We’re in Holland...........well, Holland,
Michigan that is!
So, we’ve already told you that we had the boat pulled and to repaint her bottom, repair a few things that were damaged during our crossings and address a few just routine maintenance items. We’d made arrangements to leave her out of the water until April 1 when we'd planned to splash and head further east into the Mediterranean. Well, as everyone knows by now, Covid-19 altered everyone’s plans. Along with the rest of the world, the boatyard shut down and we weren't even allowed to get back on the boat for a couple of weeks. Even if, we'd splashed, we couldn't go to any other ports. We heard stories about other sailors who were stuck circling around because they were not even allowed to drop anchor.
So, we spent almost 2 months
in a great condo while we social distantly explored Lagos. We were right in town and were able to walk a couple of times a day without running into any humans. Luckily, we were able to spend a lot of time with the ferry cats. We were within easy walking distance (often making our routes longer than necessary for a little more exercise) from 7 full sized grocery stores. Additionally, we found a farmer who delivered produce (one time a loaf of homemade Portuguese Easter bread) and an Indian restaurant that also delivered. Needless to say, we were very comfortable. We also took a ton of pictures.
As borders started relaxing and more
countries announced upcoming openings, we decided it was the perfect time to travel
back to the US to visit family, friends and catch up on a little work. So, we cut up an old t-shirt to make homemade masks and caught
a bus into Lisbon. We got another Airbnb with a great view of the city and the river and spent a day again
exploring Lisbon before flying out through Amsterdam into NYC.
We’d planned to fly straight to
Louisville where we could self-quarantine at MaryAnn's family's river
house. However, with the limited available flights to Louisville (and to
limit our and others exposure), we decided to get a one-way car
rental and drive the 11 hours to Louisville (we stopped for the night). One of the most amazing aspects of our trip was that we were
able drive right through downtown Manhattan at “rush hour” in about 5
minutes.
We arrived in Louisville in time to celebrate MaryAnn's Dad's 90th birthday with family members!
We spent the next couple of weeks relaxing and enjoying being close (but not too close) to family and friends and doing chores around the river house (the saying that there's "no such thing as a free lunch" has never more true but we really loved it).
We also spent a long overdue weekend in Hamilton, OH visiting our dear friends Tina and Roland. MaryAnn and Tina have been friends since freshman year of high school – just a couple of years ago - and we haven't seen them in quite a while. We 
Next, we flew down to Coca Beach to visit with friends and spend some time pet sitting and attending our "honey do list" in paradise. We even brought our friends Roberto, Polya, Simona and Sabrina in to spend a day with us and had Roberto and Pedro cook for us. I know, it's a tough life but, hey, somebody really does have to do it!!!
When we left Portugal, reports were that the border between Portugal and Spain would open on July 1. We planned to fly back sometime around that time, splash the boat and at least get to see Atlantic coastal Spain and Gibraltar before the sailing season ended (it's not fun to sail in the Med in the wintertime). Well, it started looking more and more like that wasn't going to happen. Borders opened but not to Americans. So, we bought a car, loaded up kayaks and bikes that we'd left at MaryAnn's sister's house and decided to drive north in search of adventures.
Our first stop (we overnighted in
Macon, GA but left early the next day) was Chattanooga, TN. We'd driven
through Chattanooga countless times on our way to and from Kentucky and Florida
but had never bothered to stop. What an adorable town it turned out to be!
We found a great kayaking spot on the Tennessee river and enjoyed our first
ride on our old kayaks in about 2 years!
Our hotel was right downtown so we biked around and found a great spot for ice cream and a wonderful pedestrian bridge that crossed over the Tennessee River. Didn't have time to burn off the calories but it was worth every bite.
The next morning, we took the bikes for a little longer ride and found Julie Darling's Donuts. We just had to stop and again, while we were still somewhat off balance with our calorie intake versus calorie burn off, it too was totally worth it.
We knew we were heading to
Louisville again for a couple of days so Pedro could fly back to Florida for business but, we still had a few days so we decided to also
stop in Nashville, TN. We'd not been to Nashville for several years and
were excited to find a great bike path right next to our hotel that took us
along the Cumberland River to downtown Nashville. We rode all around town
and across their pedestrian bridge too (yes, MaryAnn had to walk her bike up
one side but only because it was the second ride in one day and we were a little
out of shape)!
The next morning, we found a
kayaking launch spot and paddled a couple miles in the Cumberland River.
We then, headed to Lake Barkley in hopes of meeting up with a friend who
owns a house there. However, they were
running late and the beach and public parks were all closed so we rode around a
bit and then moved on.
Our friend, Kathy (Kathy and Stephanie had plans to meet us this April/May in Spain but we’ve rescheduled for next year) offered us the use of her house at Nolan Lake so we headed there. We stayed for 2 days and loved every minute. Her house is very recently completely rebuilt (still has the new house smell) and it’s the perfect combination of amazing and comfortable. We enjoyed breakfasts on her huge deck and happy hours on her boat dock. We found a great kayaking spot in South Fork and had a great ride up stream and floated down with our picnic lunch. Absolutely heavenly! Even though I'm sure Kathy would have let us move in, we needed to get to Louisville so Pedro could catch his flight.
Back in Louisville (his business
trip was a short one), we continued to enjoy playing with both sides of our families.
We even got to take a kayak ride with Gary’s brother and sister-in-law, Jimmy and Kathy. Well, it was some riding and a lot of dragging the kayaks over the rocks as the water was pretty low – but it was beautiful. We also got to ride in MaryAnn's niece's husband's 1966 (I think) Lincoln. Talk about stylin!!!
We'd arranged another house/pet
sitting gig in Ann Arbor through the Trusted House Sitters website that we
joined last year - it’s how we found the sit in Mohon, France earlier this year. So, we
started making our way up there. Since they were on our way, our friends, Tina and Roland invited us back to Hamilton, OH
for a couple of days. Roland even
borrowed a great little runabout so we got to go boating again for a day.
Continuing north, we decided to
stop in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. We found an Airbnb right in town took the bikes to a great hiking spot and then found
a couple of local breweries (we were on bikes and very close to our house). The area is very pretty and definitely worth the
stop. The next morning, we found a great
bike path on the Ohio Erie Canal Tow Path.
This was the path that lined the canal in the days when they had mules
to pull the boats along the lock’s areas.
The bike paths go through wooded areas and obviously right along the
waterway. It a beautiful place to ride and it
ended at a great brewery with equally great food - the best grits I think I've ever had.
After our bike ride, we found Brandywine Falls. There are pathways through gorgeous woods that lead to an amazing water fall. We didn't confirm it but were told that a scene from the movie "The Last of the Mohicans" was filmed here. It's definitely worth the short hike.
Next, we headed up to Cleveland where we walked around the waterfront and enjoyed some gorgeous parks. The next morning, we drove to Catawba Island to catch the ferry over to Put-In-Bay. We parked the car and took the bikes over to the island and spent a few hours biking the entire island and then headed up to Ann Arbor so we could meet our animals.
So, we're almost caught up. We'll fill you in on our Michigan and continued adventures next time.
Until next post!
