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| Standing guard |
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| We're going to miss this |
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| You can't tell but Santa is in an outhouse He kept sticking his head out to get paper! |
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| Can you see the moon and Venus? |
Saturday, I made a few phone calls – one being to our friend
who is currently leasing our house back in Joplin. She took the news well. After all she’s known this day was coming. After checking Craigslist, we found some free
moving boxes. You gotta love
Craigslist! After lunch at Dunedin
Brewery we were back on the boat where we reminisced about the past six
years. And we discussed the logistics of
just how we were going to pull off this change in our lives. And we tried to remain calm, not counting our
chickens!
Sunday, we rented a storage unit at U Haul. The plan is to start moving everything off
the boat. We will have to load boxes in
the carts, load them in the car and then take them to the storage unit and
unload them. We should have two weeks so
we’ll take our time. After we finally get everything off the boat
we will then load everything into a U Haul truck. We’ll drive the truck and tow the car back to
Missouri. Yep, this will work. Sunday night is prime rib night at Cricketer’s
so we enjoyed a great dinner and drinks toasting the end of a great adventure
– again at the same time we were trying
to remain calm, not counting our chickens!
Until the closing, things can always change!
On Monday we sold the Whaler! We had not included it with NautiNell but the
buyer wanted to buy it too.
Perfect! However, selling the
Whaler definitely pulled at Mike’s heartstrings. He loves that little boat!
We’ve been busy packing all week! We stop for lunch and then pack some
more! Today we went to the Thirsty
Marlin for lunch. It’s been a place
we’ve been wanting to check out.
On Wednesday, November 30 we received the documents for the
sale. These had to be notarized, etc. So
off to UPS! After all that and picking
up more free boxes, we decided to stop in at the Draught Haus. We’re trying to enjoy each day and not get
caught up in just packing, etc. We are about to bring our lives to a major
change of direction. It feels really
strange but exciting!
On Friday after more trips to the storage, we hit a few
garage sales. Just what we need to
do! More to pack! Later that evening we were supposed to go to
a Christmas Party. The trouble was - we
couldn’t find it! So after driving
around a while, we ended up at Molly Goodhead’s for dinner.
Saturday the marina had a cookout for everyone! It was the day of the Christmas Boat
Parade! What fun! For the last few years we’ve been in Marathon
for the boat parade. This is the first
one where we’ve been at the staging area.
The parade started here at Marker 1 Marina and then ended at Dunedin
Municipal Marina. It was pretty cool
seeing all the boats get in line and ready to go. There were lots of them and all decorated big
time! We took the dinghy out in the
harbor so we could see them all.
Monday morning, we were out getting more boxes when Mike got
the call. The closing was happening
today! We got the documents to e-sign
and bingo bango! – the wire transfer was
made! Money in the bank! Which also means NautiNell is no longer
ours. This is really surreal.
So now here’s the plan – we’re finishing the moving. After we have everything off the boat and
into the storage unit we’re taking a road trip to Venice to see Jeff. We’ll
spend a couple of days there. Then we’ll
be back here sometime Saturday. We’ll
load the truck on Sunday and head north on Monday. We should be back in Joplin by
Wednesday! What a whirlwind!
A tidbit of info – When we purchased NautiNell we closed on
December 7, 2010. Now when we sold her
we closed December 5, 2016. Just two
days short of six years!
Now here’s where the story becomes a little bittersweet.
This will be my last blog post on NautiNell’s Adventure. It’s been six years and around 200
posts. I started this blog mostly for me
as a journal and so my friends back home could keep up with what we were
doing. In the beginning, we thought it
would only be for a year. Well one year
turned into another and so on. We’ve had
the most blessed life aboard NautiNell. We’ve
traveled thousands of miles. We’ve seen
things that we never imagined. We’ve met
good people that have become good friends.
Hopefully our paths will cross again.
We can’t start another new adventure until we finish the one we’re
on. So here’s to getting ourselves home
safely and spending time with our family and friends in Missouri. And here’s to Mike finding us a great
RV. We’ll be seeing you all again just
not on the waterway. And as Admiral “C” always says................
Stay tuned!
Till next time!
Admiral “C”
