No, not our rockers (although some might argue the point), on our next round of adventure – Vagabonding, Chapter 1.

A special note to those who have been following along with us: if you are not interested in keeping up with our land-based adventures, please let us know by sending an email to saltymare@hotmail.com and we will remove you from the subscriber list so you won’t be bothered with unwanted emails.

For those who want to continue following along, we’ve added a tracker to the Locate Us page so you can see where we are at any point in time.

Now back to the story.

O-o-p-s, not so fast.

A last-minute text from our soon-to-be granddaughter changed everything. “Guess what?! We’re getting married!! … April 7! … in… (wait for it) … West Virginia!”

---

It’s called West VIRGINIA ’cause it’s just WEST of Virginia. Shorter first leg. Hey, that’s a good thing. Long week to get there. And we actually have cruiser friends out there somewhere; more on that later.

After pausing for one more family hug in Mechanicsville (and to dump the last pile of “too much” stuff! 😉 ), we headed for a three-night stop-over in Broadway, VA. We found the End of the Road Retreat cabin rental on the interwebs, and, as anticipated, it was a picturesque 155-mile drive. The last scenic mile was on a twisting, up and up-ly down (a new Todd phrase meaning mostly UP)-hill, gravel road. The 5-mph recommended speed limit was not exceeded!

---

Behind the cabin, while it’s not the ocean, there’s a spectacular view!

---

In addition to the shuffleboard hiding under that long table, there’s this contraption off the side deck:

Just where are all those grandchildren when you need them? Nana wants to push someone off the deck! LOL

---

Yes, this will do nicely.

---

---

What’s next? Well, today we’ll head 12 miles west to enter WEST Virginia and then travel another couple of hours to join our first Selene friends, James & Carol (former owners of the beautiful Selene 57 Excalibur) for almost a week at their family cabin in the hills…no Wi-Fi or cell service…….. 🙂

We’ll be back in touch April 1. Ya’ll stay safe!

Once the boat deal was done and that proverbial door closed, it was time to focus forward and figure out how to get moving again. Our lives needed quite a bit of organization if we were to pull this off – and remember “we” have a Todd. 🙂

---

First up, a week in Wilmington to check off a round of medical follow-up / “wellness” visits. The appointments were spaced far enough apart as to allow some time to wander about playing tourist. One day it was the downtown area, including the Riverwalk, Bellamy Mansion, and the Railroad Museum, where we learned – among other things – that the conductor, housed in the caboose, was actually the boss.

She continued the role reversal that evening by trying to set up our camera self-timer and run over into the shot, which is usually Todd’s specialty.

---

A couple days later, we hit the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher (along with what seemed like two hundred small children – ha!) and Fort Fisher State Park for some chilly educational reading about the loss of the fort before warming up with a nice hike.

---

---

We are blessed with so much family in Hampton Roads. It was wonderful to spend time with everyone. Priceless!

---

To establish some connections that we might use in other places, we explored and joined both the Norfolk Botanical Garden and the Virginia Zoo. Norfolk’s mascot provided Susie the opportunity to embrace her inner (landlocked) mermaid. Hey, Honey, what happened to that tan??

---

We mentioned trips to the storage unit. To whine completely (and with a visual aid), 22 miles one way! Total trips? 732,123,654 million! Or so it seemed. That was Todd’s estimate…

Every time, we thought we were almost there – surely we’ll fit in the car now. Test fit, and nope. More to storage. Test fit, and nope, yet again. After our lease ran out on the “joint,” we made several trips to stay an extra week in a hotel to cull through the load once again!