Some People Learn By Doing; I Learn by Doing it Wrong

A little short of sleep I will leave the good stuff for the next blog. That will bring comments on Jesus Radio, the Crap Lady and Lethal Canadian dope. For now something blander.

We are back in Morehead City. Well, the hotels in Morehead City are way too expensive. We took a very nice room at a new hotel in Greenville, NC at a more reasonable rate. We have to drive a few miles but we have the time and we enjoy exploring a bit.

We arrived by train in Rocky Mount NC only one hour late on a three hour trip. Given the pace of southern living this is on time service. Paperwork at the car rental agency took 2 hours but in fairness we were second in line.

Everyone is so friendly and inquisitive and talkative that people are just enjoying themselves, talking and laughing and listening. Unless you actually want to get something done, you hardly notice how long it is taking. Truth.

We decided against driving direct to the boat from Rocky Mount for a number of reasons. First among these was the illness unto death of the Budget Committee. Within minutes of leaving London Connie developed a truly debilitating nonstop cough and lost all energy. In this condition she road the rails to New York and spent a lovely 4 hours sitting on a bench in Penn Station awaiting our 3:00 a.m. departure to Washington. By this time her diaphram was so sore she was actually crying more than coughing.

As she said "this trip is downhill all the way". Arriving at the hotel in Rocky Mount she disrobed and fell into bed. Consciousness of a sort returned about 9:00 a.m. the next morning. Recovery is slow but steady.

Today, Wednesday, we drove to the boat, climbed aboard, looked at everything and said "Good. We have work to do. Tomorrow."

Actually the boat is in good order. The mechanic cleaned up after himself and both the lazarette and the salon are in modestly good order.

Tomorrow we launch. We have to secure all loose objects as Meredith will go out to calibrate the propeller with the new engine.

We are happy to be back at the boat although we miss the kids quite a bit. Our four months at home were a blessing although in fairness we did not recognize this at first. We are rethinking our planned returns home in light of this. More and longer visits are in order.