Our Friends' Blessings
During our last few weeks in California, while frantically packing and tying up loose ends, lying awake at night worrying about our boat lying all by itself in a small marina in Jacksonville Florida, we found ourselves completely humbled and graced by countless kindnesses from our friends. There are so many instances to recount, I hope I can remember them all! It would be sad not to tell these stories, as to us they exemplified the amazing goodwill and kind hearts of the human spirit shown through the grace of those who supported our efforts and endeavours. Most importantly we hope that by sharing these stories we can express our sincere gratitude to everyone who contributed to our adventure in one way or another.
Farewell Party!
Our first surprise was a party hosted by Dave's BNI (business networking) group at our friend's Harry's house. Inspired by Diane, a group of Dave's networking friends got together and put together a very touching farewell party. Our friend Peter catered the party, while not even being able to attend himself as he was on a family trip!
Harry's house was decorated magnificently by Karen, with a definite maritime theme! So many people showed up to wish us well on our journey that afternoon, including our very dear friend Tim, who drove all the way out from Orange County,
and our most cherished friends, Laurie & David, who drove all the way up from San Diego! Even people we had never met came to cheer us on and to wish us well!! We felt incredibly honored and humbled by the whole experience! How often does one get so much delightful attention?! We ate, and laughed, cried, and showed pictures of our boat to anyone who cared to look! All in all it was a lovely afternoon, and one never to be forgotten! We took home cards, presents, left-over cake and goodies, and a lot of love. Thank you Harry & Karen for providing the space, and BNI for putting it all together!
Our medical kit
One of my big challenges was to put together our medical kit, which includes antibiotics, pain medications, bandages, wound cleaning instruments, injections, anti-seasickness meds, and on and on... After taking a course last February in Denver on offshore emergency medicine, I already had a good idea of what should be in the kit. Three of our doctor friends, Laurie Blanscet, David Mitzner, and Dr. Elfelt kindly helped us to put it all together! Between ordering most of the items at a discounted rate and giving us free samples wherever they could, we have a fine medical kit and were able to save quite a bit of money! On Thanksgiving, one of our last days in California, David Mitzner came over early in the morning and sat with us in the kitchen amongst all our boxes, drinking tea, and showing me how to use a catheder and other medical instruments! Dave's biggest concern now is that we will become known as the local E.R. and never enjoy any solitude. Of course that is secretly fine by me, as I am hoping to follow in the footsteps of my favorite story I read years ago "Outer Island Doctor". This book recounts the adventures of a self taught doctor in the Bahamas, who sailed around from island to island with a large red cross on his sails. Whenever the locals saw the red cross on the horizon they would line up on the beach and await his treatment! Of course this was a while back (if I remember correctly in the 1950s). My hope is to be able to provide acupuncture treatments to anyone who needs them! So amongst all the medical drugs and equipment are thousands of acupuncture needles, cups and other acupuncturists parafinalia.Becoming hairdressers!
Another challenge to us was thinking about who will cut our hair while we are in remote places. We decided to give it a try ourselves, so our dear friend Elissa from our yoga center who cuts our hair kindly offered to teach us how to cut each others hair. I now have little hand drawn diagrams on how to cut Dave's hair, and he guarantees me he remembers how she taught him to cut mine. We shall see... You will see pictures of our first amateur haircut (and perhaps our last) when the time comes! Elissa taught us with the patience of an angel, and even gave us her old shears that I can use to buzz Dave's hair if worse comes to worst. Thank you Elissa!Learning to cook our favorite Thai food
To reward ourselves after long hours and days of packing, we would treat ourselves to our favorite Thai restaurant Aiyara, knowing that we would soon be without it. While enjoying our Pad Thai noodles and Tom Yum soup we were wishing we could make these delicious dishes ourselves when on our boat. Before we knew it, the owner of Aiyara, Andy, sat down at our table and wrote down all the recipes we wanted. We told him about what we were doing, and he enthusiastically brought out ingredients from the kitchen he knew we would want to get. The following Sunday our friend David Mitzner and his lovely girlfriend Catja invited us to dinner at Aiyara. Andy's wife Rachel told us immediately that they had read our website and were very intrigued by our upcoming adventure - Andy was even researching boats himself! At the end of our lovely evening with David & Catja this delightful Thai couple gifted us with a huge box of special ingredients to make our favorite dishes! Not only can we now open up a hairdressers, but also a Thai restaurant! (If you have never tasted the wonderful food at Aiyara restaurant in Temecula, treat yourself to it - you won't regret it! Their website is www.aiyara.com .) We drove home that night with a lump in our throats for yet again experiencing all the kindness of friends and strangers alike!Thanksgiving feast
Our last Thanksgiving in California (at least for a while) we were priveledged to enjoy with our dear friends in San Diego. My dearest friend Laurie, whom I went to acupuncture school with seventeen years ago, not only cooked us all an excellent feast, but also read out to me the most beautiful words of friendship and encouragement I could ever have imagined! Tears streamed down my cheeks as I listened to her words and the sentiment behind them - a bittersweetness for the upcoming farewell...
We also were handed an incredibly generous check which was the sum of a collection for the outfitting of our boat from many dear friends. To all of you who have contributed to this (as well as many many other gifts we have received) we thank you from the depths of hearts! It is the encouragement and all the cheering on from all of you that makes this seem so much more worth while... Dear Laurie will also be our contact address while we are gone, as well as "shipper of things" when we need them. she also has a huge stash of boxes to take to Amtrack for us when we are half way across the country.
Doing our laundry
During the last days at our place in Murrieta, amidst boxes, selling furniture, my car, giving away stuff, filling up our 5x10 storage unit, our dear friend and neighbor, Laurie, volunteered to do our laundry for us after we had sold our washer and dryer. She also gave us a haven to come to when we needed a table to sit at to finish up our paperwork when we no longer had any chairs or furniture in the house. So many little things done with great love and kindness were incredibly touching!Lending a hand in moving
Sweet Crystal and her husband Bud volunteered to keep and look after our favorite pieces of furniture that we couldn't store. Their formal living room lent itself well for that, and we know that we have some things to come back to when we do - hopefully, as Dave said, not before christmas! Our friend Robert came around with his huge truck several times to help Dave lug things to back and forth to our storage unit! How they managed to fit it all in there is still a complete mystery to me, and as Robert said, Dave has earned a Ph.D. in box storage! I wonder how often we will think of any of our posessions there - my guess is probably NEVER. It is our friends and family we will think of constantly and miss the most.Pilates lesson
My dear friend Karen, who took over my wednesday morning yoga class (which she is converting to a "Yoga-Pilates" class being a professional pilates instructor herself) came over on the last day we were in Murrieta with an entire hand drawn and written Pilates routine that lends itself to small spaces! What a very sweet thing to do!A huge thank you!
While I have outlined many kindnesses we were receipients of during the last few weeks in Murrieta, they certainly weren't limited to the stories I just shared. I have to mention here too the wonderful people I worked with over the last twelve years - Dr. K and Dr. Brian and all the staff at California Oaks Chiropractic. Not only were they completely magnanimous in helping me sell my business to AJ & Monica Sarrat, but they have been fantastic friends and supported both Dave and myself in countless ways for years. I cannot express how grateful we are to them for all that and how much they shall be missed. Thanks to all of you at Cal Oaks Chiropractic, and thanks to the angels that materialized AJ & Monica to take over my practice! For those of you who have been patients in the past, I know you will be taken care of by both of them. To the many many patients who cheered me on to follow my dream - THANK YOU! One of my dear patients/friends, Tom, who was ill with cancer for some years before passing over, always asked me: "have you bought your boat yet?" In many ways it was Tom who really gave me the courage to go for it, especially seeing in him how quickly life can change, and with what courage and depth he lived his own life.Goodbye California beloved
Well the day finally came around when we had no more excuses to stick around, the storage unit was stuffed shut, our landlords kindly let us stay an extra day to finish up all our business, and all we had left was a garage full of boxes to put into Dave's Jeep.
I had my doubts about fitting it all in, but Dave kept insisting it would work! All I was allowed to do was shine a flashlight in the dark (our electricity had been turned off that day as it was supposed to be) and stand there watching Dave try to cram it all in. Finally he had to admit defeat, and we had no choice but to drive down to Laurie & David's house in San Diego, spend the night, and repack half our boxes and take them to Amtrack the next morning. The guys at Amtrack were brilliant to say the least - they were kind, polite and efficient, and they even had a pigeon, Ashley, which they had raised since it was a baby. 
The little pigeon followed them around like a puppy! If you ever need to ship anything across the country - Amtrack is the way to go! Delayed by another day, we drove back to Murrieta on Tuesday and packed the rest of our belongings into the Jeep, had one last stop at Trader Joes to load up on our favorite jams and coffee (I was only allowed to bring 3 jars of jam because the Jeep was so packed already!), and off we drove into the beautiful evening light that is unique to California. We were quiet, somber and quite exhausted driving through the desert along Interstate 10.
Driving across the country
Our trip across the USA on the 10 freeway with a fully loaded car was peaceful and uneventful. We enjoyed the lovely scenery along the way, particularly the deserts of Arizona,
New Mexico and western Texas. Our highlights were a stay in a lovely B&B in Tucson Arizona (Desert Trails B&B) run by a husband and wife who are both PhDs (he has a doctorate in anthropology and she in planetary science). Over breakfast the next morning we had a great chat with John, the owner, as we were the only guests there. We also squeezed in a hike through the fantastic giant cactii, enjoying the lovely winter vistas of the mountains around the city. Other highlights - downtown Mobile in Alabama was surprisingly nice, and some of the lichen hung forests and bayous in Louisianna.
Our friend David had warned us that some of the areas we would be driving through would be the "armpits" of the world. we found that indeed to be the case in some remote places - towns like Fort Stockton proved to be quite a challenge looking for a meal or a cup of coffee. The "best" restaurant in town was a small greasy Mexican place serving everything fried, in which we looked like emaciated "thinlings" compared to the waiters as well as the guests having lunch there. One town had a JC Penny's Store that when you drove up to it turned out to be a catalog order store. Truly like going back in time! Definitely made us realize how spoiled we have been with so many healthy goodies at our fingertips whenever we desire them.
We spent a morning looking around New Orleans,
enjoyed a nice breakfast, and sat watching a row of psychics sitting out in the sun, waiting to tell tourists their fortunes. Unfortunately New Orleans is showing many signs of decay, and many parts of town are still completely destroyed and left to rot since hurricane Katrina.
The worst part of our drive was the fact that the old Jeep's heater had given up the ghost and the temperatures were often in the thirties. My feet were mostly two frozen clumps, and very grateful for a hot shower at the end of the day in some cheap motel along the way.
Eventually the 2,500 miles came to an end, and there we were, at the dock where our new home awaits us!
