A Brief Retrospective on the Great Loop

Well...we've been "done" for a couple of weeks now, and we promised some final thoughts. It would be really easy to get all sappy and teary-eyed over how special this journey has been. But, rather than us going down that road at length, allow us to simply say that it has without a doubt been the trip of a lifetime. It was quite simply...extraordinary. It is impossible to briefly summarize all that we have seen, all that we have done, and all that we have learned. However, the people that we've met - whether acquaintances for a moment, or friends for a lifetime - will have the most lasting impact on our lives.

So...with that, allow us to toss a few statistics your way for your perusal...

• Our trip lasted 730 days. From the day we left Chattanooga, to the day we crossed our wake was exactly 2 years.
• We traveled a total of 9,427 miles on the loop, and so far, we have cruised over 11,000 miles in all.
• We spent 664 nights in 169 marinas; 32 nights at anchor; 28 days on free or lock walls; and only 9 total days were consumed at boat yards (mostly for planned maintenance projects)
• We spent $8,461 on fuel...3,647 gallons in all at an average price of $2.32 per gallon.
• Actual operating time on our engine for the entire trip was 1,273 hours.
• We averaged 2.59 mpg, and burned on average 2.86 gal per hour.

In the category of things we know for certain:

• We made more wonderful memories than we can count.
• We learned more than we imagined possible.
• We didn't regret for a moment deciding to pursue this adventure.

 And in the category of "We Have NO Idea" are the following:

• How much we spent on marinas? A bunch.
• How much we spent on food? Also a bunch.
• How many gallons of ice cream we each devoured? We don't really want to know!

As for the immediate future, we are cruising up the Tennessee River towards Knoxville. We have a slip rented for the boat, and a condo rented for us. Sandrobber is up for sale, and we hope that someone with similar dreams can enjoy her as much as we have.

All for now...thanks for following along with us...it's been a terrific ride! We promise to post some additional blogs in the days ahead. Stay tuned if you like...