New Blog

  I am always surprised at the changes life throws my way. About the time I was thinking I would drive truck a few months and spend the rest of the year traveling on my sailboat, I met Kelly.

   So...plans change. Every Doctor who ever looked at my back or looked at my medical records, said I would never work again, certainly never bounce down the road in a truck again. 

    Things just aren't that easy. Kelly needed looked after. She lived on the boat with me for a while. Turns out Kelly is afraid of deep water. She needed a home. Not a boat. So I kept pushing harder to drive longer.  No worries, I love her. I'll do it. 

   But here is where things get fun. A hurricane wrecked my sailboat

   I will need to drive for one more year. Full-time.  Kelly agrees that I need another boat. She had sailing lessons,

    but she will not travel on a boat. So, we have determined. I can drive 3.5 months and make what she makes in a year.  Once set up with our own place. I won't have to drive Full-time anymore.  Kelly has worked at Dmv (drivers license) for about a year. She will retire from there. Driving full time is causing me to have health problems. Bad back, long hours of sitting behind the wheel. I was in the hospital twice this year already.  so once we are set up. I'm buying another sailboat and I will start doing crossings to other places. I'll start with the Caribbean And work my way out. Kelly will fly out to meet me when I get where I am going. 

    It has taken quite an effort to get this far. I first dreamed of doing this while still in the Navy. I was an operations specialist.  I know how to figure out where I am at sea. I also know how to get where I am going. 

    I'm writing this at 3am eastern time. Sleep doesn't come easy.

   See you next time.

Happily Married

   January 23rd, 2021

I finally found the right gal and remarried.

   The never ending plans. It  is easy enough to formulate a good plan.  As we all know,  it takes everything coming together for it to work.  The truth is. I can make so much more money driving a truck than I could hope to make doing canvas or any other job I'm qualified to do.  I am making a very good living now. Not going to say how much.  I will say that it is a very much more than a canvas shop or a nurse can make. Kelly is taking dispatcher courses now. We are going to buy a truck very soon. We will work together on it. I really love this wife of mine. I am excited about our future together.

I guess the blog has been mostly neglected. I have been on facebook.
  I am as good as I ever was with a semi. I am doing what they call "hauling sticks" the logs are cut into sticks and those are used to make furniture. That is what I was told. I drive a semi to little businesses everywhere and hand unload whatever furniture they have coming. It is physical, to say the least.

This is a shot of the truck up in the Colorado mountains near Colorado springs.  I was chained up and spun all the way up into an area where a semi does not belong.
   In the last picture. Looking up into the trees. You see the front of the building I was parked in front of.

   I was told I would never work again. Let alone drive truck. Now I drive that truck into tight places and hand unload furniture.  Never let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do. As far as driving truck goes, I am making somewhat into an upper percentile of what truckers make when driving somebody elses truck.

  I intend to marry Kelly next summer. We grow closer all the time.

She even convinced me to grow the first beard I have had in many years.
   Future plans? Once Kelly has her RN license, thinking about a move to the Oregon or Washington coast and a bigger boat to replace Mary Lee. I want to sail the Alaska inlets one summer. Along with a trip to Australia and New Zealand....because buying a boat was never about the Caribbean, it was always about going west from the west coast.

  You can see how much plans change when your want overrides your ability to go.  Things are changing for me all the time. The best thing is, they are getting better. I struggled to get back to work. Being able to work opens so many avenues. It is intriguing to think of what is once again possible.

So here is a twist. I have been training to become a Shaman. I am learning the Shaman medicine wheel. I started with the South. This week I am training in the west. The amount of things I have been learning and training on is immense. My training is every 3 months. Then practice, practice, practice. I have two sides of the wheel left. The East and the North. I like what I am doing.

  I have been back in a semi truck. Quite busy. I will post more later.

   I am going to continue my education in upholstery. Next month I will be in a sewing class like Kelly is taking.

 That will finish up in September. There is a good chance I will also start sewing in a factory for the experience.

We just finished this couch

                                   There is a plan behind this. Once school is done, we are going to continue our education with some of the boat canvas workshops that are available, at different places around the country. It won't take long to complete the ones we want to take. We are getting serious about doing boat upholstery/canvas.

    We have all the sewing machines we need to do any kind of sewing we want to do.

   Now the best part of the plan. I have started looking for another sailboat.  We are moving back to the coast. This time further south. Considering Savannah, Georgia as the furthest north we want to be. We are going to start an upholstery/canvas business wherever we move to. We will decide how much of the year we will be sailing the Caribbean

   I told Kelly this morning that we would be sailing in the Caribbean a year from now.  She nodded her head knowingly and said "I know".
I was pretty sure she would like the idea. I primed her by taking the ASA 101 and ASA 103 sailing courses with her last year.

                                   

   If you have read much of this blog... you know something about the back pain I have fought with. It has not only been a hardship getting to a point where I could work again. But somewhat difficult getting things to line up to get me out traveling under sail.

It helps having a partner who is interested in the same thing.

We are opposites in some ways....but very much alike in the ways that count most

Kelly is in upholstery school yet. Doing quite well with her sewing. We have been working on projects.

 I took a picture of an old building while driving truck in North Dakota. It was used on the business cards. We are starting the Upholstery business.

It has been a while since I posted. I have been busy.
  I met Kelly last year while I was going to upholstery school. She lived on Mary lee with me a short time. She also ended up out in the semi truck for 10 months. We have now rented a place and she is not only going to upholstery school, but is being taught to sew in one of the furniture factories.                                 

                                    I grew my first beard in many years.

We have now got a place to sew.                                                                     

                                       Hurricane Florence helped damage Mary Lee. I looked at prices for unstayed masts. Fixing her may cost more than She is worth. I have time to ponder whether to fix her or buy a true deep water sailboat on the west coast. More on that later.                                 

                                     The blog is not seeing any action because I am out in a truck full time and facebook is handy.         

I should mention that Kelly and I did take some sailing lessons. Sadly Kelly does not have picture taking skills. But I do😉

I am sitting here pondering all the ideas I have had for returning to full time work. My brain still thinks my body can do everything it was capable before my back injury. There is never any question of being able to figure out how to do things. The problem is finding something that I can do continuously without hurting myself. Right now I am driving truck. It hurts me a lot. There is no more fun in doing it. Kelly is going to start real estate classes next month. I will have to drive for a while longer.

  I have some ideas for something lucrative I can do. We live in an area that is about to grow. There is a living to be made here. We both really like Oriental, NC. and will most likely move Mary Lee there for the summer. We are going to forego a bunch of the interior upgrades for now. I need to do canvas soon and bottom paint. Then we will just sail her on my  days off. I am excited to finally start sailing her. There is a trip planned for this next season. I want to make it happen.

Sailing lessons almost complete. Last day of ASA 103 starts in 6 hours. ASA 101 was quite a learning experience. We are taking lessons in Oriental, NC. At Bow to Stern.

We both really like the area. The instructors have been excellent! Taking these lessons at Bow to Stern has been a great experience.

Kelly has really done well. The end of day three has left me sunburned and tired. Kelly is also wore out.

We laughed about the struggle to keep from going to bed before the sun even set. But the sun did set before we did. Tomorrow is March 31st. The anniversary of me getting hurt. How ironic that it is the last day of our sailing lessons. It has been quite the battle to get to this place in my recovery. I am finally ready to start sailing Mary Lee....yay!!!

We are set to take sailing lessons at the end of the month. A.S.A.. Three levels available. We will take 101 and 103 this month. 104 in April.
   Mary Lee will come out of the water soon after. New bottom paint and some changes. Adding more batteries. Building the booth and finishing upholstery.
  Once back in the water....we are thinking of moving her to Oriental. We both like the area better. We will spend my "home time" sailing and wrapping up the little projects. Canvas being one of the necessary needs.
 

I have a partner in crime(so to speak). I have been dating Kelly for over 6 months

.

She and I are going to tag team the rest of the preparations on Mary Lee.

I will continue driving truck. I will drive three weeks and have a week to work on boat projects each month. This is mostly unheard of in trucking. They usually want you to be out 30 days and take three days off.  We plan to head south at the end of this upcoming hurricane season.

It will be a very busy time.  As we get rolling on projects, I will try to post the upgrades as they are completed. Mary Lee will come out of the water soon

It has been a very busy time. Several very good things have happened in the last few months. I was on the fence about selling Mary Lee and buying another boat in Seattle.

I have been out seeing things. This is Oriental, NC. I am back in a semi truck full time. I was just salaried at a very good wage. I also have some part time driving jobs with the van that I am looking forward to.

The move back west is imminent. The boating adventure was never about the east coast. It was about the South Pacific. Also sailing the Alaskan inlets for a summer. I will be pulling Mary Lee out of the water soon. The end of next hurricane season will see everything done and she will be ready to travel. I am excited. I finally have recovered from the back injury enough to move forward with the original plan. The one I made when I first bought Mary Lee. FINALLY!!! So....there will be quite a bit of posting very soon. I will have to hire help to do some of the work....I will be too busy to do it all myself.

I have been meeting quite a few upholsterers with their own shops. I have been told over and over....You do not need that school. It is a waste of your time. I have taught myself how to sew well enough to undertake any job I am likely to get into. I think it is time to get set up and take the leap. I am going to go out in a semi again until spring. I am going to buy a pickup. Camper on top. Car hauler trailer set up as portable upholstery shop. I have a plan.

So. I have been out exploring the area around Hickory.

This is a place back up in the mountains that was interesting. That is all coffee cups.

This little lake. Lake Lure(near Ashville was used in a few movies.

Pretty small puddle. If you can read the sign. Used in Dirty Dancing and Last of the Mohicans.

That is a short update. I have been busy. I am going to be moved out of Hickory, NC. Before Oct. 1st. Going to drive up to Maine in the van for a few days. Then head out in a semi for the winter. Should be interesting. I have plans for Mary Lee this winter. She may very well end up on a trailer headed to Seattle and Puget sound. I want to cruise the Alaskan inlets for a summer. More on that later

Just a quick post.

   I have to take a day off upholstering. My back flared up. All good. I finished the second bucket seat yesterday. Seams are straight. No weird bulges. Everything lined up like it should be. I was going to pull the drivers seat out this morning. I need the van for class tomorrow. Guess I will start on passenger seat and save driver seat for next Friday.

   Here is the newest photo.

I like it. I will also be doing headliner and carpet when seats are done. Not sure if I mentioned that.