East Bound and Down (again)

"By the time we get to Missoula, you'll be rising..........".

By the time most of you read this, we will be off on yet another one-way, cross-country highway adventure to rejoin our Great Loop adventure.  Once again, our steed is drawn from the stables of Budget rent-a-car.  And loaded with enough stuff to (hopefully not) sink a ship.  Our home is back in the custody of family and friends.  And our mail is once again in the care of St Brendan’s Isle.  (See 05-19-2020 post)

With Irish Lass awaiting us in Michigan, our trip is a bit shorter this time.  Just 1,945 miles with 4 sleeps.  Billings, MT; Jamestown, ND; Minneapolis, MN;  Geneva, IL.   (The last two are “family” stops.)  This will be our first visit to The Flickertail State (Motto: “Strength From The Soil”).    We can’t wait to see the billiard-table flatlands resulting from the 1950’s US Government Mountain Removal project.  And we are excited to see if all that fracking and tar sands make gas any cheaper.  All the time mindful of the fact that, were it independent, North Dakota would be 5^th on the list of countries with nuclear weapons.  (Maybe their motto should be “Strength From  Mutually Assured Destruction”?)

We expect to arrive at Eldean Shipyard mid-day on Friday, July 15, where we expect to see Irish Lass out of storage and floating in a slip.  Then its clean, clean, clean and stow, stow, stow.  Not to mention things like reinstalling the anchor and the dinghy and checking all systems to make sure they are ready to cruise.   By the 18^th, we expect to move aboard.  On the 19^th, we will leave Eldean to meet our new best friend, Chris, from Canvas Innovations who will install a beautiful new front bridge enclosure for us (and relieve us a of a few Boat Units*).   

If all goes as planned (listen for God’s laughter), we will be officially underway by July 22.  Our initial cruising plan  has us proceeding north on Lake Michigan from Holland to Ludington, MI, where weather permitting we will turn West and cross the Lake to the Wisconsin side in the vicinity of Manitowoc.  This will allow us the shortest possible crossing ( a distance of about 58 miles), arriving on the shore of The Badger/Bratwurst State in the closing days of July. 

August will find us gunkholing around Sturgeon Bay, Green Bay and Doer County in  Wisconsin.  The Doer Peninsula is reportedly a boater’s paradise, and we are anxious to explore it.  (More details to follow as we figure them out.)  Who knows, we may even visit Oconto, WI, the place of Irish Lass’s birth at the Cruisers Yachts manufacturing facility.

As the calendar shifts toward Labor Day, we will work our way south along the western shore of Lake Michigan, with stops in Sheboygan, Milwaukee , Racine, Port Washington and on into the coastline of the Windy City. 

With holiday behind us, we will embark on the next section of the Great Loop, the Western Rivers, with a goal of reaching the Gulf of Mexico by November.    And THAT will be a whole other adventure.  Stay tuned!

 Breaking News:  Our Ride is Here!

May we present the Spirit of DeSoto, a 2022 Chrysler Voyager minivan.   

In keeping with our conquistador tradition, we named her for Hernando De Soto, who “discovered”  the Mississippi River (at least in European-conquest-via-infectious-diseases sense) during his 16^th century wanderings north and west of  Florida.   The DeSoto Adventurer was also an  early Hemi-powered offering by The Chrysler Corporation in 1956-60.   (Voyager, Adventurer , potato, potatoe, close enough, eh?)     Regardless, The picture below captures both points of history well, don’t you think?

 

DeSoto discovers the Mississippi!

Apparently purpose-built for folks like us , she is aimed squarely at  the open interstates (and gasoline supply) of the northern plains.   She offers decent gas mileage and ample space for fur-Admiral Maggie to lounge, in addition to room for the big pile o'stuff we always seem to take along on these trips.  We pray she will serve us as well as her predecessors.   Driving impressions to follow…….

Thanks for following!
Wade and Kathleen and fur-admiral Maggie. 

 

* Regular readers will recall that a Boat Unit is a private virtual currency traded among boaters and marine service providers.  Despite supply chain issues, recent inflationary pressures, corrupt Italian satellites, and the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee, these are still trading at about $1,000 each.  There is great, if short-term, comfort in denial.  As in, “Ah, its only a couple of boat units to fix that.”   Sheesh.