Pat and Trina Come to Call!

Boy has the first month of living aboard gone by quickly! We've settled in pretty well, and the pups are figuring things out nicely. We haven't solved all of life's mysteries just yet (like how to keep from going to the grocery store just about every day, and how to make one week's worth of clothes last for 2 weeks so that Laundromat trips are fewer and farther between) but we are getting there.

This Friday we had a great day...our friends Pat and Trina from Atlanta visited us for the day. It was great! We had beautiful weather, and took a nice day cruise. We went up river to Soddy Creek and stopped in at Shady Grove Harbor Marina. This is one of our favorite little marinas to stop in for a snack and to walk the pups. (It is also where we purchase our fuel.) It was beastly hot, so it seemed that ice cream was in order. We won't say exactly who, but a number of our party had seconds on the ice cream!

The day ended too soon, with P & T needing to depart by about 5pm, but promises were made that they would visit again soon!

We had such a nice day, that we decided to make a return trip on Saturday, and spend the night at anchor in a cove at the end of Soddy creek past Pine Harbor Marina. There is a boat launch here with a small wooden dock, and we figured that we could use this as dog walking central. There is a bridge that we had to make sure we fit under (clearance 16 ft.) but we had snuck under it with Pat and Trina, so we knew that as long as the water level was the same we'd be fine...and we were.

It was a beautiful anchorage, although the weekend traffic was a bit messy until about 8pm. After that we had the place to ourselves pretty much. And we had some really good dinghy/dog walking practice. They aren't too wild about the whole process yet, but they are getting accustomed to it in bits and pieces. It won't be long, and they'll think that it is grand fun!

One new addition since our last post is our new grill. We decided that life would simply be better if we could grill. So...here's our new grill. We tried it out on Saturday night for some turkey burgers...it's great to have a grill in the mix again!

So...all for now. Next weekend we have another treat, when we'll be meeting Rich and Verna in Chattanooga for some fun. They're coming to Chattanooga to see us as an extension of their trip to Atlanta to see Gabi perform with members of the Atlanta ballet! More good times ahead!

Happy 4th From Our New Digs!

Happy 4th of July!

Well...we made it. We moved up to the boat on Monday this week, and officially closed on the house on Tuesday. It's a bit hard to believe, but we were able to get everything done that needed to be done, and everything is progressing about as expected.

Now having said that, in all truth, we aren't 100% settled on the boat. We are still sorting through clothes, and odds and ends...figuring out where to stash everything that we thought we wanted to have with us on the boat. And no surprise...there isn't room for everything! So we have de-prioritized a few items, and are thinning our clothes a bit more to make room. We figure it is a process that will take some time to get fully figured out. The pups seem to be settling in, and we are working on getting them accustomed to more "people stimulation" than has been their norm. But so far, so good.

One little speed bump that surprised us happened last Friday afternoon...we found our stair carpet wet in the house. Uh-oh...we looked up and saw water dripping from the ceiling. Long story short...one of our A/C units in the attic had experienced a clog in its drain line, causing the drain pan to fill to overflowing, and voila...an unexpected problem to deal with. Thankfully, we were able to schedule both an A/C repairman, and a painter/handyman over the weekend to fix the problems with both the A/C and the ceiling repair. We really, really didn't need this aggravation at this particular point in time, but it worked out along with everything else.

Here's the damage from the leak...it's a spot about 2' wide by 3' long.

 

 

Here is a shot of the storage locker, as we're getting ready to close it for the last time. You'll note that the golf clubs are right at the front for easy access...

 

 

And one final shot of the house as we were leaving for the last time. This is taken through the front window of Rob's truck as Sandy is pulling out...sigh...

 

 

Brand new carpet! We really like it...makes a big difference.

 

 

And finally, a pic of our new bedspread...it has been a surprisingly long process to find just what we were looking for, but we're happy with the final result.

 

 





One last note...we actually took a breather yesterday for a couple of hours and actually used the boat for what it's intended to be used for...cruising! The weather has been really messy all week, but we found a few hours of nice weather yesterday afternoon and cruised out around the lake for a bit...very nice, and very relaxing.