Further Along

Just before leaving the Cape we had the crowd over and made a Polish dinner.  We found a Polish grocery store in Melbourne so we grabbed some great kielbasa and some ingredients to make golabkis and perogies.  It became an extended family project with everyone lending a hand.

Perogies before cooking

Cooked perogies

Golabkis out of the oven

Thanks again Jeff and Linda for hosting us for so long.  And as usual making everything so fun.  We are also missing Aspen Skye and Ginny.

From the Cape we cruised down to Jensen Beach where Mark went to school when Florida tech had a branch there.  We stayed with Terry and Charlene and got reacquainted as it had been a couple of years.  Both grandkids are growing and we got to meet them as well.  The Omicron virus was going and Don and Mary had it.  So we had to visit with them via phone.  Both Terry and Don went to school with Mark.

Charlene and Terry Veatch

After Jensen it was time to head south to Miami.  We stayed with Pat, Peri and Roxanne.  Mark worked with Pat on Mark’s first tugboat job.  Pat’s wife Dawn was pregnant with Peri when they left Seward.  Unfortunately Dawn got sick just after Peri was born and died.  But Peri is growing up fine and is a bright pretty little girl and we are sure Dawn is watching over her from heaven with pride.  Roxanne is Pat’s fiancée and is having fun helping Peri grow up.

Roxanne, Pat and Peri

While in Miami, we also got a chance to meet up with Kate and Petter, friends from Singapore.

Oops, Mark and Petter are blurry

Here is a clear photo of them

Happy New Year

As promised, we are updating our blog on this road trip.  We made it over the Idaho border our first day even with the late start on the 6th and not such good weather in the pass.  The next day we were aiming to hit Salt Lake City and go see the Great Salt Lake.

We had tried to get in touch with friends in Houston and New Mexico to see if we took a northern route or a southern one.  Both parties came back and said come on over.  So after seeing the Lake, we headed to Taos, New Mexico to see Jackie McMahon.

Jackie and us

We knew Jackie from Guam and she has given up the sailing life for a nomadic life in the USA.  We saw her again when she was doing an internship in Alaska.  She also did some visiting nurse time this summer in Wrangell, but we didn't make it although Pauline did get an afternoon visit with her mother.  We didn't quite make it to Taos on the first day and weather was forecast for the passes so we stopped the night in Durango, Colorado and set off for Taos early the next morning.  Great visit in Taos.  For those who have never been, this is a pretty neat stop.  The town is very nice, food and sights are great.

Jackie steered us to go see the Earthship BioCulture village.  

Here the houses are all made out of recycled items and are set up to be as environmentally friendly as possible collecting and recycling water, solar, partially buried etc.  Pretty cool and worth looking into for more info.  We then headed out to view the gorge cut by the Rio Grande.  

The bridge over the Rio Grande

First by starting on top with a bridge over it then a drive down by the river itself, out to a great winery and finally back for some wonderful Mexican food.

After leaving Taos, it was off toward Houston to see John and Anne Morrison and their youngest son Johnny.  We knew John and Anne from Singapore back in the 80s, and have stayed in touch, meeting whenever John came to Singapore or Mark to Houston.  We also rendezvoused once in Northern Michigan for a weekend skiing but it had been awhile as we have now realized we left Singapore more than 11 years ago!

John and Anne Morrison

After a couple of days in Houston we pulled a long day to get to Panama City to see Tom And Kitty DeGroot.  Tom and Kitty now live in Massachusetts.  They were down for some sea trials on a project Tom is working on and gave us a chance to get caught up again.  They have just bought an Island Packet 40 and have cruising plans in their future.  It was great catching up and also finally walking barefoot on a beach again.

Tom and Kitty DeGroot

From Panama City it was straight to Jacksonville in order for Mark to attend the courses required for renewing his license.  It also allowed us to get our car looked at.  The car needed some parts, and hence needed to stay over a couple of days.  The dealer gave us a rental and we drove out to Interlachen to see cousins John and Lauri Sobol at their off grid house for a couple of days.

John and Lauri Sobol

It was then back to Jacksonville to get our newly serviced car and head to Cocoa to see the family there.  We stayed with cousins Jeff and Linda Rowell.  Cousins Steve and Stacy Sobol live next door so we quickly caught up with them as well.  Aunt Anita took us to the Bird Sanctuary at the Canaveral National Seashore to see all the birds that find refuge there as well as a few gators.

Aunt Anita

We then went over to see Aunt Trudy and had such a good visit we forgot to take a photo together.

We also took time out to see Justin and Melissa and went out in the boat with Melissa's father and his friend Deb.  A great couple of days.

Sitting on the sandbar

Shot of the party from the boat

Debbie, Captain Jack and Mark

Justin, Melissa and their fur babies

It is time to move on from the Cape.  Next stop is Jensen then Miami before we turn north again.