Bob & Deb's Great Adventure: 2007

Monday, December 17, 2007

This text is in the title page

I'm getting the hang of this now...but I have to put the pictures in in reverse order because they always to to the top of the page.

This time I am using larger pictures to see how these come out. But I am learning I can add things later.

I also figure out I can put text on the bottom.

12-16-07

Practicing again

That time it took the courser to the bottom of the page...but I found a way to put it on top again. Let's see how this looks.

After I put the bottom two pictures in I added a third one and it went to the top of the page. No matter where I put the courser it still puts the picture on the top of the page. Now what I am going to do is add another picture with the courser in this position.

The picture below is a test to see if I can put in two picktuties and then type between them.

then I hit the enter button.

Let's see if I can put a caption between these two boats and see what this lo0ks like. Then I can see when I add two pictures and check spelling.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Well that is the official nautical name for our boat trip which will take us by water over a route from Chicago to Florida, up to New York, across the Eire Canal to Buffalo, across the Great Lakes to Michigan, down to Chicago, and back home again.

Test title on top of page

This is a test...first I added all three pictures I wanted to show. The top one is deb and I on the bow. I wanted to see how Well that is the official nautical name for our boat trip which will take us by water over a route from Chicago to Florida, up to New York, across the Eire Canal to Buffalo, across the Great Lakes to Michigan, down to Chicago, and back home again.

New test

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aklsdjfoasdjfpoasdjkfoqwerejfe[oqwifjwaepfjas;

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After Christmas we will move the boat from the West Coast of Florida to the East Coast. Then in the spring (late April-early May) we’ll start north and our plan is to stop in Richmond, Va. for a while. We are building a new distribution center there for Perdue (the chicken company) and I will be spending a lot of my time there. From there to New York, home for a few weeks, then probably take three weeks from New York to Starved Rock.
We have a lot to do to get prepared for our journey. Cruising guides, charts, manuals, oil changes, engine checks, spare parts. All the fun things! We spent a week on our new boat recently, so we have a feel for what we’ll need. Just as important is what we can take off the boat. We have been working hard on this one. We realize we don’t need all this stuff on board.So that’s it for now. As I said this is just a note to tell you more notes are
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Saturday, December 1, 2007

I am entering a test title in the title page

Hello all,
(I should explain here that this is going to many different people---and I’ll explain why later)

This is the first of what should be several e-mails from Debbie or I concerning our “Great Circle Trip”.
What is that you ask?
Well that is the official nautical name for our boat trip which will take us by water over a route from Chicago to Florida, up to New York, across the Eire Canal to Buffalo, across the Great Lakes to Michigan, down to Chicago, and back home again.

http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcounter.html?month=5&day=2&year=2008&hour=5pm&min=&sec=&p0=77

As some of you know Deb and I (well more me than Deb) have been talking about this for a few years. My goal was to leave some Labor Day and take a year to make this circle. Our original plan was to do this when we retired, but I wasn’t sure when that would be………. if we would be able to afford it then………….. and the way we were going I was also concerned what type of shape we’d be in. So a little over a year ago we began to plan a way to make this trip while I was still working. We sold our Gibson Houseboat, and bought a “Cruisers Yachts” cruiser (I know it sounds confusing) that will be very comfortable, and safe to make this trip.
We leave on September 4th.
We will make this trip in several legs. The longest time we will be traveling will be three weeks, and the shortest will be one week. We plan on being back in our slip at Starved rock Marina next July sometime. During this year, I will be taking off about 44 days from work, and we will be moving the boat about 77 days. There may also be a time that we will be able to visit the boat in between the times we will be moving it, but right now we don’t have this set up yet.
My normal style of writing is to use bullet points so I can cover several thoughts, and not have to worry about tying things together………. so I might as well get started.
· First of all, as I said earlier, this e-mail is going to several people. Family, friends, vendors, and even one of my customers (who belongs in the friend category). Keep this in mind as I/we make some of our comments, because they may be directed to someone specific and you won’t have a clue what we’re talking about. The goal is to keep some of you posted, and to share our journey with others.
· I will try---but I’m not going to worry tooooo much about grammar, or punctuation---more on content, and information.
· We will be traveling over 5000 miles.
· The computer we have on board has a small keyboard, so typing fast, and accurate, can be difficult, so some of the messages may be short, and to the point.
· Once we leave we will be sending e-mails by using a modem hook-up from our on board cellular phone. This is slow, because of the modem speed, but it works great----if----we have a strong cellular signal. Because we will be traveling in many remote areas this signal is sometimes non-existent so although we may write an e-mail on a certain day we may not be able to send it. So, you may get several days e-mails together, because we finally found a good signal.
· Our plan is to try to write something each day we are traveling. It will keep you posted on our travels, and make for a good diary once we’re finished.
· We are using a master list to send this e-mail. If you’d rather not be on this list let me know. Or when you see an e-mail with a subject of “GCT” (great circle trip) just hit delete! Or…….if you know someone who we should send this to let us know.

As I said our first leg begins on Sept. 4th. The first week we will leave Starved Rock Marina and head south--down the IL. River—past St. Louis, & down the Mississippi to Cairo, IL.—up the Ohio—up the Cumberland to Paduca, Ky.—and then up the Tennessee to Iuka, Ms. The total trip is about 700 miles, and we should arrive at Aqua Marine, in Iuka, on Friday Sept. 11th. Daryl and Donna Thompson will be joining us for that week.
The next week Daryl and Donna will fly home, and Steve Thoke (my business partner) and his wife to be Chris Van Allen will fly to Memphis meet us at Aqua Marine. We will then take a week to travel 450 miles down the Tom-Bigbee to Mobile, Al.
The third week Debbie’s two sisters, and their husbands will join us in Mobile, and we will cross the Gulf to Tampa, where we will leave the boat for the winter.
After Christmas we will move the boat from the West Coast of Florida to the East Coast. Then in the spring (late April-early May) we’ll start north and our plan is to stop in Richmond, Va. for a while. We are building a new distribution center there for Perdue (the chicken company) and I will be spending a lot of my time there. From there to New York, home for a few weeks, then probably take three weeks from New York to Starved Rock.
We have a lot to do to get prepared for our journey. Cruising guides, charts, manuals, oil changes, engine checks, spare parts. All the fun things! We spent a week on our new boat recently, so we have a feel for what we’ll need. Just as important is what we can take off the boat. We have been working hard on this one. We realize we don’t need all this stuff on board.
So that’s it for now. As I said this is just a note to tell you more notes are coming. If you have any questions drop us a note, we’d love to hear from you. As you can see the e-mail address is mine (Bob) at work, but I’ll forward any comments to Deb at home if you send them. That is until we leave, at which time Deb will be with me, so I won’t have to tell her then because………………you know!

BK

s picture above is a small picture and put on the left.

The dinghy picture was done in medium and on the right side

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

We had a great day yesterday...

Period Call

o Good afternoon…

o Before I begin…I want everyone to know I am disappointed and really embarrassed I am to give you the first part of this report. As Pete Westermann our COO put it…these are the worst of times and the best of times. We have a lot to be proud of and thankful for…but our current numbers are just plain awful

o

the picture above is cool

test message

Monday, November 12, 2007

Picture test

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Day 33

This work out fine

Here is the fish I caught in Key West

Great Adventure

Sunday, November 11, 2007
As most of you are aware Deb and I are planning to retire next summer and head out on Headquarters for some period of time. Lots more to come on this in the future, but I wanted to get out a note to each of you to see if you want to make any plans to join us somewhere along the way. The reason I am doing this so early is so you can make plans for next fall as you consider your 2008 vacation. You can look at some of our preliminary travel plans to see if any travel area appeals to you and you would like to join us on the boat.

Here are some or our loose travel plans:
We plan to leave North Shore Marina in Grand Haven mid to late summer and head south to Ottawa...we'd like to spend the first couple days by ourselves and get into a rhythm
From Grand Haven we plan to work our way down the Michigan, and Indiana coast then cross lake Michigan (maybe spend a couple days in Chicago)
We plan to spend between a few days to a couple of weeks in Ottawa before heading south
Sometime in mid to late September we’ll head down the Illinois River…to the Mississippi…to the Ohio…to the Tennessee…up towards Chattanooga and Nashville (we should be in that area during October timeframe)
As it gets cooler we’ll head toward Mobile AL, and Florida with a plan to arrive in the Florida panhandle sometime in early November
Next winter we’ll be somewhere in southern Florida Keys or the Bahamas

Different from the last time we made this trip…this time we are in no hurry and plan to enjoy each day without a set schedule (staying longer in some areas). We’ll let the weather and how bored we are determine where we go and how fast we get to our next destination.
So let us know if you’re interested in joining us anywhere along the way.

BK

Day 32

This bob taking a break

Here we are leaving the Muskegon harbor.

Here we are in Canada.
Today was a good day...

we went on to the next trip.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Below: Enjoying a great time

This looks cool below

Day 32 still trying to get this right

As you can see by the pictures we had a great time today

Friday, November 9, 2007

Day 31

Here is Bob and Deb on our boat

The two pictures above show

Day 30

6:30 am
Friday, December 31, 1999
Day 26
Centennial Harbour Marina
Fort Myers, FL.

Before I start this morning I need to ask you a favor. We always love to get your e-mail, but please send a “new” message and don’t hit “reply” because when you hit reply you also send back to me my original message which sometimes contains pictures, and they take a long time to download. To download those pictures all those times can take a while. Thanks.

If we took a poll on Headquarters today we would all agree on the following. It doesn’t feel like December, and it doesn’t feel like New Years Eve, but this is a great way to bring in the New Year.

We had a great yesterday. After getting our e-mail we went back to the boat to get ready to head out. There had been a very heavy dew (we almost thought it rained), so it took a little bit to wipe down the boat. The sun was coming up (about 7:15) and it was beautiful. We knew it was going to be a great day. After leaving the marina we went about 4 miles and caught up with the Intracoastal at mile marker 77. From there we averaged about 9 MPH until we got to Venice at mile marker 56. From there we jumped out to the Gulf, where we made a hard left, and followed the coast south for 35 miles and came back in at Boca Granda and rejoined the Intracoastal at MM 25.

Along with a great trip on the Gulf we lost Carl. Well not literally, but he took a Dramamine, and went into some “funk” that he did not recover from until this morning. He was out of it. Mumbling, walking into things, dropping things, and if all that wasn’t bad enough, he complained about it all the time. As Carl puts it “you can strap me to a rocket if you want to, but I’ll never take that stuff again. Today he will to see the entire day.

Once we hit Boca Granda it was like things changed. We were following boats, passing boats, and meeting boats. There were boats everywhere! There was every size, and shape you can imagine. I figured out what I want heaven to be like when I get there. (yes, I mean when)
The boat traffic stayed very busy all the way to our marina. We went fairly slow the whole way to be able to enjoy the trip, and got here at 4:45 PM. It’s a very nice marina, located close to downtown Fort Myers. Dinner on the boat (pork chops on the grill), and early to bed.

Today we are heading across the Caloosahatchee Canal and River to the western edge of the Okeechobee. We then follow the western rim south to the town of Clewiston, FL. where we will spend New Years Eve. We will be at Roland Martins Marina. We’ve been there before, and it’s nothing special, but it was almost impossible to get a slip for New Years, and we’ll be just fine.

Steve, and Carl are up now so we need to clean the boat, and get ready to head out. We can’t see the sun yet, but we can see it on the tall buildings, so it won’t be long.

From all of us on Headquarters…….. to all you……… we wish you a Fantastic New Year!!

BK.

Day 28

We had a great yesterday. After getting our e-mail we went back to the boat to get ready to head out. There had been a very heavy dew (we almost thought it rained), so it took a little bit to wipe down the boat. The sun was coming up (about 7:15) and it was beautiful. We knew it was going to be a great day. After leaving the marina we went about 4 miles and caught up with the Intracoastal at mile marker 77. From there we averaged about 9 MPH until we got to Venice at mile marker 56. From there we jumped out to the Gulf, where we made a hard left, and followed the coast south for 35 miles and came back in at Boca Granda and rejoined the Intracoastal at MM 25.

Along with a great trip on the Gulf we lost Carl. Well not literally, but he took a Dramamine, and went into some “funk” that he did not recover from until this morning. He was out of it. Mumbling, walking into things, dropping things, and if all that wasn’t bad enough, he complained about it all the time. As Carl puts it “you can strap me to a rocket if you want to, but I’ll never take that stuff again. Today he will to see the entire day.

Once we hit Boca Granda it was like things changed. We were following boats, passing boats, and meeting boats. There were boats everywhere! There was every size, and shape you can imagine. I figured out what I want heaven to be like when I get there. (yes, I mean when)
The boat traffic stayed very busy all the way to our marina. We went fairly slow the whole way to be able to enjoy the trip, and got here at 4:45 PM. It’s a very nice marina, located close to downtown Fort Myers. Dinner on the boat (pork chops on the grill), and early to bed.

Today we are heading across the Caloosahatchee Canal and River to the western edge of the Okeechobee. We then follow the western rim south to the town of Clewiston, FL. where we will spend New Years Eve. We will be at Roland Martins Marina. We’ve been there before, and it’s nothing special, but it was almost impossible to get a slip for New Years, and we’ll be just fine.

Steve, and Carl are up now so we need to clean the boat, and get ready to head out. We can’t see the sun yet, but we can see it on the tall buildings, so it won’t be long.

From all of us on Headquarters…….. to all you……… we wish you a Fantastic New Year!!

BK.

Test # 3

This is a test message for our GA blog
The picture to the right is a test one of Deb and I in Canada
Here is am inserting a link to our location

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Holland,+MI,+United+States+of+America&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title

Test # 2 with picture

This is a test to add a picture

As you can see we had a great time today and the water was great

After lunch we went and met with Samantha

you can also see how much she has grown

This is a test blog #1

Hi Bob.

This is your test blog. Do whatever you want here. You can't hurt anything.

Call me with questions.

^Carl.

Bob & Deb's Great Adventure

test picture