Sunny, chilly Florida

Florida has now warmed up for us, but we started writing this blog entry a while back when nighttime temperatures were around 30 degrees (I don’t want to hear it, you northern living folk, that is really cold down here) we’re just slow with the updates (good luck to us when we don’t have internet access!)

Florida thus far: THANK YOU STEVE AND UNCLE JIM! We had a great time with part of Brooke’s family, and got fattened up a little more thanks to their generous hospitality. We were in the Sanford/Daytona Beach area from the 16th through the afternoon of the 19th. From there it was a ride with Matt Longino and family to Boynton Beach (fitting 4 adults, 2 kids with car seats, camping gear, boxes of toys (all Matt’s I’m sure), and a years worth of stuff of ours into one Jeep, glad I didn’t have to ride on top, just got scrunched into the back). Matt, it was great getting to catch up with you and the fam!

So Boynton Beach is where we are now, staying with the lovely Jim and Dorothy, friends from PC Jamaica. We are staying in Leisureville (fondly referred to as Geezerville by Jim and Dorothy) and you would think that our time here would be just that… leisurely. While we have fit in a couple fun puzzles (“Donny, quit hiding the last piece”), our time has been anything but. Our days have been filled with the morning checks of sailing sites for crew wanted ads, the afternoon is spent walking the docks talking with sailors (some of the best story tellers ever) and putting up flyers, and the night is spent posting on more cruising websites and working on sailing resumes. Occasionally we take a break in order to work on the GROW site (it’s actually beginning to look alright www.growinitiative.org ) and this blog.

But between the wonderful adventures we hear about from the sailors, the beautiful weather (yes now it in the 70s where it should be), and everything we are learning about the cruising world (sailing), Florida has been a great start to our RTW adventure. And as for Jim and Dorothy, we can’t even begin to thank them for their kindness. They have been so wonderful and our time here has allowed us to get everything in order for our big trip and look for a boat to get on so we can get going! They are sailors, which has been very helpful as they know the area and marinas- even took us as far as Miami where they used to keep their boat. We have also enjoyed the hospitality of Gareth, another PCJ friend in Ft Lauderdale, which is a great place for trying to get on a boat as it is one of the hubs for the yachting world.

So that’s all for now; from Geezerville, signing off.

Goodbye locks (a back entry)

I guess this was about step 46, sandwiched between buying our camera and the early X-mas celebrations with my side of the family: cutting my hair. Really the photos tell it all. About 15 inches and a third donation to Locks of Love, I now have a short do (if you could imagine a cross between an afro and Elvis, depending on which side of the bed I wake up on). But really, it grows on me every day (get it..it grows) and it will be much better for world travel and conservation of shampoo/water.

The real reason Donny talked Brooke in to cutting off her hair.

We won't make fun of this guy, being he just donated a large sum to our nonprofit, but we'll let the picture speak for itself.

Step ##??: Hitchhiking Florida

Let the gaaaaaames begin! So after countless days of planning and preparation, endless to do lists, numerous packs and repacks, heartfelt goodbyes, and last minute scrambling, (Brooke, did you grab our toothbrushes?) the time had finally come. It was a pleasant moment of relief in the look that Brooke and I shared as we pulled out of the driveway of my parents Peachtree City home in Georgia. It replaced the other looks that come about after spending ten hours a day in each others faces working on two websites, setting up a non-profit and discussing (not arguing about) what is going to fit in two Gregory packs that are going to be permanently attached to us for at least the next year. “There is going to be a big “I told you so” when somewhere down the line we need that 16” cast iron skillet and there is not one to be found! If you just take out that king size canopy mosquito net, I am sure it can fit”

So after an awesome first leg, catching a ride with a long time friend, Mike D, we crossed the Georgia border into the sunshine state and headed to Gainesville, home of the National champion Florida Gators (sorry Carrie and Bryan). After a pleasant stay in the Newberry Inn, a motel critically acclaimed to be “The seediest stop in Florida” with the only offered improvement being the “need of a bulldozer,” Brooke and I carefully marked up our pieces of grade A cardboard and Mike dropped us off at the first gas station heading south. To our great surprise, it only took 15 minutes before we were pretending to know who the Florida quarterback was as we were sharing a ride with Chelsea, a really cool UF student and her extremely laid back cat I guess it is a complement when someone says “I picked you up because it looked like you couldn’t hurt anybody.” Luckily, our backpacks must have been hiding our bone crushing muscular bodies.

After going 20 miles out of her way to help us out, we parted ways with Chelsea at a gas station near the entrance to the Florida turnpike. The initial thought of “see hitchhiking is easy” wore off about four hours into our next leg, as we were still standing in the same spot sucking in gas fumes trying to juggle rocks in an attempt to entertain our way into someone’s car. I don’t think it was my boyish good looks that finally stopped the pickup truck of construction workers that crammed Brooke and I in the back and headed on down the road. We were psyched! Unfortunately our excitement diminished when the driver informed us that he was not taking us to Disney World or to Orlando proper. Oh well, at least we were headed south (I think).

Our next landing spot was still about 45 miles outside of Orlando and it was starting to get dark. The thought of spooning with one of the many gators we’d seen in every gas station on our way down or maybe with the giant pythons that swallow them whole, was giving us plenty of motivation to stretch those thumbs even further. And fortunately, as it has happened so many times, the perfect solution came to us exactly when we needed it. James, a structural engineer who lived only minutes past Brooke’s cousin, stopped for us after less than five minutes of being on the road. The ride and conversation was an absolute pleasure and it left us on the doorstep of our final destination.
So thank you to all of those people that opened up your hearts and doors and made this country just a little bit smaller through your kindness to strangers. (That even includes, you, the nice man who before realizing it, drove us a half mile in the wrong direction leaving us to walk back on the interstate to our original spot. It’s the thought that counts.)

Taking off

This trip really started in Jamaica. Since leaving the Peace Corps in August we have been traveling stateside, visiting family and friends, working as able, and getting ready for the international portion of our travels. Now in Atlanta getting loose ends tied up, dotting i's and crossing t's, it is about time to get going. Heading to Florida to see about sailing away, and if that doesn't work out then I guess we'll be leaving on a jet plane.

Georgia To Panama