There’s No Place Like Home

We did it. We are HOME!!

We left home on September 23, 2018 and returned to our mooring on the river in front of our house on June 8, 2020. The 525 days we spent on this journey took us through 21 states, two countries, three of the Great Lakes and 8,586 nautical miles (about 10,000 statute)!!

People have asked us what we liked best about the trip, and it’s really hard to say, but right now I’d have to say it’s the feeling of accomplishment. There are so many highlights – we cruised by the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor three times, and past the Arch in St. Louis. We spent six weeks in Canada and anchored in some of the most pristine areas I’ve ever seen. We cruised Lake Michigan and loved exploring the little towns along the shore. We trudged through The Mighty Mississippi, Illinois and Tennessee Rivers and we crossed the Gulf of Mexico. We spent two months in Key West over the winter. We met hundreds of boaters and shared many, many docktails. We made really, really good friends who we will probably know forever.

We saw so many, many beautiful places on the oceans, rivers, lakes and creeks we traveled, but the coastline from the Cape to home on our last day is just as stunning as any other we’ve seen. We love New England and appreciate it’s beauty even more having been away for so long. I am so superstitious that I wouldn’t allow myself to really believe we were going home until we turned from the ocean into The Merrimack. Our river. When we arrived home on Monday, Danny opened a bottle of Prosecco and we sat on the bow looking at our house and just felt so happy. So proud.

Before we started The Loop we attended a couple of rendezvous to learn about the route and the journey and I remember a speaking saying “When you’re finished you’ll need three things – Weight Watchers, Alcoholics Anonymous and Marriage Counseling”. 😂. She’s definitely right about Weight Watchers and the nightly docktails haven’t stopped even though the trip has. As far as the marriage counseling …….. well, I asked Danny if he thought our relationship is stronger, or weaker having done this trip. In true Danny fashion he said, “we’re fine”. For him that’s a good thing. What I can tell you is that we sat side by side at the helm day after day for 21 months of travel, and I don’t know anyone else that I could spend that much 1:1 with. We talked about the trip, our families, our house, our past and our future, and sometimes we just didn’t talk at all. We argued sometimes (By the way, I learned it’s really hard to “storm” down the stairs on a moving boat when trying to make a point! 😬), but most days we were really, really happy. The fact that I’m writing this in the time of a global pandemic and amidst protests over systemic racial injustice is not lost on me. While we celebrate, many suffer. We are blessed and grateful.

So…..what’s next? We are looking forward to boating locally this summer with friends and family and have lots of work to do on the house….Danny’s already at it. I suspect if I said “let’s do it again”, we’d be out of here in no time, but once was enough. I look forward to more travel on the boat – but not yet – and not for so long!

So, this is my last blog entry. I started it so that friends and family could follow our journey and I’m surprised at how much I’ve loved writing it. I’ll miss it. I hope someday long after I’m gone that my kids will enjoy reading it and getting a sense of what this experience meant to me.

Thank you for following along with us. Peace and Love,

Jodi & Dan