T minus 4 & 3

Actually this adventure began many years ago, but our dream has finally arrived.  We took the plunge and bought the boat that I had selected after a long (15 year) search. So here we are in Slidell, LA loading and getting ready for the trip to Chattanooga.

The purchase of our boat required the sale of our Gatlinburg cabin which came from Uncle Jim.  It was his favorite place, but the cabin was just too far from Atlanta for us to use.   I always loved the mountains, but getting out on the water was just as strong a desire as watching a mountain stream.  Of course, right when we finally decided to make the leap and sell, the real estate market and everything else went in the tank.

So it seemed very interesting that when we went to pick up our rental SUV for the trip down and it wouldn't hold all the stuff that we had to bring, we looked across the lot and there was a mini-oh-my-god-van that seemed to be waiting for us.  Now neither Regina nor I are mini-van people, but it was the only thing that could do the job. We worked a deal with the agent to take it and when we got home and looked at the license plate, the car had Blount County, Tennessee tags on it.  Now unless you are from East Tennessee, you probably don't know that Knox County, Sevier County (Gatlinburg is here)  and Blount County are in the area where I grew up.   So the cabin once again had a play in the trip!!

Departure Day minus 4 was the drive to Slidell. Pretty much uneventful trip. Took us about 7 hours. And this crazy mini-van burned only 20 gallons of gas for the trip. The rear end was almost dragging the tires and it did just fine. It seemed like the next 7 hours after we got here was used up unloading. Somehow we got all this stuff on the boat. Finally organized and it's now day T minus 3. 

Today was productive.  Defrosted and cleaned the cockpit refrigerator. Found new windshield wipers. Got flares. Figured out how to work the radio, DVD, CD player and TV!!  Went grocery shopping and had cocktails on the rear deck about 5 PM.   At that point, it began to seem like this was  real and not a dream that was just going to end with an annoying, buzzing alarm. 

Departure is scheduled for Wednesday morning. My buddy Tom, from Maryland, will get here about noon on Tuesday.  He and his wife have been great friends for almost 30 years!  All of the final preparations have to get done after he arrives. Hopefully not much will be left to do.  The real adventure begins soon!!