Friday, May 23, 2014 – 9:30PM – Leg 36/Day 56 – 42.5 Miles
The Great Loop experience number two is finished. The Atlantic portion of the adventure is complete. I shall now be heading inland and out of salt water. I had mentally broken the journey up into 6 different experiences, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the big bays of Chesapeake and Delaware the up the Atlantic Ocean into New York Harbor, the Hudson River and the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes, the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, the Ten-Tom, and the Gulf through Okeechobee in Florida. So two of my mental sections are complete.
But I am here, in the largest city in the United States and one of the great cities of the world. I am seeing it from a different perspective being on the water and the views are unbelievable. Lights, sounds, people, boats, cars; all going a million miles per hour, and then there is me sitting on my deck and just enjoying it all with no place I need to be. Well, that's not entirely true, I need to be here on Sunday to rendezvous with Kate.
I remember years ago when I was visiting Washington DC and my wife and I at the time had applied to HUD for our home when we were going through some financial difficulties. While there I had placed my hands on the HUD building and prayed for God to give us favor. I also remember the feeling of power that emanates from that city, the slow moving of something very powerful. Here it is different; the city feels like it's a place where things get done. Very apropos that it's called the City That Never Sleeps and the speed that it doesn't sleep is incredible.
There is just so much noise, especially after the ocean crossings. The horns from ships and cars is almost constant. I'm not sure how I am going to sleep. I may have to turn the fan on to drown it all out. Plus I am so excited to see Kate that I may not sleep much until she gets here anyway.
It's been drizzly all day and it looks like rain for most of the night. It looks like it will be a wet one tomorrow but it should clear up nicely by Sunday (yay!) when Kate comes in. I just plan on cleaning up the inside and going over some of the equipment before we take off on Monday. I was going to try to find a Walmart or something, but the prices here are unbelievable. I may try to find anchorage on Sunday night just because the cost here is way over the $50 a night I budget. But we shall see.
Please cover my babies and my loves with your blanket of love tonight and give Kate traveling mercies tomorrow Papa.