DUNEDIN TO CANADA TO DUNEDIN

Dec 16- A busy day for all of us getting ready to head home for Christmas. Sid and Evelyn will be leaving in the morning to fly home. I have gotten a tote to take home things and clothes we are not using, so I have been packing that up. We are taking a couple of gifts Sid and Evelyn bought home with us as they are flying and the one gift is quite large. We will have to take the boat up for a pump out before we leave, probably Friday or Saturday. It has been a hot humid day so when we all had a little time we headed to the pool for a swim. We said our goodbyes today as they are leaving very early in the morning.

Dec 17- Sid and Evelyn left at 6:30 am as I heard them heading down the dock with their suitcase. Dave has been busy installing two new Raymarine chart plotters he bought from one of the Loopers. I have been cleaning out the fridges of anything that will be going out of date while we are at home. I am baking cookies right now as they are going to expire if I don't. They will be something for us to munch on while heading up the highway.

Dec 18- Dave was up bright and early doing oil changes on the engines this morning. We are having the dingy pulled out of the water today and cleaning it before we leave to go home. It isn't the warmest day for this and it is quite windy but it has to be done. The dingy has been in the water since we left in July, so you can imagine the filth on the bottom of it. We have a product called "On-Off" which is fabulous and the only thing that will even touch this mess. We cleaned for two and a half hours and I can honestly say it looked great. We put the cover on it and they pushed it up beside the building.

Dec 19- We are really gearing up to leave tomorrow heading back to Canada. Dave and I called Enterprise to get the car a day early as Koby has been limping and holding up his right paw, so we are taking him to the Vet this morning to see what's up. The Vet checked out his paw but could not see anything, so he suggested I get some Epson Salts and soak his paw and he gave us antibiotics and pain medication for him. We headed back to the boat and started to load some of the things going home into the car. Dave's uncle John arrived and we went over what and where things were to check while we were gone. It was a very busy day and we both were tired so we headed to bed early.

Dec 20/Jan 4- We threw our luggage in the trunk and then discovered the lighter socket did not work so we could not use the GPS. We had a quick bite to eat and then Dave went back to the boat to get a new fuse and we were then ready to go. We were very fortunate the weather was good for travelling. We stopped at Atlanta the first night and then again just outside Detroit. We arrived home on Dec 23 about 5 pm and there was no snow! We quickly threw up the Christmas tree and then it was off to shop for food and gifts. It was a whirlwind couple of days before Christmas but it was all worth it. We spent our holidays with all our family and had a wonderful time and it gave us a nice break from the boat.

Dave's family at his mother's home

Great Grama watching the kids open their gifts

Great Christmas with the family

My nephew and his family at Christmas

Christmas with my sister and brother

Jan 4- We're back! We traveled close to 3000 miles home and back but it was a wonderful trip. We took Highway I 75 back home and came down I 95 back to Florida. We were very fortunate the weather was with us both ways. All the Loopers are straggling back one by one, but the weather is cool and windy right now. Bill and Bobbie (Mist ) have moved on down to the Sarasota area and Eliza Bear has also moved on. We will miss them both very much.

Jan 5- Today we returned our rental car to Enterprise. When we got back to the marina Dave cleaned Manana outside and I did up some laundry. It has been a quiet day just getting rested from our many hours in the car. It is sunny today but windy and cool. We have had Koby out walking several times today trying to get some exercise. It is 8:00 pm and our neighbours Sid and Evelyn have just arrived back to the boat.