The girls, our three dogs, and I left Reno, NV the morning of October 14, 2024 in the Jeep pulling an overloaded Uhaul trailer (that we lovingly referred to as “Pandora’s Box”) with all of our remaining belongings to begin our cross-country journey towards our new floating home…SV Orion.
Over the course of 7 days and over 3,000 miles, we would make stops in Salt Lake City, UT, Denver, CO, Kansas City, KS, Tyler, TX, and Tuscaloosa, AL before arriving in Brunswick, GA on October 21, 2024. It was quite the adventurous road trip that entailed a couple minor injuries (one shoulder and one tail), quick visits with several different friends, varying landscapes, and a multi-day stop in Texas to visit Jason’s Mom. I also found myself cheering Jamie on from afar as he took an overall podium spot in his division for MTB racing, as well as receiving the news of my mom’s accident (ultimately taking me back to NV for a few weeks). It was an amalgam of emotions, but when I first spotted a sign for Brunswick, I was overcome with tears of joy…this lifelong dream of Jason’s and mine was actually happening.
We arrived in Brunswick just as the sun was setting, and I had opted to go ahead and get a hotel for the night, rather than driving straight to the boat. I wasn’t comfortable pulling into the marina, sight unseen, with a big Uhaul, two kids, three dogs, no idea where to park, uncertain of where the boat was located in the marina, and not being sure about the hows of turning on the lights and other systems on the boat. As it turned out, it was a good choice, because the docks at the marina have locked gates, and the marina office was closed by the time we got into town.
The next morning, we loaded everyone up and made the 10 minute drive to the marina, checked in with the office, and the girls got their first look at our new home. It was sort of a surreal moment.
As for the dogs…it took them a bit to adjust to jumping onto the boat from the dock. All three got a little soggy the first go round, and poor Ringo just had to be carried from boat to dock and back going forward (old man’s legs just didn’t have enough spring to them).
We immediately met our boat neighbors…a sweet family of five whose kids offered to help us unload our Uhaul. They all made quick work of it, as I attempted to find temporary spots for everything. We even had a few people from the boat yard come down to help us move some of the heavier items. Once everything was out of the trailer, the girls started making themselves at home…and Alice jumped into action making boat-kid friends.
I then headed out into town to drop off the trailer and get some provisions for the refrigerator and freezer, as well as some other supplies and home items (since we gave away/left behind the majority of our stuff). And once I returned, the girls were quick to adapt to loading up a dock cart with stuff to carry over to the boat. We had our first dinner on the boat that night, and slowly settled into life on the water.
Jason and Jamie would make their way to the boat eight days later, once the MTB season had wrapped up.
