To make God chuckle, tell her you've got plans!

Some of you have been asking about our plans and schedule for the Great Loop. To be honest, we're trying not to have a schedule--a huge challenge for two type A folks and especially hard for yours truly. But, try we must!

That said, here's our current thinking. Chuck flies out to Holland, MI where the boat has spent the summer on September 16. He'll spend the day on the 17th with the boat dealer who sold us the boat learning systems, etc. The rest of that week will be final fit out and practice docking in the quiet waters of Lake Macatawa. Jackie and Rascal (our cat) fly out on the 23rd, we grocery shop and provision on the 24th, and, if the weather gods allow, we depart on the 25th. If that happened to be a super calm day, we might cross directly to Chicago (about 90 miles) but more likely we'll go down the east side of Lake Michigan and around the toe of the lake.

For the rest of the trip, we plan to cruise 3-5 hours per day roughly 5 days per week. That will allow time to enjoy the places we're in, do some consulting (virtually for the most part) and, of course, to plan the next days passage. We also will leave the boat occasionally to visit the grandchildren and do what needs to be done for the Roux Institute and Roux Family Foundation.

How this all works out, we're eager to see. We may side trip to Nashville for Thanksgiving. We're thinking we'll be in the Keys for at least some of the winter. And, we're hoping to be in New York Harbor for Memorial Day before heading up the Hudson and Lake Champlain for Montreal, Ottawa, Georgian Bay and the return to Holland 12-14 months from now. Time will tell!