What's the Plan?

Ben and I took the Florida Boating Safety Course and passed it back in April. It is required that people much younger than us take it, but we decided it would be beneficial knowledge to have. One of the biggest points in the lessons was to always have a float plan. Reviewing feedback from all you lovely readers through comments, texts, and general questions, I realized I've failed to let you in on the actual plan!

We leave Sunday morning. Sunday. As in 5 more days. What?! My living room is excited for the trailer to arrive on Friday. This is what it looks like and has looked like for the past several MONTHS- of course, we have been adding to it, little by little to get to this point. The box of boxes goes to the curb on Friday- this is what has been collected from shipments over the past two weeks. Dang that every-other-week recycling business...

Thank you to all of our incredible neighbors, family, and friends who will be staying at, working on, spying, or looking after our house while we are on this journey. Oh, and if you happen to pass by the house, give us a wave on the camera!

Being a teacher, I have the summers off. Now that hasn't always been the case, as I typically take classes all summer long, but this year I finally reached the maximum credits beyond my master's degree. Hooray! Ben's work shifts are on for 48 hours, off for 96 hours, but one of the cool things about being a firefighter is that he can set up, what they call, trades. He asks around for anyone who is able to fill his job for a 24-hour block. In exchange, he will work a 24-hour block for them, a different day. Therefore, they are trading days. Back in April, Ben got all 16 shifts covered that he'd be missing from June 8th to the beginning of August. He has paid some of these back already, but most will be paid back after our trip ends.

Sunday we drive. Monday we drive. Those of you unfamiliar with our Epic Carter Family Road Trips might be wondering how we plan to entertain the kids for all of this 28ish hour drive. Well typically they have their tablets (or back in the day, they had a portable DVD player) to watch endless movies on, which keeps them quiet and entertained. That was the plan for this trip, up until about 3 weeks ago when Moose decided to see if we were kidding about the hammer not being a good stylus for his tablet. So, we will take our family hotspot tablet with some downloaded Disney+ movies (choices for this trip: Moana, Tangled, Cars, Raya, Onward among others) and hope for the best. 

Ben thinks we will arrive in Rhode Island sometime on Tuesday. Then we have Wednesday and Thursday to unpack the camper and trailer, return the trailer, and load up the boat. I'm expecting some necessary shopping trips will take place, and of course, I'd like to stop at T's for some more of that delicious food. Ben's dad and step-mom fly in on Thursday, so he will pick them up from the airport and they will drop him off at the boat. Then they will drive the truck and camper down to Sebastian, Florida which is where our boat will live from August until next summer.

Once we're on the boat, our plan is to head south to the Florida Keys. We're planning to stay overnight (for free) in the Hudson Bay with the Statue of Liberty, as well as make a few pit stops along the journey down. (There are a bunch of places we want to see between Rhode Island and Florida, but we plan to start America's Great Loop next summer and will plan out stops and attractions for that next year.) It should take us 1-2 weeks to get to Florida. In addition to the Keys, we want to check out Dry Tortugas National Park, Biscayne National Park, and possibly make a trip to the Bahamas. Ben's first shift back to work is August 7th, so we have to be back by then. Any stops between June 10th and the first week of August is anyone's guess!