A Wild Hair.

Sometime during the summer of 2016, Pete ran across a reference to The Great Loop. Pete asked, “Do you think you’d ever want to do something like this?”

I thought very carefully before answering. (The good supportive wife was thinking, “Yeah, sure, that sounds like fun,” while the cautious, responsible, work-a-holic thought, “How could we ever just drop everything for months on end, not to mention the expense, and abandon our lives as we know them?!”)

“Well, let’s do some research,” I responded.

Amazon “One-Click” is amazing. Within 24 hours I was reading “Honey, Let’s Get a Boat,” by Ron and Eva Stob. I couldn’t put it down, except when I went to work, which was a lot.

I am a devoted caregiver. As a recovering adrenaline junkie, I have spent most of my nursing career in the Emergency Department. I served as a hospital and community Emergency Manager, Red Cross volunteer, amateur radio operator and preparedness advocate. In the summer of 2016, I was working for a small community hospital and I was starting to contemplate retirement. (Pete had been retired for nearly 2 years from the fire department. He had a bit more time to dream.)

As I read the pages and scanned the photos in the Stob’s book, I began to see myself in their shoes. I ordered another book: “Crossing the Wake,” by Tanya Binford, which was truly inspirational.

A couple of weeks later, Pete nudged me again. “Do you want to do this? Someday?” Without hesitation, I said “Yes!”

Thus began our dedicated research and planning for our own Great Loop.