Norfolk, VA
To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.
Yesterday, I thought the Badlands were amazing. I'm not changing my position, but when you emerge on the west side of Billings and see the actual mountains, it transcends the mere amazement at the badlands.
It was almost "pull over to the side of the road …
Sh*t just got real.
For me, the center of this journey for me was crossing the Missouri in Bismarck, ND. That seems to be the entrance to the west.
The drive from Jamestown to Bismarck is — well — a lot of telephone poles. The exits have numbers and …
Yes, we crossed Minnesota in a day.
The shift in terrain is dramatic. To me, anyway.
Eastern Wisconsin is rolling, with a lot of low, but steep hills. More relief than the northern part of Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio. Nothing like actual mountains of Western Pennsylvania. Enough ups and downs …
Skipped through a little bit of Illinois. This was a cool parallel with D-Day: start in a huge city and work your way further and further out of town. In this case, It was Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison and then off toward St. Paul and eventually Minneapolis.
After the hustle and bustle of getting out of DC, today was a fun drive. It was fun until we needed to find a hotel. Hammond, IN, is in the greater Chicagoland, so, suddenly all roads are jammed with vehicles.
Dropping the hook at 4-ish makes it possible to find …
There's a complex last-minute dance to get everything done in an order than makes sense. It's as complex as departing a dock in Red Ranger.
Pack the car. This is the high-risk activity. If something won't fit, we'll make last-minute runs to UPS.
Take out the trash. Some things simply …
That wasn't half bad. Red Ranger is in good shape. Surveyor had been all over her. We just ran through her checking on — well — a few things. Battery water, stowage, bilge-pumps. Things look good.
Our old home and our ride to another temporary home …
We're ready.
Friday was D-3 (3 days before departure.) CA unloaded all the cabinets, emptied all the furniture, and stacked things around the apartment. The galley is closed. No more food in the apartment.
Saturday (today) is D-2. We have a U-Haul scheduled …
There are a few ways to get to Las Vegas. The complication is using one of the passes through the mountains. We've decided to follow a northern route. Something like the following
Day 1 I-270 N into Maryland I-70 W into Pennsylvania I-76 W — somewhere in Ohio we'll stop
Day …
We've enjoyed our sojourn in Virginia. Met many wonderful people. Worked on cool things at work. Lived in a luxury high-rise apartment. But.
All things grow, mature, and ultimately change.
In the background, you can see the roof of the shopping mall. It's a boring …
Land Cruise? Good question. Let's review.
A long, long time ago (2009, specifically) we bough Red Ranger. We fit her out for three years. Then we quit our day jobs and took off in the boat for two extended voyages. One to the Bahamas and back up to Annapolis, the …
Why buy a boat and do this live-aboard cruising?
Once upon a time, this was a common question. Finally, I may have found an answer.
I've noticed that when hanging around with boaters and cruisers, they don't ask this question very often. They might ask it rhetorically as …
If we hadn't dropped the hook ashore to make some bank, we'd be planning our migration. However, since we're not going anywhere, what we have as an alternative is armchair sailing. Here's our armchair trip to Florida.
October is when we have the Whitby Rendezvous. The rendezvous is …
Long, long ago, from a city far, far away…
CA and I enjoyed looking at boats and marinas. In the years BC (Before a Craft), we'd make excuses to visit marinas just because boats were so cool.
There's a basic aesthetic of shape to the hull and topsides. There's the …
We've moved our ground base again. After about 16 months in Richmond, we're off to Tyson's Corner, Virginia.
CA bought about 16 boxes from U-Haul: a mixture of medium and small. She bought some tape, too: the brown paper tape is better than the clear.
We don't have too much …
This race is huge. Huge. World-Wide. Organizers said to expect 400,000 people. We were confused by that, but it turned out to be the total number of people attending all of the races. (Not the number of visitors to Richmond looking for hotel rooms.) And apparently, we …
I shouldn't be surprised there's such a thing as competitive rock climbing. As a sailor I know that if there are two sailboats going approximately the same way, it's a race, pure and simple. Maybe not so cutthroat competitive as America's Cup or Volvo Ocean Race, but… All it takes …
After a lot of winter — more than we would have expected for city that's in "The South" — we were happy to take a good long walk along the James today.
Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nghV4SdxgPM. This is what the James River looks like when it's …
Since it takes two to climb, how did we get these pictures? Glad you asked. Rock climbing is all about puzzle solving. And that's your little puzzler.
Top rope climbing is a two-player team sport — one person actually does the vertical ascent part — the other person belays them. The …
It appears that they do this on purpose: they shoot under the railroad bridge, then — somehow — raise the bow up and drop their heads into the water before hitting the next waterfall.
The railroad bridge is after some flat water in the middle of the sequence of rapids.
I …