Living on a boat sounds super glamorous- sounds being the operative word.
Not to burst your bubble if you’re considering living on a boat…but it’s not all sunsets and chardonnay.
A couple months ago I was given the opportunity to write a chapter for a new book coming out about The Great Loop. The creative genius behind the book, Susan, came up with the idea of compiling stories and experiences from the Loop.
I’m the rookie of the group. But I’m honored that Susan allowed me to be a part of such a cool book!
Working on a very short deadline, I struggled to hone in on a specific direction for my chapter. I’m rarely at a loss for written words, and this proved no exception.
I finally decided to write about the things I thought I’d never say before moving onto a boat and beginning The Great Loop. Even that topic had to be narrowed down!
Escentially I concluded that it’s not all sunsets and chardonnay, but most of the time the good outweighs the bad.
Here’s an excerpt from my chapter…one of the things I never thought I’d say before we moved onto a boat:
“I’m going to need a bigger trap.”
I really debated writing about this because apparently, it’s a rare problem. But it happens. And it happened to us.
We gained an unwelcome visitor to our boat that thought he was going to hitch a ride around the Loop. He ate our food. Left a mess. And made lots of noise at night. (Not unlike my kids!)
The first day we discovered our new little friend, not-so-affectionately named Lucifer, I seriously considered checking into a hotel. Instead, I put on my big girl pants and headed to Lowes to buy $30 worth of mouse traps.
When that didn’t work, we watched a couple of YouTube videos and changed to the recommended “foolproof” sticky pads. The next morning, we woke up to all of the food eaten off of the traps, but no Lucifer.
At this point, I wasn’t messing around anymore. I called an exterminator and told my husband that this problem was going to break me. I was close to putting a For Sale sign on the back of our boat. The exterminator talked me off the ledge and all but guaranteed we’d catch Lucifer using bigger sticky pads
With renewed confidence, I went back to Lowes. At this point, I was on a first-name basis with most of the employees. I announced, “I’m going to need a bigger trap.”
I repeated those same words two more times on two subsequent trips to Lowes. We eventually settled on the medium size Havahart trap. If you don’t know what that is, Google it.
And yes, it turned out to be the appropriate size for Lucifer.
How’s that for honesty about living on a boat?
Folks, that’s the stuff that you don’t see on social media (despite the fact that I really do try to keep it real!)
In addition to my chapter- Not All Sunsets And Chardonnay – there are 34 other incredible chapters. It’s really a great read that gives a lot of insight- from many perspectives- into boating.
The book is available FREE of charge!
All you need to do is send an email to [email protected] with the subject: Free Loop Book. I will reply to your email with the PDF file.
If for some reason you’d rather obtain it through Amazon, you can pay $1.99 to download it to your Kindle.
While you’re there you should order a copy of my other book, Cricket Catches The Travel Bug (sorry, shameless plug!)
Hope you all enjoy the book, Ladies on the Loop. And as always, thanks for following along on our crazy adventures!
Read more about our adventures:
Books To Read On Vacation This Summer
The One Where We Cross Things Off Our NC Bucket List
The One Where It Started Raining And Never Stopped
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