T minus 5 Days and Counting

I am writing this on July 5th from the ranch in Missouri. We have been very busy getting ready to go to Florida and move on the boat. We are really moving from one house to another. The problem is that we are not sure what to expect. Our plans are totally TBD. We know we have a slip in a marina through the end of July, but have no firm plans after that. I have done extensive investigation to determine what options we have, but we won't know what we want to do, until we spend some time living on the boat in the summer heat of central Florida. We are both excited and nervous. We make plans and then decide that we just have to wait to see if that will work. We keep referring to the old saying, "You don't know, what you don't know".

One of the biggest mistakes we made when we moved from our old house to the RV was that we thought we knew what we were going to want and need. We made a number of purchases that turned out to be a waste of money. We don't want to do the same thing this time around, so we are only buying essential items and waiting until we get to Florida to buy most things. We are very eager to find out how we will decided to live our daily life.

The past three weeks have been a bit crazy. The first major thing that happened was that we sold both of our current boats. We had a 1986 Ski Nautique. She was my pride an joy, but I found some rot in the structural wood about two years ago. I know it is a reclamation project and am certainly not up to the task. It is still usable for now, but the work will need to be done. I put the problems in the add and asked $2000 for the boat.

My 1986 Ski Nautique 2001 - I loved skiing behind that boat

We also had the Hunter 22 sailboat that we purchased to learn how to sail in April of 2018. I have spent many hours working on her. I learned many new things about working on sailboats, that knowledge should be useful. I also logged over 200 hours sailing her last summer/fall. We bought her for $2400 and put about $1500 into the refit and new tires for the trailer, but I knew sailboats are tough to sell. So, we advertised her for $1000.

Our 1983 Hunter 22 - I really came to love this boat. 

Kim and I discussed these boats many times and came to the conclusion that we needed to sell both of them. We would not be using them and that would just cause them to degrade. We could also use the storage space that they are currently occupying.

I tried to find buyers, but could not get any takers, so I decided to list them on Facebook Marketplace. I finished the listings at 11AM on Thursday, July 13. By 2PM I had committed buyers for both boats. I showed and delivered the Nautique that evening and the Hunter the next afternoon. Wow! that was amazing. Just one more thing that needed to happen, and it just fell into place. Now we have room in our inside storage for both of our vehicles. That will be needed when we are gone sailing for extended periods.

Our Daughter and SIL were heading to Puerto Rico for the week of June 15 to 22 to take part in a mission trip with members of their church. We would be taking care of 5 kids age 3 to 15 for a week. We started the week by bringing them out to the ranch for the weekend. They like the ranch and we could spend time riding around the beautiful place.

This is a rock feature we call "Lava Rocks". It is a big waterfall when the water is flowing in the creek.

Here is a shot of the same feature with water running over it after some big rain back at the beginning of May. 

Will on Kim's quad

Will helping Amelia get geared up for a ride.

Isabella on the quad

Even Jake participated and rode the quad. We had a good weekend. Then we went back to their house in Ozark and went through a week of summer school for 3 of the 5 and countless other activities. It was a crazy week, but that is what is so great about our lifestyle. We get to spend quality time with all of the grands and really develop a relationship. At the end of the week we were exhausted.

Much of our time over the past month has been spent watching Will play baseball. I love Little League baseball. It reminds me of the time I was the coach at these same fields. I still say it was one of the best times in my life.

Will playing 3rd base. This was a night when he hit a 3 run home run. 

Will's team started out dominate in the league winning their first few games, but something happened late in the season. They went into the tournament seeded first, but lost their first game and sadly, the season was over. Both the kids and coaches were in shock.

I decided it was a bad way to end the baseball this year, so I took Will and my other grandson, Connor (that was in town) to the Springfield Cardinals game the next night. Our good RV friends Dick and Cathy were in town, so they came along and we had a great time. Springfield made it exciting and won in 10 innings.

Will, Connor, Me, Dick and Cathy

I love spending time with these two. I think they had fun at the game. 

That just about catches up this blog. We are now doing our final planning and packing. We will move the trailer to a storage location on the ranch to free up our full hook up site. We will then load the truck with everything we think we might need on the boat. We will make the 16 hour drive over two days arriving on July 10. We will slowly unload the truck into the boat as Kim does her magic with the packing and organizing. At some point, we will take our new boat on her maiden voyage with us at the helm. I can't wait. I will write all about it in my next entry.