Beloved Peg

...Our beloved Peg...married to Cliff for 11 happy years....

We sailed back from the Bahamas as fast as we could so we could drive home to PA to attend my Step Mother's Celebration of Life service with my Dad and family. We arrived back in Vero Beach last weekend, secured a Hertz rental car and drove to PA Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we were at home and Thursday, we attended the beautiful Celebration of Life service at the Lititz United Methodist Church. The music, sharing, message and stories were all so heartwarming. Peg was a special person, kind and caring, and she was a great wife to my Dad. We are glad we were able to attend the service and be there with our family. After the service, my Dad hosted a wonderful luncheon for 75 people.

1. Sail to USA. 2. Drive to PA. 3. Drive to BWI
4. Fly to Orlando. 5 Drive to Vero

After another day at home, we drove to Baltimore, turned in our rental car and flew back to Florida on Jet Blue. The rental car companies have a deal that is called Drive Our of Florida. If you take a car north from Florida, you can rent it for up to 14 days for $8.99 per day with unlimited miles and no drop off fees. So, we drove a car north and we flew back. Our flight back cost $59 each. This was the most cost effective way for us to get from Florida to home, to the service and back to FL.

This process will be repeated next week. We will be storing our boat for the summer in Stuart Florida and will be renting a Drive out of Florida car and driving to PA. For now, we are in Vero, working on packing up the boat, off loading food and clothing, removing the sails and canvas. Once hauled out on May 9th, we will install a full sun shade (more on that later). After the boat is stored, we will happily visit some more friends in Florida and then drive home to PA.

The passive Solar Home we built

We plan a summer at home working on our house and we have a few trips planned as well. It is always sad to be out of the Bahamas, because our time there is always relaxing and peaceful and the water and beaches are so beautiful. We look forward to our return to the boat this fall and then onward to the Caribbean for exciting new adventures.  For now, it is time to close up the boat and store her here in the hot Florida sun from May 9 until Nov 1. It will be a big adjustment not having a boat for the summer on the Chesapeake Bay.....

Here are a few photos...

Our $8.99/day car. Hyundai Sonata, NICE

A visit with Craig at his friend Gary's place, very fun night!

This year, for the first time, we brought no luggage!  Garbage bags and a book bag worked!

South of the Border, so crazy, we did not stop

YES....WE ARE HOME, WAWA coffee...LOVE LOVE LOVE

Welcome to PA, I-95 madness during two days of driving

AHHHHH....Endless WATER....Free WATER.....HOT WATER
OMG, this is paradise after 8 months on a boat!

We love our home

Returning to Orlando, this plane was next to ours.
Peg LOVED cardinals, It was a sign of peace.

Back on the boat, we started the varnish service coat, much more to do

Varnish looks so good when it is new, so clear, so bright

Sunshade fabric research,
This is the wrong stuff, which we we returned.
The right stuff is called COOLAROO, see http://www.GalePacific.com

Dear friends Carey and Julie met us for a lively dinner

Walking the beach in Vero with Carey and Julie

Tropical Vero landscaping

Vero Beach beauty

After moving to Stuart on Thursday, we will finish off-loading the boat into the rental car. Haul out is scheduled for Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent making and installing the sun shade cover. We will blog about that next. Thank you for riding along, we appreciate you reading our blog.

Our Bahamas 2016 Adventures

Full interactive Trip Map Here

https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=f20b561d8e66779d8&hoursPast=0&showAll=yes