options, etc. Ann came down to the living room around 5 pm and offered me a glass of wine! Norm came sown shortly and we all sipped wine and chatted until dinner. Day 29: Off to the grocery store to restock some of my traveling supplies. I also was thinking about going to visit HIlo yet Scott told me that he peed on the bed we slept on at Stacey's so I battled with going and seeing him and not going and letting him just chill out in his new home (I decided on the latter and instead bought him his favorite toy and some treats for later). I, now knowing my way around Annapolis pretty well, checked out the library and the park next door for a walk. The park, Quiet Waters Park, was great! Long walking paths that lead to the bay (everything leads to the bay around here, not to shabby) where there were gazeboes and benches overlooking the water and a 'pier' that ended into a Dog Beach, complete with rules like 'any dog barking excessively will be removed from the beach' and no food allowed (dog or human).


Day 30: this is Scott's 3rd day of class and our 7th day in a row away from each other (we have been together 24/7 so it is a bit weird). Today I was feeling OVER this whole traveling thing and wanted to go get Scott and Hilo and go back home. Then I wondered just exactly where 'home' is for us now and changed my thought to 'go back'. Ann distracted me with an invitation to lunch in the city of Annapolis, thank god. Annapolis was great! (with the exception of the boat show being all set up so we couldn't see the water front). We had a lovely lunch at Harry Browns that looked out onto the State Building with a lovely lawn, visited a couple of gallery's and stores and toured the Chase-Lloyd house (one of the many historic houses there). We fore went the Naval Academy ( since we weren't in the mood to have our purses searched) but saw the entrance for what ever it is worth. We were home in time for 5 pm wine and I started calling my friend Mary in Conn. to see if we could meet up this weekend.

Day 31: Today I go get Scott!! I managed a walk and a 1/2-hour on the beach reading a book of tales from the Isle of Man I found in Ann's house (there was a tale in the book explaining 'putting a knife in your mast': it helps bring up wind to get you home). I left at noon to get Scott at 3pm since Scott said he got stuck in road construction on the Bay Bridge coming back to get me. There wasn't any construction so I arrived at Rock Hall at 1:30 so I just walked around town though all the stores were CLOSED (actually the 'open' signs were up with a note that said, 'if you need anything call ........', I felt right at home [Crested Butte during off-season]). I spent the rest of my time reading some more at the marina until I saw Scotts boat coming in. They actually got back right on time, though he told me later that they were supposed to be back at 2:30 not 3:00). Scott was the 2nd one off the boat and it was great to see him! I met his other classmate also named Scott and he told me my Scott helped him through a cold during class (didn't really get all the details), and Capt. Donn their instructor and John & Ryan again (from my class). John & Ryan said dinners weren't the same without the British humor from Andrew and Chris. We sat on the porch and had the all-important-last-beer-of-class and said good-bye. Scott and I finally found inexpensive seafood in Rockhall for dinner: at the J&J Seafood company. One of those places that sells seafood as well as serves meals. It reminded me of the place in Florida that we ate many times - I had my all time favorite peel and eat boiled shrimp!

Day 32: Scott and I are off to the boat show that overwhelmed me already just by seeing it set up when I went to Annapolis with Ann 2 days ago. Norm dropped us off so we could avoid the parking cluster f___. We were happy to find people selling the solar panels we had already bought AND they had connection kits! It only took us 3 dealers to figure out a good way to connect them (Robert - we'll talk), so that was great. We also tried not to get to bummed about the foul weather gear we bought for the class being on sale there and managed, with shear 'Cheryl intuition', to find a light weather jacket for only $30 that Scott claimed he still needed. We managed to get a bunch of things that were on our 'need right away list' like PFDs with harnesses, the solar panel connectors, Scott's jacket, and inexpensive LED lights. THEN we saw something on our 'DON'T need right away' list that was 1/2 price (reg price $1,2000 - we needed 2! AHHH). So we stood in front of them for 10 minutes trying to decide if we should buy them now and decided not too. As Dan says we need to keep money for the actual sailing part too. Oh yeah, we also bought a PFD for Hilo, not that I'm sure I'll be able to live with myself after torturing him with wearing it, but at least we have one. We also checked out some of the boats on display and I wasn't sure if Andrew should have been there or not - he was sold on buying a sailboat after our class.

Day 33: Mary's coming for a visit! (Mary and I were housemates in Morristown, NJ for my usual 2.5 years and she helped me pack my car for the big move out West to Taos 6 years ago (hadn't seen her since). She is a fellow photographer and a great friend). She was going to drive form Conn. but luck would have it that some of her friends were driving down too so she hitched a ride with them and I picked her up at the Metro ( only 15 mins from Ann and Norms). Scott went to help Dan work on his boat in Galesville so I drove Mary down there and we spent the afternoon chatting and scraping paint with Scott, Dan, Matt -whose house we stayed at in Nebraska, Rob -who stayed with us in CB this past summer with his son, and a new crew member Lewis. We laughed and reminisced. I barely remember scraping paint. Matt's family (wife, child, 2 sisters of the wife and mom and 1 friend) and Dave - who drove out to CB with Dan for our wedding party, showed up in the evening! It was a grand time. Mary even got to have the all-famous 'Dan burrito' (he makes fabulous burritos) for dinner. Just about midnight Scott, Mary and I left to go sleep on cousin Marty's race/sailboat that's just 1 marina over. When we got there, there was live music at the bar so we managed to get in 1 cocktail before they blinded us with the 'get out of here' lights. Scott managed a nice chat with some guys from Canada who were busy heckling the musician when we came in. Mary & I were having fun dancing in our seats and singing - the musician loved us. Mary brought with her our wedding gift - a lovely serving platter!, the 2nd of wedding presents on this trip!

Day 34: We went out to breakfast at a cute country store (had egg sandwiches - I had mine with scrapple), dropped Scott off at Dan's boat to paint, and Mary and I started our day together by showering at the marina and then walking around Galesville. We managed to get ourselves invited to the local art gallery's community show in Feb., checked out the 2 antique stores, got lunch again at the country store, ate lunch on the end of a dock, got to see someone craning in their sail boat (taking it out of the water on a huge crane), and then we went to see if cousins Marty and Johnny were hanging out after the Sunday sail race - we had seen all the boats come in during lunch. Marty and Johnny were there so we hung with them and all the other nice racing people that were milling about. One of them even flirted with Mary but she said he had said he was married (??). I called Scott around 5 to see how the painting was going and to let him know Mary changed her flight back home to 10 pm. Apparently there was an impromptu party at Ann and Norms (Dan is heading south for the Winter right after the Schooner Race so the family wanted to see him again) so Mary and I bought a pie and wine and headed there. Mary had fun meeting the rest of Scott's side of the family (who made some great hamburgers by the way) before we headed off to the airport (boo-hoo) at 8:45 pm. I was very sad to let her go yet very happy we got to see each other and spend time together. We planned on a Mexico trip for her to come to our boat.

Day 35: Started the day sending you all the last ' notes from the road' - finally, while Scott mowed the lawn (ha! he hadn't done THAT in a while) for Ann & Norm. Then Scott and I were off to do more BOAT SHOPPING, this time at the infamous Bacon Sails store (cousin Dan has been bragging about this place forever). Bacon Sails is a combination thrift and regular boating supply store and Steve, Dan's friend, is a great guy (he is also part of the crew on the Schooner Race with us, so it was doublely nice to meet him). We wound up spending 3 long & grueling hours (for me) shopping for stuff that A, we aren't 100% sure we need & B, aren't 100% sure we even know the color scheme of for the boat (besides I HATE shopping anyway - yes, I know I am female but I don't like to shop - WEIRD). So we managed to spend lots of money and didn't get out of there until 6:15 pm, 45 mins after they closed (but well worth it to them) AND Steve did give us great deals. Upon arriving home exhausted, we found a note from Ann & Norm that there was a dinner party at their son Alan's house, thankfully, only 5 mins drive away. SO off we were again after a quick freshening up. The dinner was great and the company, once again, fun. Needless to say we slept good that night.

Day 36: Repacked our sailing bags AGAIN, for today we are to get on the boat to help Dan organize it for the race and tomorrow we will sail from Galesville to Baltimore (where the race starts). Norm drove us and 19 year old nephew Shawn to Galesville after a quick grocery shop (oh yeah, we should bring food). Shawn and Dan worked on deck and Scott and I organized and cleaned up below decks. REMEBER THIS: Scott told Dan he should put away the 3 coffee cans of coin change that were hanging out on the floor- Dan said they were fine - I told Dan we turned ours in for green backs and got about $100 (per can), you may see where we are going with this. We sailed off towards Baltimore and Scott got Dan to give me more steering tips and soon I was steering straight!, right under the Bay Bridge!! We anchored for the night near Magohpy River (where Scott's class had sailed to by the way). Steve and his family (wife Sharon, son and father - who is visiting from Texas) motored over via their motor boat for an evening visit. Sharon offered us a luxurious bath at her home, I was still clean but knew I may regret it in a couple of days. We snuggled in for a good nights sleep, rocked ever so gently by the water.

Day 37: Scott and I awoke to Dan's voice at 7 AM, 'I want to get going.', early for me. We motored to Baltimore, arriving before noon to get the remainder of our crew who straggled in as the day went on. All in all there were 11 of us on a boat that sleeps 8 comfortablely (Thank God Dave won't sleep below). Scott & I were the only couple (so we got 1 of the cabins), me one of 2 of the only women - Mandy was really nice, and only 2 guys I hadn't met before - everyone is great. I wasn't to impressed with Baltimore but that could have been because it was cloudy - yet we managed to have fun people watching ( I saw some STRANGE things), watching the activity of the 160 ft schooners: 4 men working on the square sails up the 100 ft masts, and going to a pub. We participated in the 'Parade of Sails' which is just how it sounds: everyone gets their sails up and sails around the water front to 'parade the sails' and in Crested Butte-like-fashion, last year someone started firing (small- just noisy) canons off their bows, so we followed suit. What fun!! We were one of the first boats back to the dock and there was a man there trying to tell us we couldn't dock there - how can people NOT know about this event!!?? We got our on-board race liaison to clear it up. There was a big party that night at a nightclub Scott had wandered into years before. It was an all black night club then and the music almost stopped when he and another white guy -friend -walked in. Now it is a Latin club all decked out with fake palm trees and paintings of mermaids. I tried to get to bed at a decent hour but no one else did so I only got alittle more sleep than everyone else.

Day 38: Up early to eat breakfast at THE cafe (not sure that was on the race schedule), listened to the 'captains' pre-race lecture, I mean meeting (since the main boat was right next to us) - they said NO canon fire in Portsmouth!! One more visit to the Cheryl's Chalet port-a-potty (my last chance to use a non-moving toilet). And off to set up for the starting line at the Bay Bridge. Our class start was at 1:50, the second start so it was fun to watch everyone else milling about with their sails up - burned alot of, thankfully digital, photos. Our sounding gun went off and we were in the race! Our strategy was to use 2, count 'em, 2 Spinnakers ( big light wind sails) for the start since there were light winds (0 to 5 miles), which were predicted for the whole race by the way - something else to REMEBER (you know were I am going with this.....). And we were OFF even passing the Pride of Baltimore ( a huge schooner not in our class). VERY EXCITING!! My watch was the first of the night: 8 pm to midnight but I was ready to stay up the whole night to experience the night sailing, yet nervous everyone would still be on deck to watch the Inexperienced Cheryl. Scott and I had numerous discussions about being on the same watch or not and I thought NO at first, then I thought it would be good to see him but changed my mind after finding out his watch was from 4 AM to 8 AM. Sorry Charley. Luckily most people disappeared down below after dark which is now just about 7:30 pm, so I as safe. Dan paired us inexperienced sailors up with more experienced sailors and I got Steve, who was very good at explaining things to me and Matt who is super nice too. SO they got me to steer just around 11:30 in the dark right as we were getting to a tricky part: barge boat getting close, gas plant on the shore, etc., etc. I bailed out on the steering after about 20 mins claiming nervousness - which was true. Cheryl Intuition was kicking in once more because shortly after I gave up the wheel we had to do an emergency tack: we were sailing by the gas plant (which was pretty at night all lit up) watching these huge pilings going by too close to us when suddenly the depth sounder went off and a voice from below deck boomed 'TACK - NOW!!!' I missed it- my first real tack and I found myself standing there ready to do something but it was all over. Thank God everyone else was on it. The rest of my shift was uneventful though it was fun tracking our course with Scott and mine's GPS and reading the lights. We made it to our first check-point the 1st of our class!!

Day 39: midnight of the first day of the race and I am tired, suddenly staying up all night to watch lost its excitement. I went below to snuggle with Scott as he'd be getting up in 4 hours. 3 & 1/2 hours later (3:30 am) Scott gets up to do his watch and I fell asleep until he came back to say he lost his flashlight overboard and suddenly I am wide awake worrying about him going over board as there seemed to be more commotion and bouncing around. And of course every time the boat tacks and gets on a different sided heel you have to change position in your bed so your head doesn't get all squished from the angle. It seemed to being getting harder and harder to even stay IN bed as the morning progressed. I woke up at 7:30 after what seemed to be only 1/2 hours more sleep, actually enjoying the air I was almost catching off the bed from all the rough movement of the boat until I sat up. Suddenly my stomach turned AND I had to go to the bathroom. SO I laid back down rethinking even getting up at all but the cabin was stuffy and I knew opening the hatch was out of the question. I managed to get dressed and get out on deck, sliding over to the hatch of the main saloon (down below) where Scott was comfortably laying in the 'hallway' on top of all the gear that had fallen there along with all the change from the change cans that had fallen over- the place was a mess! I laid down on the settee, thinking the nausea would go away but I still had to go to the bathroom so I sat up not after to long and managed to get to the head just in time to puke. THEN I managed using the bathroom only to have the head not flush so I had to wake up Scott to get me some water quick like so I could get back on deck to the fresh air and hopefully less nausea. Yes the 'light winds of 0 to 5 miles per hour' had turned into more like 25 to 27 and we were pounding through the waves apparently going nowhere fast - the wind had turned to our disadvantage! I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out which was better: being warm and nauseous - below or being cold, wet and not nauseous - on deck. I opted for the later so could be closer to the edge of the boat, only puking 1 more time (along with 3 other people) and even managing to eat 1/2 a bagel at some point much later. HOURS & HOURS later, just about 10 mins after thinking, 'I want to sell our boat - I DON'T want to live like this!!' and just about 2 mins after dredging the thought of taking off and then putting back on the wet clothes I was currently wearing, Dan comes up on deck and says, 'What does everyone think about retiring from the race?' Oh yeah, we had also snapped a sheet (rope holding a sail) and a $75 block from the strange on the boat. 'Whao!, we were going in to the nearest town (and hopefully land, a hot shower and warm dry clothes!!)!!!!' SO we pulled into the nearest town (about 1 more hour of pounding through the waves just before they washed over deck and hit us) and it would be OVER!! The cute, no frills marina had a HOT shower, a restaurant and a phone, which some people were using to rent a car. Scott and I decided to abandon ship, much to Scott's disappointment, and drive with Steve and his Dad to the end of the race. Dan would stay the night and sail down with whom ever was left on board. I made myself feel better by thinking we were making more bunk space for everyone else. We spent the night in a warm and dry Holiday Inn bed. Scott thankfully informed me that that was 1 of the worse 5 sails he'd experienced!

Day 40: Steve, his dad and Scott & I hung out in sunny (Thank God) Portsmouth checking out all the boats that were back. Steve's dad, Rod, being the funny guy he is, took an unofficial survey of how many crew members puked yesterday (one boat had 5). Then we went to a naval museum where we learned about the history of the town of Portsmouth and found a picture of the boat we had seen that play on in New York! Turns out it was an old lightship - a boat that was used where a lighthouse wouldn't work. We can't wait to tell Rebecca! We went to the reception party where Scott ate his fill of oysters (he missed them the previous year) and we even got 2nd place for our time at the 1st check point as there was only one boat in our class that actually finished the race. Also, only 11 out of all the 35 boats finished at all with the weather being so bad. Dan didn't arrive with the boat until 8 pm and we cheered him in and went off to the annual Rum party on one of the boats etc., etc.

Day 41: We took Dan and Rob (who decided to sail with him to South Carolina) to the grocery and hardware store (they decided to build a windshield on the boat) to reposition before we all drove back to Annapolis. We arrived around 7:30 pm, ate dinner, chatted with Ann and Norm about the race events and hurried off to our respective twin beds to sleep, only shortly after Ann telling us that she was having 12 women over for lunch the next day for her book club meeting - ah, isn't is grand being a house guest! No rest for the weary.

Day 42: made my house-guest self scarce by sleeping in until 10, showering and then 'going to the store' to gather a beach picnic lunch for Scott and I (Scott needed some alone time to put the boat paint order together - his last chance). I drove down a near by road that looked interesting and found a new, small park that ran along the water and went for a short morning walk. At the shopping center with the grocery store I first checked out the thrift store and bought a summery dress for 1/2 off ($6)- gotta love sales in a thrift store. Then I meandered around the store picking up lunch and things like dental floss (we have 4 in the storage unit back in Gunnison) and managed to just get up to the check-out in time fir the computers to go down - my plan to stay out of the houe was working better than I thought (however I know Scott might be wondering where I was by now). I managed to get back to the house around 12:30, hungry from lack of breakfast (and crabby to boot) so I walked Scott down the street to the 'beach' not before doning a fleece jacket & socks (it's getting cold hear- we are ready to get to 90% in Mexico) to have a lunch feed. After lunch we drove over to Bacons to place the paint order and got to see some of the Schooner race pics on the computer screen! One of the guys had very cool pics of us falling the 2 Spinnakers! I will bring my card back tomorrow so Steve can have cpopies of mine. This digital thing is quick! Back at Ann and Norms, the flock of women gone, we had a peaceful glass(es) of wine and left over yummy lunheon food for dinner before I spent 2 hours writting the last update and answer e-mails, then to bed.

Day 43: Off to Bacons again to get the paint supply (yeah, I can't wait to see how everything is going to fit in the car). We downloaded my Schooner Race pics to the computer and they looked great! They looked so much better than on the tiny camera screen. Some how I'll have to get them on our website page for you all to see (we didn't bring all the right cords for the computer seeing how EVERYONE has DSL now - sorry guys). A couple of guys from the class sent pics so I'll let you know when I figure that out. We sadly said good-bye to our new friends Steve (whom, I forgot to tell you, was extremely impressed with my LACK of complaining during that un-fun race day - he said I needed a night in a hotel and that his wife wouldn't have been so quite) and his employees that came on the race. Stopped by the fish store to pick up fixings for a 'thank-you' dinner for our lovely hosts - (Ryan) we decided on Rock Fish - it was really good. HAd a lovely dinner and off to sleep.

Day 44: Our big plan today is to repack the car - ah!!!!! and it is rainy and cold. We managed the feat without to much trouble and set out to the Marine Fasteners Store to buy screws since NONE of the deck hardware came with screws- go figure (we are alittle nervous about being able to get boat stuff in Mexico). Scott and I are planning our escape - we will be leaving on Friday (after getting Hilo) and need to hook up with cousins Marty and Johnny to say good-bye and pass on the Schooner Race war stories, I mean details. Scott made arrangements for our couch-surfing back to Colorado and I am updating the log. We can't wait to see Hilo again and sleep in the same bed (it's been twinsy here). Marty invited us over for dinner on Thursday night and we will stay with Hilo at Stacey's so he can get used to us again before with throw him in his cage in the car for another haul across the country. Ann and Norm invited us out to a nice Indian dinner, which was very yummy.

Day 45: Left Ann and Norms today, I even remembered to get a picture of them in the driveway. Scott decided at 3am that we need to go back to Bacons' one last time to get a small shackle for the anchor Steve got a kick out of seeing our 18 ft long yellow kayak ON the truck. The truck by the way is packed to the hilt, Thank God we remembered to leave room for Hilo. One last trip on the Belt Way and we went to spend the night at Stacey's so Hilo could get re-acquainted with us. He was at the door to greet us hello! I think he remembers us! He must have gotten my telepathic messages that we were getting back today because Stacey called to tell us to bring more cat pee cleaner as he peed on something again. We hung out with the furry-man and watched one of Stacey's movies since we didn't know her password for the internet then showered and got over to Marty's for a nice dinner and to caught them up on the Schooner Race. Everyone was there except Marty's daughter Suz so we got to say good-bye to everyone all at once.

Day 46: Packed Hilo in the car (he just fit) and headed out to Louisville, KY back to Amy's house. We settled in to our 10 & 3/4 hour (that's what the map says) drive. Luckily traffic was mostly going the other way so it wasn't to bad. Half way thru we remembered that we have a guitar and 3 plastic grocery bags of more stuff at Jane's house. AHHHHH. No room. This will be interesting. We made it to Amy's around 6 pm after stopping at a store for beer, bread and some chicken salad to keep my blood sugar somewhat normal until dinner. Amy's kittens are noticeably larger even though it has only been just over a month since the last time we saw them. They are very cute. We had a nice visit and even remembered to have me try on the Wetsuit that we had forgotten about on our 1st visit. It didn't fit though so - too bad.

Day 47: Amy sent us off with a yummy breakfast of French toast from the Blue Dog Bread and we left around noon just as it started to rain. Scott said there would be thunderstorms all the way and he actually wanted to wait them out but I was really ready to go. As usual it rained the whole time through Scott's trun at the wheel and as soon as I got behind it the skies turned all blue and sunny (so he made me drive most of the way). We got to Jack and Luella's farm in Cambridge, Il around 6pm. Cousin Dave was there also (I was hoping/thought he would be) and we said hello and piled back into their car for dinner intown. HIlo is delighted to have the whole house to him - he only had 'slinky butt' (they way cats cautiously walk around a new place) for an hour before relaxing.

Day 48: They tell me it is Sunday - I have no idea- so we went out for a church breakfast (people had seen our yellow kayak - it is a small farming town) then Scott and Dave did some work around the farm house - Christmas lights and mouse proofing the house. Then we watched baseball for the rest of the day - well Scott and Jack did (Dave left at 1) and I chatted with Luella, read the paper and some magazines. I managed to go to bed after many more hours of baseball then I am used to because my throat was feeling scratchy. It was nice to chill out though.

Day 49: I woke up with the same scratchy throat but still managed to go out to lunch with everyone. Luella took us through the 'Goods' department store in Kewanee, which spans many buildings and even has a sky walk to get across the street. They have very expensive clothes and very nice furniture. The buildings still had the shuffle boards painted on the floor from when it was some sort of athletic room. Very interesting. Luella took us on a driving tour of: some of Scott's relatives graves & houses and a quick trip to see all the new work Dave has done to his house and a new grain hopper that feeds right into a train - yes we still have farms in the USA - thank goodness. We got back to the house around 3 and were planning on golfing for the exercise but I was tired so Scott and I just went for a walk across the fields and then relaxed before dinner. It felt like Thanksgiving on a smaller scale on the farm - very nice to be with the folks.

Day 50: Woken up by lightening last night so we woke up to a rainy day. I got up just before lunch and then Scott and I drove into town to check our e-mail at the library. We had a lazy day and then Dave (JAck & Luella's son) came over for dinner. We hung out and watched the World Series and then off to bed after we remembered to get a picture of Dave.

Day 51: Time to move on: we ate breakfast and started packing the car, luckily the additional stuff we had waiting for us in IL actually managed to fit in the truck - somehow. We left about noon after packing a lunch. We were only on the road for a few mins. When Luella called on the cell phone to tell us we left a couple of shirts in the closet so we just pulled over and waited for the shirt delivery - thank god for cell phones. She also brought me what was left of the box of tissues I had been walking around her house with for my runny nose, which seemed to be getting better. We had an uneventful trip to Newton, Iowa - except for Hilo freaking out in his 'cage' for about 10 minutes. We arrived around 3pm and Jenny was home from school already and we hung out and watched a movie after getting settled in. We went out for a quick dinner after everyone else got home form work and school and Scott stayed up to watched the World Series afterwards.

Day 52: We packed the car (again) and hung out with Jenny - who was off from school and planning on going over to a friends house later. We made a quick trip to Maytag Dairy Farm to stock-up on their wonderful blue cheese and had lunch with Jane before leaving for Nebraska. The 4 & 1/2 hour drive was mostly uneventful except when we missed an exit to stay on the main interstate we taking - we think because the big trucks blocked our view of the signs (that's my story as the navigator anyway)and we were deep in conversation about something too. I think it was Scott verbalizing a 'new life in Mexico' freak-out that I too had been thinking about lately: that once we get down there we will HAVE to make the 8 hour drive back to the states for SOMETHING and most likely only one of us will go meaning the other one will be stranded in a foreign country alone wondering if the other person didn't get into a car accident or something. I personally feel a little more OK with it since we talked about it and I figure everyone else down there does it so it will work out. So we got to Nebraska around 6:30pm and Matt & Tracey weren't home and not available on their cells so we gave them 15 mins and tried to decide weither to keep driving or pay for a hotel room. First we had to go return the food we had picked up for dinner.(we were going to call them earlier in the day to give them a heads-up but the phone book was packed away in the back of the truck and we didn't feel like stopping) The first hotel we found was in the same town and only $34 plus tax so we took it - I needed some serious down time anyway. We snuck Hilo in the room, which was nothing fancy (but clean) except for the lamps that were made to look like very large candle sticks with dripping wax and all. Scott said, "You won't find anything like that in a Holiday Inn." We watched a little boob tube and went to sleep. After the first train went by sounding it's whistles and all Scott said, 'There's my response if we get caught with a cat in our room - 'well you didn't tell us about the train'."

Day 53: We woke EARLY to start our 12-hour drive from Nebraska to Taos, NM. We managed to get up and sneak Hilo back into the truck successfully and leave at 6:20 am. I started the driving shifts as Scott had been doing all the driving the past 2 days. We were mostly taking the 'principle' highways (not the interstates) as we needed to go SW and none of the interstates go that way. It was a nice change to get away from all the traffic - not that there is much at 6:30am in Nebraska. We drove until we got hungry for breakfast which was about 9 am so we stopped some where in Kansas at a pretty good dinner with a nice waitress. 'Yes, we are on vacation', is Scott's new answer to the usual question of 'Are you on vacation?' 'It is just much easier than explaining everything all the time to everyone.' was his reply to my inquiry. Back in the truck, for more driving: Rt. 156 takes you through small towns every once in awhile and they usually have the very large grain silos along the road. A couple even had huge yellow piles of grain outside, we assumed were corn. We switched drivers around 1 pm so now Scott got to deal with the wind. A windy driving day is a little challenging when you have a 95 lb, 18 ft long kayak on top of your already top heavy truck, I was glad to be rid of the responsibility. It was a nice sunny day and I said it could only be better if 1) it wasn't windy 2) my butt wasn't numb & 3)my cold was gone (if I didn't have a steady stream of snot running down the back of throat -I know too much information-really my cold IS getting better). I managed a nap at some point but woke still in Kansas. We got to see some interesting things eventually: huge feed lots (did I tell you I was starting to rethink meat-eating on this trip?), cool fields of wind generators (they are HUGE and they change patterns as you drive by them - sometimes they are in neat rows, sometimes all scattered around and sometimes 10 of them look like 1 with multiple blades when they all line up one behind the other. We also figured out the extremely large pieces of god- only-knew-what we saw riding on the 'oversized load' trucks were pieces of the wind generators - some looked like gigantic port-a-potties, others like modified air plane wings - just to put it into perspective. My most un-favorite thing was the 5 anti-abortion signs and the 1 (count 'em ONE) pregnancy crisis hotline sign. We hit the New Mexico border at 4:50pm (10 hours on the road) and changed the clock back as we went through the Time Zone (sometimes there aren't signs on the highways to tell you this)! When we stopped for gas the bitter cold wind hit us like a brick. We realized we weren't in Kansas anymore aka in the mountains. I was enjoying how the barren desert landscape of New Mexico always feels like the ocean to me - Scott agreed. And we felt back at home. We saw snow on the mountain pass just before Taos and turned the heat on. We arrived at Bill's house about 6:30pm just in time to have enough sunlight left to unload the marine paint we didn't want to freeze. I called Roxanne to make dinner plans and we met Bill's niece and friend who were busily making Halloween costumes for the Crested Butte Halloween party (they were to drive up to CB the next day). Met Roxanne at our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant for a nice crisp salad (w/lamb and yummy tahini sauce). Took a much needed Jacuzzi bath before heading to bed.

Day 54: Bill called (he is in Colorado with his new girlfriend) in the morning to invite us to a Halloween party in Evergreen, CO - his niece and friend accepted but we had to decline - too much driving to soon for us. Scott stacked some firewood for Bill after we emptied out the rest of the truck (we are leaving a truck load here to pick-up later) and I went into town to get some food. I saw Alice(!)at Cid's (my place of employment when I lived in Taos) and did not recognize anyone else. Roxanne and I went for a WALK (ah exercise - what's that?) along the Rio Grand Gorge rim - very pretty - and chatted. I 'kidnapped' Roxanne for the rest of the day making her our fabulous Maytag Blue Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops for dinner. Dropped her off back home around 8pm and stayed to get my Spiritual Refill chat until 11pm.

Day 55: Sent some emails (this log) after getting up early (even with the time change). Reorganized the stuff we are leaving here, got Hilo in the car and headed to Crested Butte at noon. 4 &1/2 hours in the car seems like NOTHING after driving 12 just the other day, we are back in Colorado. It is even colder here than Taos and I didn't think my Tevas, even with good socks would be good enough so we stopped by the storage unit to get my boots. Scott started reorganizing the unit & I went and sat in the warmer car. He didn't last very long - got overwhelmed - so we drove up to Crested Butte. We stayed at our friend Ilene's house and ate blue cheese & crackers and beer for dinner (no one felt like making or going out for dinner). Scott got on his foul weather gear - his Halloween costume- and went our for Halloween/the evening. I was to spent form all the socializing we have been doing to go and really just wanted to hang out with Ilene.

Day 56: Scott stumbled back home sometime in the wee hours of the morning (2 am he later told me) and I woke up in a crabby mood - seeing how I was hoping I could avoid the Winter this year and didn't want to be back in CB. My Crested Butte love/hate relationship was presently on the latter. I walked over to the grocery store to buy some food, stopped by my old place of employment to make an appointment for Hilo tomorrow (to get his teeth cleaned) and picked up 2 months of mail. It was good to walk around but the 2 months of mail was really heavy to carry back by the way. Scott was just getting up and we spent the next 2 grueling hours opening mail and calling credit cards and the IRS, etc. to clear up our life here in CB. We had to get back to the post office by 4 to see if we could mail our voting ballots to get to Gunnison in time and to drop off the ballots we got by mistake for some other people. We did some other errands and I took another short walk before going out for some pizza. Ilene joined us for pizza and then Scott took off to Jacks house to watch football (& for some male bonding). Ilene & I wound up staying up until Scott got back chatting about what turned out to be some good insights into my non-relationship with my family. We'll see if they'll be fruitful.

Day 57: Scott dropped off Hilo before going to Gunnison to do some errands and I got up and went for what turned out to be a 2 hour 'walk' through snow and mud - but at least it was much warmer out today. Laura called to let me know Hilo was waking up from the anesthesia OK and that he wound up losing 2 teeth:1 was his left fang. Poor guy. I did some more errands in town and then met Scott back at Ilene's (he was going to take me over so I could work with the person who took over my job and then we would take Hilo and move up to Kim and Gilberts). Hilo was still pretty out of it when I got there (I had never seen his pupils so BIG before) and it was really busy but I managed to answer some of Lisa's questions and go over one big thing with her. Kim made a great dinner (she's a great chef) and we hung out briefly before turning in. Scott and I lay in bed discussing all the things he left at Ilene's - we would just go back and get them tomorrow.

Day 58: Kim and Gilbert went off to work earlier than I got up. Scott and I hung out for the morning catching up on bills and the internet then off to town to do more errands and go to Ilene's to get the rest of our stuff and drop off her key. We got back to Kim and Gilbert's around 5, took a nap and then headed over to see Eileen and Jack for dinner. Eileen, knowing our love of Jacks Halibut, made her very yummy Halibut tacos for dinner. We had a slide show of our trip back East and chatted and said good-bye again.

Day 59: Scott got up early to go get the oil changed on the truck, since we had driven about 6,000 miles since the last time we were here 2 months ago. Then we were off to Gunnison to pick up our cabinet that hadn't sold. Luckily Kim and Gilbert said they could use it in their house - barrowing it indefintely. One crisis taken care of quickly. Kim's cat, Chico wound up giving my nose/face a good swap when I was carrying him away from Hilo that evening. 4 years at the Animal Hospital and the worse I got was a tiny scratch on my hand. Oh well. I learned my lesson. Scott, very sweetly, ran out to the health food store to get a couple of suave for my wounds. A couple of shots of Tequila later and I was fine. Kim made another yummy dinner and we watched a Johnny Depp movie while Gilbert went out to band practice.

Day 60: (yes folks, 2 months on the road and YES we are tired) Scott got up early again to have the 50,000 mile check up on the truck. Then we busted back down to Gunnison to go to the accountant's office to get the taxes in some order before leaving the country. We didn't have time to start the dreaded 'storage shed truck repack' so went we out for lunch instead. Back in Crested Butte I dropped Scott off at the dentist for a cleaning and I walked around town to do errands. Later we had another going away party (Kim and Gilbert graciously offered their house) and a bunch of people who didn't make it to the first party showed up.

Day 61: We moved the cabinet to it's final resting place in Kim and Gilberts house and helped with some household chores (put a heat mat under Kim's kiln), then off to Gunnison, again, for brunch and the dreaded 'storage shed truck repack'. I separated the boat stuff out of the unit as Scott packed it in the truck by order of importance, of course. We managed to come away without a huge argument and no room for about 4 boxes. SO we picked through the 4 boxes for stuff we couldn't live without/could fit in the truck and discussed renting a trailer to take the rest. After finding out the one-way rental to AZ would be $350.00 and remembering, more importantly, that the trailer hitch was currently in Taos we decided to sleep on it. Back in CB Kim made another yummy dinner (they are spoiling us) and we watched the Wedding Singer to cheer us up. Oh yeah, I had to deal with menstrual cramps today too. Wonderful.

Day 62: Up to squeeze the remaining stuff into the truck, a quick trip to Wal-Mart, back to the storage shed to get more things we decided we couldn't live without/NEED (our last chance until God only knows when) and off to Taos (only 4 &1/2 hours drive) after some breakfast pancakes. Scott graciously drove the whole way as I chilled out in the truck napping and trying to keep my cat scraped nose out of the sun. We stopped at our favorite Mexico buffet place to eat but it was no longer there so we managed to find another Mexican restaurant. It is Sunday or 'Domingo' (Spanish for Sunday or no work), which paled in comparison. Maybe it was that other place we saw earlier with the buffet sign. Darn. We got to Bill's around 5 pm to find that once agian he was out of town. We had no idea when he'd be home exactly but the time off from socializing is much needed (though we would like to chat with him about bring some of our stuff down AND actually see him). Scott watched some TV while I caught up on e-mails and this log. Off to bed early for us.


Day 63: Last night one of Bills neighbors came over with his dog Bosco and told us that Bill should be back Tuesday (today), what time we don't know. So I slept in a little and managed to get up, shower and clean up a little before going back to bed (I am exhausted). I put in some laundry and decided to go out and do errands and call Roxanne when my jeans were dry. It wasn't until 3 pm I left the house. I went shopping for dinner, printed some digital photos and went and got Roxanne. By time we got back around 6 pm Bill was there. We hung out and I made fajitas. Then I took Roxanne home and crashed early.

Day 64: Bill left for work early and I got up to start doing little things: finish the business cards, write travel instructions for all you friends who will be coming down to visit (this made me realize how easy it must be to take the bus back to the US so I won't have to drive when we need something - it also made me excited about being in San Carlos soon). Scott started working on repacking the truck (for the last time - hopefully). Bill got home around 3 and announced that he was going to the Denver area to visit his girlfriend and do some other stuff, so we had the house to ourselves in a short amount of time.

Day 65: We finished packing the truck and tried to leave room for the stuff we were using and the stuff we were yet to buy. Spent most of the day hanging out and regenerating our energy.

Day 66: We managed to leave around 11:30 and it took forever to get to Santa Fe (only 1 hour away usually) with all the traffic, then we had to take Cerillos Rd (which is always a nightmare) so we could go to a hardware store. THAT took another hour or two. After getting something to eat and attaching a ladder to the top of the kayak and the already loaded down truck we were finally on our way. Luckily it was dark (at 5:15) so we missed seeing the most boring part of the drive through New Mexico and made it to Nogales, Arizona at 1:30 AM. We snuck Hilo into our hotel room and went to sleep.

Day 67: Up, ate a cheese sandwich for breakfast and off to cross the border. MY stomach was doing flips flops because of all the uncertainties: having a lot of new stuff in our truck wondering if we would get inspected, navigating the crazy roads etc., etc,. All went well and we got to San Carlos around 5 pm - just before dark. No one was at the hotel so we treated ourselves to a dinner out at a local place we had been meaning to go to (most of the other Americanized places aren't anything to write home about - ha!) which turned out to be very good - fresh fish and cheap! We got into our room and started unloading everything out of the truck. It was just about then that the first of what would be many of my little freak-outs started (this whole boat thing is very overwhelming - not to mention that I have to figure out a whole new culture/way of life for me). Thank god Laura gave me that flower essence - it seems to help.

Postscript: the road trip is finished - there will be more writings, but I'm not sure how often.