Life without all the Stuff

We are within a few hours of closing on our house in Austin, and it occurs to me that I have spent a lifetime of accumulating "stuff", and now I am shedding it faster than a cat sheds her fur in springtime. It is freaking me out!! Have you tried to live your life without a car? Everywhere we go, we are constantly walking, or riding our bikes. I am losing more weight, as Shelley and I have walked at least 7 miles today in and around Charleston. We are always asking at marina offices if there is a car available, but most of the time there is not....so we walk. and Walk...and walk.

I have also spent more time in a grocery store in the past 25 days than I have in the past 25 years. People look at men funny when you are in the grocery store pushing that cart around at 2 or 10 in the morning. For me, this is weird. But I have to say I am becoming a good grocery shopper, able to tell the best bananas from the too ripe ones. Shelley still calls me a rookie however.

So instead of my life's routine of heading off to work, I now check the weather, and plan the day. Where are we going over the next week, and where will we stay each night. You have to plan for the important events, like where we will do a pump out, and where is the next grocery store. No more planning for sophisticated estate plans. No, I am planning every day things that we need in boat life. Food, water, beer, bananas, and pump outs. At the end of this trip, we both will need to de-tox at some alcohol clinic.

Then there is the weather. Rock Chalk is a very safe and sturdy boat, and most of our travels are in the Intercoastal, where we are not as concerned about big storms and high seas. But big winds in thunderstorms with lightning all around when you are on a boat is a bit disconcerting. No sweat though, Rock Chalk has a good navigation chart plotter that tells me where I am at all times as long as I have a GPS connection. If that goes, then you will see me panic. Knock on wood.

We have talked to many of you about joining us for some leg of this adventure. I hope you all can find some time to experience this. Remember, its sophisticated camping. There are sacrifices one makes on a boat, but all in all its pretty comfortable. Our grandsons' Max and Leo and granddaughter, Rylee, and daughter Shana, will join us for the upper part of the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware canal, and then a couple of days cruising up the outside of New Jersey on our way to New York. They will get a chance to see the fireworks over the 4th of July at the Statute of Liberty. Cool.

Jay and Anne Carey will join us for the lower part of the Chesapeake, and believe me I am preparing my long list of questions about the ocean for Anne. Keith Carmichael has suggested an app for the iPad that lets you look and identify all the stars in the sky. I think Shelley has that app, but we have not used it yet. Maybe Keith can show me when he and Robin visit.

But for now, I am busy each night planning the next 8 days it will take to get from Charleston to Norfolk, Virginia. We are going to do the Dismal Swamp route, which should be quite interesting. Rock Chalk is alot like the Sundance Kid. You remember the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Remember the part when he is shooting cans off a fence post. The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) can't hit anthing until he rolls one way and shoots before he hits the ground. His line says it all..."I am better when I move". Rock Chalk. Marc