Starting Another Sailing Season

 Book signing with Marge, my co-author.  Notice our huge belt buckles!

 Maui, Hawaii, our 50th visited state

 Glacier National Park.  Hiking to Iceberg Lake, as you can see with the bergs in the water!

Glacier National Park as seen from the east and our rental house.

 Glacier National Park hike with our friends, Tim, Maria, Charlie, Patty and Anina

 McCall, Idaho hike with Kim, Maria and Dean

 Our truck, "The Beast", on the dirt roads of the west Texas oil fields

 Chicago hot dogs in Joliet, IL

 Hiking near Aspen with Tim and Debbie

 Another typical mid-west breakfast at Louis’ Restaurant.  That is a small order of biscuits and gravy!

 Bike riding with Tim, Jim and Bruce near the foothills west of Denver

 Golf with Tim, Barry and Bob.  I gotta get a hat to fit in with the guys.

 Sir Timothy, Zach, Maria and Nik celebrating Tim’s birthday

 Rolling Stones concert in Denver.  Wow!

 Maria getting her well deserved t-shirt for 175 Jazzercise classes since coming back in June.

 Cousins Joyce and Kathleen on the farm near Havana, Illinois

 Cousin Cathy near Milwaukee, WI.  Cathy plays Annie Oakley in many celebrations and festivals around the country.  Yes, she rides and shoots at the same time!

 Early fall blizzard in North Dakota.  You don’t want to be around that part of the country after about August!

 Our sailing friends on Dakota Dream, Fred and Sandy, took us in and gave us shelter from the storm in North Dakota!

November at our house in Colorado when the snow begins to fly.  Time to head south, quickly!

S/Y Aspen – November 19, 2019 – Log #166
Aspen Position: 12 degrees 02’ N  061 degrees 44’ W
Grenada, Caribbean

Six months of being back in the good ole USA and how quickly that went by, before the snow started flying and cold weather set in! 

We did a few things while we were home like:
    •    Book signings for the new running book with my co-author Marge
    •    Maria visiting her family near Chicago
    •    Trip to Maui, Hawaii that marked the completion of our visits to all 50 States
    •    Road trip and hiking in Glacier National Park with our sailing friends (Charlie & Anina/Prism along with Tim and Patty/boat less now) and a trip to Idaho (Dean and Kim/DreamCatcher)
    •    Another road trip to the US Southwest and Texas to pick up The Beast
    •    A bit of golfing, bike riding, Rolling Stones, family time and a record number of exercise classes for Maria
    •    Hiking and soaking at hot springs in Colorado and New Mexico (with Tim and Debbie)
    •    Driving to the Midwest and upper Great Plains to visit Steve’s cousins and our sailing friends in North Dakota during an early fall blizzard (Kathleen, Joyce, Cathy, Fred and Sandy/Dakota Dream)

The posted pictures do more justice about these fun trips than mere words; and the pictures are more interesting anyway.

But now it is back to the tropical little latitudes onboard Aspen for more adventures in the warm Caribbean waters that call our name every winter. 

Planning our new seasons’ voyage is pretty much impossible, as sailors know.  We sail as the wind allows, with desires written in the sand at low tide.  The sea guides and rules our every day lives while Aspen takes us near and far.

We will keep you updated on the latest happy hours, a few (!) rum tastings, hikes and ever changing cultures in the Caribbean this winter season as we sail aboard Aspen and think about the snow and cold up north.

For now we will be sweating in the boatyard, way down south in Grenada, getting Aspen ready to go back into the water once again. 

So for now,
Sail on, sail on Aspen…

PS -
1. You can track our location using this: https://us0-share.inreach.garmin.com/SYAspen
2. Our sailing book, Voyage Into Hell, is available at Amazon.com (www.voyageintohell.com)
3. And the new book, Leadville Trail 100; History of the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Running Race is also available at Amazon.com (www.LT100history.com)