Kenneth Grahame, in his 1908 book “Wind in the Willows”, said “nothing is half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats…”  This page seems to sum up what we’ve been doing… Whether you get away or whether you don’t, arrive at your destination or someplace else, or never get anywhere!  We seem to be getting to lots of destinations we hadn’t planned, we do seem always busy, and sometimes it feels like we haven’t done anything in particular.  So he seemed to know our schedule, 210 years ago, better than we do ourselves!

I forgot to put this picture up during my Mom’s memorial service.  No, I did not mark it up… but I am sure my grandfather did.  He loved doing stuff like that!  From the left are my Grandmother Mary, my Mom Marilyn, Aunt Rovilla, Uncle Hollis, and Grandfather Archie Field.  What is almost more interesting than my Grandfather’s artistic embellishment, is the style of hat he put on Grandma.  The Peruvian women wear hats that look very much like that!  Seemingly way too small, and perched on top of their heads.  Maybe Mom’s headgear was inspired by the Statue of Liberty.

So after my Mom’s service, we flew from Sacramento to Lincoln, Nebraska.  We stayed with Cherryl’s Sister and Brother in Law, and spent a lot of time helping her Mother settle into her new home.

Saturday afternoon we drove to Woodland Acres Campground, owned by the SDA church.  A very beautiful site, with camping areas, lots of shade trees, and tempting trails out into open spaces.  So tempting we had to follow some in the rented Lincoln.  I’m pretty sure the Lincoln had never had so much fun before!

Sunday it was finally time to head back to the boat.  As we were waiting for the first leg of the trip, we were notified that we were upgraded to First Class on both flights!  Cool!  The flight to Chicago* went normally enough, but the next flight was something else!  We boarded about 5:40 for our 6:13 flight.  After about 45 minutes, they said there was  some sort of warning light malfunction.  No big deal, we will probably be all set in half an hour or so.  They kept adding 20 or 30 minute extensions onto the departure time, until about 8:30 or 9 they said we would deplane and get on another plane.  So we got off, changed gates, and waited a little while for the new plane.  Then boarded, got all ready, and were told THIS plane had problems also!  But should be fine soon.  So we spent over two hours sitting on that plane before they told us it wouldn’t be going anywhere either… They gave us hotel vouchers and meal vouchers.  It was now after 11pm.  We were planning on First Class dinner on the plane, so all we’d been able to do was snack.  But we’re not going out to dinner at 11:30!  So we boarded again at 9am for the same flight.  Apparently the exact same flight, because as we were sitting there we saw the mechanics enter the cockpit!  Sure enough, they said we’d be delayed a while for mechanical difficulties!  3 for 3!  We were delayed about two hours.  During that time, they let people off if they wanted to walk,  but then got confused about who was on or off, so when the plane was finally ready they made us all deplane and reboard so they could verify boarding passes. Amazing.  We arrived in Orlando only 17 hours behind schedule.  So we got to board into first class 5 times!  Bummer only 2 of them went anywhere…

*Since I’m thinking about my grandparents, I feel like adding this tidbit my Grandfather told me about Peru. (They spent 13 years there doing mission work, if I haven’t mentioned that elsewhere). When they were there, the Peruvian word for a western style toilet was “Chicago”!  The only toilets like that were in the fancy hotels in Lima, and on the porcelain was the word Chicago, where they had been made.  The locals adopted that as the name. Ha!

So now the holiday weekend is over, and work is starting on our boat!  It looked to me like it was going really well, and yesterday I had the courage to ask the fiberglass guy how long it will take from now.  He said only two and a half weeks!  Ouch!  I was hoping only one.  Guess there are many layers, and they have to set, etc.  I’m being taught patience. Sigh.

But with all this time we are getting some other work done that I thought I’d have to put off for a while.  Our new stern thruster should be installed on Monday.  Some other electronic instruments will be upgraded or installed next week too.

What hasn’t made things go any faster is the rain!  We’ve had lots!  We were out of town when the first named storm of the year visited here, but Alberto only ripped the tent the fiberglass man had erected over the repair site.  Not too bad.

So I’m not sure what adventures we will encounter with another two weeks on land, but maybe “Whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular”