April has been very snowy here in CO.....it makes us all the more anxious to "get this show on the road"  (as we have been saying to each other).  We put the house up for sale and received an offer the next day (despite a snow storm) and are now "under contract"!   If it ever stops snowing, the roofers can get here to inspect the roof and complete the inspection process and all that comes with that.   We hope to close on May 15 and head out permanently!  Until then we have been busy packing....we have boxes for goodwill, boxes for storage here in Pods, boxes for storage in Michigan....suitcases with clothes for Michigan (for when we visit there) and on and on...... Bob will make a "preliminary work trip" after Easter, hauling a u haul full for storage there.  Then after we close mid May, we will haul a final load, and begin our "lifelong dream"....(inside family joke)....lets just call it our "big adventure".

Bob will be installing the swim platform he built, finishing some varnishing on doors he started last fall, and the marina will then be dropping the boat in the water!  It seems like yesterday they were pulling it out for winter!....We will then begin the process of loading up the "necessities" for our year long voyage.   I think I might have to convert the guest quarters into a walk in closet!!  Haha.  I believe we will decide that we have way too much stuff that we think we "need" with us!...  But the beauty of having the boat in southern Michigan for a few weeks before we begin the loop, and then again in Rogers City as an early stop, is that we will have access to storage for the "stuff" we thought we needed and determined quickly we don't.  Some of the previous "lady loopers" have offered up the following to determine how many pairs of shoes to have on board....."you take the size of your boat and divide it in half and that tells you how many pairs"... that EXCELLENT advice allows me 24 pair!  now onto the purses.....