August was the best of times and also the worst of times. Sometimes life can seem like it can’t get any better one minute, and then it kicks you in the gut and breaks your heart the next. That was August for me. It’s hard at this moment to be excited about our trip. And yet, my soul yearns for the quiet moments of our upcoming Great Loop trip like it is calling me with wide open arms. I can’t say enough about the best of times at the beginning of the August, when I visited the home of my daughter and her wife with a friend. For nearly two weeks, I was reminded of how good this earth is and how good many of my fellow earthlings truly are. It did much to restore my faith in people and hope for the future. I could probably write 17 chapters on the daily joys of that trip.

So, I’ll start with the ten-day visit with my dear friend, Beth, to see my oldest daughter, Jackie, and her wife, Maureen, to celebrate their birthdays and their new home in Washington state. It really was the best of times. During the visit, I also received news that Larry’s oldest son, Jake, bought his first home in Maine! This is a happy moment for our kids, and their joy is our joy! Larry and I hope to plan a visit to Maine soon. Beth and I packed our gloves to help with gardening.  My daughter used ChatGPT to design her beautiful garden and we executed her plan, manifesting my mother’s spirit.  My kids and I all got the gardening bug from my mom and she, from her grandmother, Hattie Belle. My daughter was so excited and kept exclaiming, “I can’t believe this is my yard!” My heart was bursting with jubilation at it. It is the perfect house in a lovely quiet neighborhood with a fenced-in yard for my grand dogs. We greatly benefitted from Mo’s cooking skills, and she tried again to teach me to make those wonderful spring rolls with the Thai peanut sauce. We took a break to visit downtown Seattle, Pike Market, Bloedel Reserve and Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. Everything came out amazing and we topped off the trip with an epic dinner at Din Tai Fung to celebrate their birthdays.

And then, my big brother passed away on August 13^th. His heart stopped while he slept. Despite the pleas of his family, and for reasons that only my brother could understand, he did not want to go to the hospital until his Medicare started on September 1^st. He died 19 days before that. I want to scream. In fact, I did scream. For three days straight. I think I may scream some every day for all the days of the rest of my life. It feels unnecessary to have lost my big brother so soon. I had discussed the options for Medicare supplemental coverages before he went to bed, and we agreed to make the decision in the coming days. There is a hole in my heart. For my niece, my goddaughter, and her husband and children. I am so sad. My Dad, my sisters and I are struggling to accept that he is no longer here. The only thing giving us any consolation at all is that my beautiful niece, amidst the worst pain in her life, is planning the most wonderful celebration to say goodbye to my dear beloved brother on his 65^th birthday, September 11th.

Life is busy. Missing people has been agonizing this month. It reminds me how intentional we must be to make time to truly BE together. Dolly Parton passed this week too and though that I feel such sadness over the loss of a remarkable force for good, hearing her angelic voice this week has been a salve to me.

With respect to Loop preparations, Larry rented scuba equipment to clean the shaft and the propeller. The new davit system is almost done. We are moving marinas to the Safe Harbor South Harbour Village marina, which we had been on a waiting list for. Serendipity has occurred once again as we received notice that a slip is available, just one week before we received notice that our marina (Deep Point) is being taken over by Waterway and there will be many changes and many unknowns. There are expansion plans where we live in Southport, so things will surely be changing. We will miss the ability to walk to our boat, but I believe deeply, that the LiveMore is now meant to be at South Harbor.  We were able to squeeze in a boating day on one of the four days in August that Larry and I spent together. I have started making sure we have what we need for kitchen supplies. I was able to review the dishes, glasses, pots, pans and utensils, and remove things that we would not use and supplement with some personal items of ours. We continued looking for a new mattress. I used ChatGPT to narrow down our options and will let you know what we end up with next month.

Larry and I both lost our brothers this year. We did not know that, when about a year ago, we dared each other into agreement to take this trip. Sometimes, I wonder if we should even be considering the loop when we never know how long we have on this majestic earth with our loved ones and we may not see many of them for a year. But it seems that adventure is calling us to go, to heal, and to nourish our soul. We must feed our spirit just as we feed our bodies. America’s Great Loop will give us that nourishment, and I am ever so grateful to have this to look forward to.

Until next time,