2 Days Until Cast Off: ...Or Maybe 3 Days

So much has been going on at the boat and the house, Todd and I are starting to get confused!  We've been traveling so frequently between Lake Erie and home there's little time to consider anything in between.  The final permanent move to the boat will be welcome, if not just to know we can sit down and think about one thing...the adventure itself.

Friday evening we had our friends and neighbors over to the house so they could become acquainted with each other.  All of them have followed us through our two winter trips to Florida but have never met.  The friends have always left little mementos at our house to let us know they miss us and want us to come home.  The neighbors have always wondered about the mementos and taken care to hide them hoping to keep us out of trouble.  We love both our neighbors and friends very much.  Through this meeting, we're pretty sure there is going to be a great deal of adventure on the home front with a new cooperation between friends and neighbors.  We'll make sure to include that adventure in our story telling here on blogspot.

Our son, David, had his 20th high school reunion during this weekend, as well.  He was coming and going just as we were flying around like crazy people.  We were glad to see him before our cast off.

Always good to have a sailor around!

Oh yes, and our ADT alarm system was installed on the same afternoon as our party!  Truly an interesting day, especially since the system wouldn't set up as it was supposed to.  So now we wait for the ADT installer to get back to us today or tomorrow to finish the job.

Sunday, after our last appearance at our home church for a while, we went to breakfast our good friends, the Bells, who will eventually leave us at Ocean Breeze.  From there, we went to Bay Point for our feast and send off with our good boating friends, the Alms and the Warburtons.

Seafood-fest 2010 provided as a going away present from our good friends and boating buddies.

In all honesty, our adventures in boating began with these fine folks.  We have traveled all of our lake adventures with them.  We just wish we could take them on our adventure...and I think they wish they could come too.  They will be joining us at different points of the adventure and we look forward to sharing it with them.

Yesterday, we had all the carpeting in the boat cleaned.  It looks GREAT!  I don't see how we can keep it that way but we sure will try.

After the carpet cleaner finished, we had a surprise visit from two more friends who have been out of boating for some time now.  We've been able to see the Hanolds in trips to Columbus but just not as much as we'd like.  I don't think there is a week that goes by without Todd and I wondering how they are doing.  We needed to take Ocean Breeze out for one last shakedown and having the Hanolds and Alms onboard made it just that much more fun for us.  Ocean Breeze ran well and all systems seem ready for the long trip ahead.

We came back home last night and have loose ends to tie up today and tomorrow.  Hopefully we will be able to go back to Ocean Breeze tomorrow evening and basically say our final goodbyes to our home for a while.  Should everything go as planned, Todd will drive the car back on Thursday afternoon and our good friends, the Bells, will return him to the boat.  We will wait until Friday to cast off from Bay Point and begin our adventure, weather permitting.

PS We were able to enjoy one last Wilson's hamburger with our favorite couple, Todd's brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Vernice Russell.

See you two love birds next spring ;-)

 AND the security system set-up was completed and is functioning well.  Hopefully we won't set it off and bring the police department over for our send off from home!