It's Always Something

Chip and I have been working together all day to get our lady, Ithaka, ready for launch.

Yesterday we took her for a "wet run"...a shake down cruise across Oneida Lake and back. All systems were "go"! Captain Chip then checked under Ithaka, went below with his mask on and found a few items not to his liking. The crew here at Winter Harbor only want us to be happy, so they lifted her back out of the water AGAIN and took care of the items overlooked. I am currently doing a load of laundry to make sure the washer-dryer is functioning...We found a Super Walmart close-by and did most of our provisioning...I will be cooking on board tonight! Yeah! (For those of you reading this behind us on the loop~We did find a great little restaurant called The Clam Bar about 10 minutes away last night) While shopping today Chip couldn't believe I didn't want ice cream--I told him, "I am NOT gaining 10 lbs (or more) again this summer!" Chip's got the boat absolutely spotless--and I've pretty much got all our clothes and such put away...a place for everything and everything in its place. My onboard office is set up and we even got all our real estate "month end" reports out today. Hopefully in the next couple of days we will be able to hook up with either Meagan or Rocky to make sure the webcam is working (they both have web cams,too)...GREAT for communicating with those wonderful grand babies! "Helllooo"! Chip took the entire top canvas off to get re-sewn and thought we would have it back today...just got the call about 2 hours ago that it will probably not be ready until tomorrow, so we are here in Brewerton at least until then. I checked weather.com and Wednesday looks like a good day to begin the 2nd leg of this journey. We ran into a fellow at Walmart who recognized Chip from the marina and he mentioned Picton as a good place to enter Canada, so we are checking on that as an alternative to Kingston....that would be perfect because we were hoping to see Chip's brother-in-law Bill who lives in Picton! Gil called today and wished he was here...Chip suggested he and Pam meet us somewhere up near Collingwood the 3rd week of July. I sure hope they can make it! Meagan and Jay will be in Canada, not too far from where we expect to be, in the next couple of weeks, too! How wonderful it would be to meet up with them and see our sweet little Paige along the way! Amazing! We got to talk to Paige today while she and her Mommy were having a latte at Starbucks! Then Meagan sent us a photo! We talked to or emailed the office a few times and Sam and Krista are handling everything wonderfully! It won't be long and we might be out of touch for days on end, so it is good for now to hear from one and all...Thank you Mom, Bobby & Amelia, and Rocky and David for calling, too! Yikes! I think they miss us!

Well, it is good to be back on Ithaka. It really didn't feel like we had been away for nearly 10 1/2 months. Wow! Everything just seemed to fit together like we had only just left her...It is comfortable here on Ithaka. We are happy and even when "its always something", like getting her hauled out again, or the canvas not being ready, it doesn't faze us...This is where we are meant to be...and for those of you travelling along...we wish you were here, too, but you are always with us in our thoughts and prayers.