002: Arriving at the “Airport”

 

A philosophical question:  when does a long trip officially begin?   When you leave the house for the airport?  When you clear security?  Board the plane? Take off?    We’ll use this analogy to set the stage for this trip.

In late May of 2023, we sold our house and with the exception of the boat and our cars, got rid of all our possessions save what could fit into a 10’ by 10’ storage space, and we moved onto our boat Hygge.    We sold things on FB Marketplace, had a garage sale, donated what we could to charity, gave some furniture to our daughter, our nephew and friends, and the rest went out on the curb.   (Pro-Tip:  nobody wants your China cabinet, hutch, or entertainment center.)

The very original G/L plan was to leave mid-July and spend time doing some side-trips.  Nashville, where lived for a bit, and up to Chattanooga.   The closure for maintenance of the three locks on the Illinois River just south of Joliet from June 1, 2023, through September 30, 2023, made this plan impractical.   It also demanded that we find a place to stay during that time period.   We thought of cruising Lake Michigan for the summer, but we had done that over the years with various boats already.  We decided to get a slip in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in Door County having visited there twice on Hygge in the previous few years and really liking it.

We had an ideal summer there.   The staff and facilities at Centerpointe Marina were beyond excellent.   (Kudos to Shannon the marina manager!).  The marina had great bathrooms/shower facilities, a very nice pool and an actual working hot tub at nice temperature where we spend time most nights.   It also had a “most excellent” lounge where I worked many early mornings since I was still working half-time.  I also taught my Healthcare Finance II class at the University of Illinois, Chicago from the lounge.

We hiked the many trails in Door County, explored the state parks, did some kayaking, I played some golf, Nancy bird-watched and we had a steady stream of family and friends come up to visit.  And of course, we went to no less than five of the famous Door County “Fish Boils.” In short, we loved Door County!

 

Occasionally one of the “big boys” came into town:

 https://youtu.be/tkkj5hdFx8I

 

Of note was our “dock mate” Chad Jensen( https://www.youtube.com/c/WiscoBoater )with whom I shared a variety of interests.  Chad used to fly corporate planes, worked for the Experimental Aviation Association, and loves “messing around with boats.”    Chad and I teamed up to build a boat for the “Sikaflex boat building challenge” as part of the 2023 Door County Wooden Boat show. https://dcclassicboatshow.com/2017-sikaflex-challenge/.  You have fours to build the boat, basically all day to decorate it.  The next day you race it.   We did make it around the race course, but our boat wasn't build for speed.  (Despite naming our “Jersey Won Kenobi” in honor of Chad’s poodle, “Jersey”, she never warmed up to me, much to my chagrin.)

 

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Speaking of the EAA, I got to do a presentation on the making of my 1/6^th scale cardboard B-29 plane “Indian Maid” at the EAA’s Air Venture Airshow/convention.  (Long story short: built in 2020 for the Glen Ellyn, IL cardboard boat regatta in honor of my father’s cousin Joseph “Bud” Kanzler, tail gunner, shot down, captured and executed by the Japanese in the summer of 1945 (but notwithstanding what “some people” might say, we still think he is a hero).  Alas the cardboard boat regatta was cancelled multiple years in a row due to the Covid epidemic.  The plane now resides in the Illinois Aviation Museum in Bolingbrook, IL if you want to see it in person).

 

Notable events during the summer were:  a) Getting our son Jack moved to Ann Arbor, MI for his first year of law school; b) Nancy’s visit with sisters in East Hampton for the Hampton Film Festival, c) My 45^th high school class reunion (parred the first four holes on Saturday, thought I had finally “found the secret to golf” but then regressed back to the mean), and d) the retirement party that physicians of Hinsdale Orthopaedic’s held for me.

Now, back to the original question: when does a long trip officially begin?   The number one question asked that summer by family and friends was, “When does your trip begin?”.   Nobody accepted the fact we considered that our G/L trip began the day we left the dock at Racine, WI and headed north to Door County.  So, we finally bowed to the group consensus and our answer became, “October 28^th,” being the day we would enter the River System portion of the G/L.

 

Dave