Beginning the Good Love Adventure

Ever since I can remember I've been drawn to water. Growing up in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" helped facilitate getting close to, into it or on it much easier than, say, growing up in a state devoid of so many easily accessible lakes and rivers and coastlines. Even in winter, water here has almost always been abundant - in the form of ice, sleet and, especially, snow. Waiting through the long, cold months of a Minnesota Fall, Winter and early Spring until the Earth to tilt the Northern Hemisphere back towards the Sun  in it's annual revolution was the problem - Winter lasts a long time here. Eventually though, we would once again see the liquid form of water and be able to enjoy the warm, albeit short, Minnesota summer. A popular saying here is that there are only two seasons in Minnesota, Winter and Road Construction, and for the most part, it's true.

Don't get me wrong - I love Minnesota. My family's upbringing, my youth and adult and family life here have truly been a blessing. Climate-wise, Minnesota is considered in the "Humid Continental" zone, an area that has warm to hot months mostly from June through August.  We have spectacular falls with ubiquitous colors in farm fields and along tree lines. Springs (especially late Spring) are a wonder to witness as the life once again returns to yards, fields, lakes and wildlife. Minnesota's summertime activities, with the weather, our spectacular scenery, fishing, outdoor living, water sports and yes, even mosquitos are truly amazing. Much of the rest of the year, however, is spent getting prepared for, living through and re-awakening from Winter. As a kid, my brothers and I would do the usual things kids do when their parents kick them out of the house once we'd sufficiently irritated them during those long cabin-feverish months: build snow forts and have snowball fights, go sledding, play street and ice hockey (a near requirement here in the "State of Hockey"), and, of course, shovel tons and tons of snow. And I means literally tons over the course of a lifetime. Kinda fun when you're a kid, out in the frozen tundra packed within your parka, snow pants, boots and gloves that would be the envy of any Arctic explorer. A bounce off a prodigious sledding bump on a snowy slope or a check into the boards from your opponent at an outdoor ice rink would be soundly absorbed by the 17 layers of clothes that, along with the fact that your body was sufficiently chilled to a nearly freezing temperatures, meant you'd feel virtually nothing. It seemed so normal - didn't every kid in America (or the world) grow up peering out a periscopic hole in their winter coat hood and then taking a couple hours to warm up to room temperature when escaping the blizzardy weather as they came inside? Seemed normal to me.

As an adult, however, the attraction for me has annually worn off - one shovel full at at time.

You see, this all began to change in my psyche when my wife Rachael and I began exploring warmer climes during our late March Spring Breaks from school. We are both teachers, and having been a Geography teacher for 17 years, I knew full well that there were places on God's Earth that did not have to put salt on the roads and close schools during blizzards - mostly because they had no reason to do so due to their climates. Jaunts to Mexico and Florida's Gulf Coast where we left in the aforementioned winter garb and arrived in shorts, tank tops and flip flops was for some reason abundantly pleasant and welcomed by the two of us. The short vacations spent exploring these destinations were truly fantastic, and we fell in love with the perpetual summertime climates here. Returning to Minnesota, our vacations ended with a swift return to reality as the plane descended into Minneapolis. It's amazing how brown and desolate our state looks from the air in March given the lush and vibrant greenery we know would once again return in May.

Driving to work the morning before heading to Florida...



This seemed say how I felt about that (and every) winter day...

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What greeted us in Florida...

A new possibility began to take shape this past April, after we returned from one of these Spring Break trips to Florida's Gulf Coast. Huddled inside on a blustery April Saturday, we began to talk about our annual summer vacation with our entire family. Together Rachael and I have 6 children, 3 each from previous marriage. The oldest was going to graduate in May of 2015, and we tried to brainstorm a destination that we could take them all to as a "last vacation together" before the eldest left for college. Thinking about the difficulty of getting us all together once that happened, with our kids starting to be off on far flung school, military and work adventures of their own, we researched, planned out and had our tropical family vacation in June of 2015.  In researching for this outing, we began to come across blogs and YouTube videos of folks who had/have/are currently doing something that sounded like it would meet our developing goal of being on the water and in a more favorable climate. These folks were all doing what is known as "Cruising" on sailboats in the more temperate areas of the world. We took in adventures from the like of the S/V Catchin' Rays, This Rat Sailed aboard the S/V Rover, the S/V Saltrun, the S/V Zero to Cruising, the S/V Delos, the S/V Vagabond and many more folks who had made cruising their lifestyle. These folks have been our inspiration to begin to embark on this journey!

The attraction to downsize, disconnect from the "Rat Race" described by Mike Boyd of the S/V Rover in This Rat Sailed, the ability to potentially follow a dream before following this dream became impossible due to age or physical limitations was quite appealing. As we are both in Education, the times and demands of our work seem to increase each year, and the possibility of experiencing a more divested lifestyle with fewer professional demands is constantly appealing. It is our American (Western Civilization?) culture that says one has to work for 35-40 years and retire in frailty to a porch-swing lifestyle until even that becomes impossible to handle? What then? What benefits are there to following this path, steadily declining until health, enthusiasm and purpose ebb away? Perhaps there was another option. More than that, perhaps there is another purpose the Lord has for our lives that might be woven into such a change!

We sit here at what seems like the beginning of our journey at a beautiful Minnesota campground on August 1, 2015. We are both very enthusiastic to make headway towards this goal and can only offer many thanks to all of the people who have documented their stories before us. Our first sailing lessons for the ASA 101 class are 9 days away, and we are both very stoked to begin this journey. We are not at all hesitant to undertake this opportunity. We truly are looking forward to this adventure and hope you will decide to follow us as we head off into a different, Good Love style adventurous future together!