Ahoy and a hardy “Welcome Back” to ya! We are, once again, back on Therapy all un-winterized, sporting new flybridge cushions, shiny clean and well stocked for this next adventure—whatever that turns out to be. 

Last we left you, the boat was being pulled out and dry-docked in preparation for winter. We left Therapy at Herrington Harbour Marina in Deale, MD in early October and rented a car to drive home. Prepping the boat for being out of the water meant draining all water out of the tanks and emptying out all the food. We loaded up a small SUV with all the stuff we wanted to take home for sixths months and took off!

My back was on the mend and we were really looking forward to road—tripping this part of the country. The drive through Rockfish Valley, VA and the Blue Ridge Parkway was gorgeous. From there to Knoxville, TN was just as beautiful and I’m glad we drove instead of flying. 

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While home, we spent time reconnecting with friends and family, enjoying our new master bathroom, and preparing our house to put on the market. We also managed to avoid COVID and get our vaccinations in preparation for heading to Canada eventually-Ha! (Don’t think that’s going to happen).

The most dramatic event for us happened in April 2021 when we sold the house that we built 20 years ago. Our “dirt home” sold quickly (as did a lot of real estate at that time). We hauled some things to storage, sold other items and cleared out 20 years worth of stuff. It’s eye-opening to find out that things you thought you would never part with become not so precious when you think about packing and moving them.

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May 19th we road-tripped right back to Maryland with a stop-over in Greenville, SC where we met up with Tom’s brother Mike and his lovely wife Denise. We were able to spend two nights with them and explore a bit of Greenville. What a cool town that I’ve never heard of! It was another in the long list of places I didn’t know I needed to see and am happy that I did.

We kept our slip in Deale, MD at Herrington Harbour Marina until the end of Memorial Day weekend but hopped back over to St.Michaels for one night. We were FINALLY able to attend a Looper function in person and entered Therapy into a Looper Crawl. The Looper Crawl is sort of like a Pub Crawl with people climbing on and off different boats to check them out. There were around 10 or so vessels of different shapes and sizes on this particular crawl. 

We met lots of people who are in the planning stages of doing the loop—sort of where we were in 2017-2018. I felt as if we were conducting an Open House as future loopers asked all sorts of questions about Therapy. What year was it built? How many guests does she accommodate? What’s the washer/dryer situation? I think we had a couple of interested buyers if/when we decide to sell. Everything’s for sale…right?

Having been back just a week now, we plan to spend a little more time traversing the Chesapeake Bay, then onto the Delaware Bay and  up to the Jersey Shore. Because Tom grew up in PA, we plan to head back to his hometown to catch up with a high school buddy at some point. Maybe I’ll post a high school picture of him if I can get my hands on one.