Since we talked last the Team Joy Girl trajectory was modified. After weeks of discussion and prayer we decided to return home to Colorado for the winter!

What?! Why?

Primarily, we both have parents in their 80’s (two are holding their own at 88) who we want to spend time with and provide assistance to. My folks are in Colorado and Craig’s Mom is in Chicago, so we can visit her easily.

Visited Craig’s Mom in Chicago before we left

Niki’s Mom and Dad (& crazy Bro) in Colorado

Secondarily, Hurricanes Florence and Michael put a dent into our plans. After floating down the rivers we would hit the Florida Panhandle which is, of course, in emergency status. It’s unclear when the marinas down there will reopen, so other Loopers are stuck in a holding pattern in Tennessee and Kentucky right now.

Even if we made it past the horrible hurricane destruction, the sugar sand beaches of western Florida would not be waiting for us. The Red Tide temporarily ruined many of them to the point where our friends cancelled their Sarasota beach condo reservation because of the filth and stench.  And, we had hoped to spend a month on Bald Head Island, home of Cape Fear, in North Carolina this winter. That beautiful area still needs time to repair and rejuvenate after Florence.

And last but not least, this year we’ve read horror stories of boats damaged and even sunk (!) on the rivers. Tales of debris from flooding, shallow water, crashes with tow boats, added on top of our general disinterest in traveling the midwest rivers all worked together to help us decide to head home.

Since we decided to store Joy Girl “on the hard” so late in the season, EVERY marina we called was booked solid already. Thanks to a tip from our friends Tom and Julie Van Hall we lucked into a spot at North Shore Marina in Grand Haven, Michigan. North Shore was only able to accommodate us because of a cancellation that morning. Providence was with us.

So, off we went, back across Lake Mean-chigan. It was a tough two days of pitching and rolling – poor Scully got seasick both days. Thankfully, Grand Haven turned out to be a lovely spot with a fascinating mix of pretty beaches, sand dunes, Fall colors and coniferous trees, too.

Bike rides to the beach

Thousands of Lady Bugs onshore

Grand Haven Beach

Trail near beach

Decidicous trees on the trail

Fall colors

Huge tree washed up on shore

Sandy trail through coniferous trees, wierd!

Grand Haven Beach

During our three weeks in Grand Haven we had dinner with boater friends, celebrated both our birthdays and our 3rd wedding anniversary.

Niki’s birthday dinner with Tom and Julie

Happy birthday who??

3rd wedding anniversary celebration with the Joy Girl silver 🙂

Craig and Roswell napping away a cold afternoon

Lovely sunrise at our friends Steve and Sandy’s house in Grand Haven

Lake Michigan sunset

Unfortunately, after a week of great weather, Fall came upon us and it turned cloudy, cold and windy, with winds as high as 30 knots and waves up to 14 feet. No worries, we only watched them from ashore.

Craig waiting for sunshine…

Waves hitting the sea wall

Waves crashing against the lighthouse

Waves crashing the seawall

Crazy sufer dude going out to catch a wave!

Winter is long on the Great Lakes so we won’t see Joy Girl again until next May. She’ll be hibernating in a heated storage unit and having some maintenance work done. We will miss her and our adventures but we’re sure this is the right thing to do during this season of our lives. We are now home in Colorado, enjoying the delightful weather!

We get a lot of questions about our favorite places, so look for our Top 10 Locations post coming up next to wrap up this segment of our adventure.