After the house closing, the pain from writing that check was gone and the excitement from accomplishment took over. I realized that it was meant to be after all. So for about a month after the closing, we got busy changing locks, buying and hanging some window coverings, having the landscaping cleaned up, ordering new garage doors and starting on the garage electrical repairs. During that time we also went to New Jersey for Easter to visit the family. It was really great to see everyone and to see the progress Joni (Mom) made to prepare for the move. She was packed and ready for her intended move-in date of May 10. We had also made some of our own progress, selling items and filling the first of several rental dumpsters, but we were both still at our jobs so things were feeling as slow as molasses.
So what about the actual sailing? Well, we had a great plan. About two weeks after sailing school we had booked a Gemini catamaran for charter in the Chesapeake in mid-June. Unfortunately just this week they called to tell us to pick different dates as the owner wanted the boat that week. We had already paid the deposit and taken the vacation days, so it didn’t happen. Then we were looking to get something in the Bahamas before hurricane season, but that didn’t happen due to missing passports that could not be replaced in time. We really thought we were going to find them sooner.
The last time we remember seeing our passports, it was last summer on our “Canadia” trip in July 2017. We took the RV up to see Niagara Falls and stayed at a pretty little campground named Daisy Barn. It was in Wilson, New York, northeast of the falls and right on Lake Ontario. We had used our passports for the day trip to Toronto in the car and when we traveled across the Rainbow Bridge on foot to see the Canada side of Niagara. That’s it. The remainder of the trip took us to Massachusetts where we camped at Winter Island Park in Salem, at a water view site overlooking the harbor. There were day trips to downtown Boston and Portland, Maine, then a stop overnight in Hershey, Pennsylvania to break up the long trip home, but nothing that would require us to use, move or stash the passports.
I have a few vague memories about the passports which I believe were from shortly after the trip. I know that I did not want them back in my safe and Jason did want them back in his safe either. We both remember contemplating the file cabinet. We just recently ripped it apart and emptied it out. No love. I also kind of remember them sitting on my clothes shelf above the safe because I didn’t want to put them back in. That’s the best my memory can do and it isn’t worth crap as we’ve gone through every possible scenario and checked every possible place and failed to complete the mission.
So, now we will have to suck it up and get new passports in the next week or so. Why? Well, we found ourselves without a sailing plan. With the first booking falling through and the other not seeming like a good idea after all, we need to find a charter. The week of Jason’s birthday is the vacation week, but also falls in hurricane season in the Bahamas and we desire no further disappointment. So we are now looking to charter a boat south of the hurricane box. Either way it goes, we still require passports. So hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to the post office we go to cough up over $500 for brand spanking new passports. You know what the kicker is? I bet as we tear this house apart and empty it, the old passports will make their presence known and I will wonder how the heck they ended up where they did. Just saying.
UPDATE 9/18/2018: Our shiny new passports arrived by the end of May. Our old ones finally showed up today and we couldn’t believe where! It doesn’t matter so much where they were actually found, but more that they weren’t anywhere we thought and in fact, we had never touched them since Niagara!