Mer Sea

Okay, okay, I’ve been horrible about updating the website!! I admit that when we finally got back here to Punta Gorda, and got our computer fixed (this wasn’t actually fully accomplished until we had been “home” to Atlanta and had a kind friend who works for HP look at it), I was DONE!!! But several of my loyal readers are letting me know that it’s time for an update, so here goes…

 

We are loving being back in Punta Gorda!! The dock here at Burnt Store Marina is full of friends, old and new, and it truly felt like coming home. In fact, the most interesting thing happened: a couple of days after getting here we flew to Atlanta to spend some time at home and see all our various doctors and pick up the car, etc. It ended up being a couple of weeks because of some unexpected dental work, and when we finally got back to Mer Sea, I looked at Roy and said, “You know, it feels like we’ve just gotten HOME.” It was curious that I felt that way having just come from our house in Dawsonville, but at the moment, this really feels more like home than the house.

 

And a good thing it does, too, because we are currently in the process of planning a LONG trip: the Great Loop. America's Great Loop is the continuous waterway that circumnavigates the eastern portion of North America - along the Atlantic seaboard, across the Great Lakes, through the inland rivers, and around the Gulf of Mexico. There are numerous routes one can choose, and we plan to go up the Hudson River (won’t entering NY harbor and seeing the Statue of Liberty from the water be spectacular???) to the Erie Canal as far as the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario, across the lake to the St. Lawrence Seaway. Then on the Seaway to Montreal, back down to the Rideau Canal from Ottawa to Kingston, Ontario, then on the Trent-Severn Waterway to Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. Mess around in the Great Lakes for a while, across the North Channel to Lake Michigan, then down the eastern bank of the lake and over to Chicago. From there we take a series of “Western Rivers” including the Illinois, Mississippi, and the Tombigbee Waterway, with side trips on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, before popping out in the Gulf at Mobile, AL, and making our way back here to Punta Gorda! Whew!! It’s anywhere between 5,000 and 7,000 miles, depending on the route and side trips, and will take the better part of nine months to complete!

 

As you can perhaps imagine, we are very excited, and have lots of planning to do. We have just come home from spending a delightful afternoon with two “loopers,” as we call ourselves, who had lots of great information for us, and encouragement and tips as well. They told us about the camaraderie we’ll experience along the way with others who are doing the same basic trip, and the beauty and fun and wonder we can expect.

 

Stay tuned for more information about our float plan – at this point we’re expecting to leave Punta Gorda in late March and head for the Keys (we still haven’t made it there!) for our first segment. Beyond that, it’s all still pretty much up in the air, and holding until we’ve gathered the rest of our information sources in order to do our planning. The only obvious thing is that we don’t want to be too far north too soon, and don’t want to stay past about mid-September in the Great Lakes.

 

I’ll try to update this website regularly with information about our whereabouts, plans, and adventures. Keep checking!!