Some Background ....

Some of the people who have read the first post on this blog have asked me exactly where this houseboat idea came from. What? Why?? How????

Here is the background as best I remember it ....

Tom and I had a nice vacation in Cancun this past Summer, but we decided our next vacation needed to be ON the water. So we looked into Windjammer Sailing cruises and ran various searches for barefoot cruises and family cruises, etc. One of the sites had some info on renting a houseboat in Florida for a week or so. So that gave us an idea and we got to thinking about houseboats and houseboating and Tom started running some searches on those topics.

Well ... it turns out that there are a lot of people who "houseboat" just like there are people who "RV". And houseboating has magazines and websites and BLOGS and trips. Tom subscribed to Houseboat Magazine .... http://www.HouseboatMagazine.com and we are reading up on Houseboating and all the joys and issues involved with it.

Tom also learned of something called "The Great Loop" . America’s Great Loop is the continuous waterway that circumnavigates the eastern portion of North America — along the Atlantic Seaboard, across the Great Lakes, through the inland rivers, and around the Gulf of Mexico. It is sometimes referred to as The Great Circle Route. And there are lots of stories and blogs and pics and information online from people who have done or are doing The Great Loop. There are houseboaters and yachters and cruisers and all different kinds of boats and boaters who take this trip. It sounds like an adventure! Here is what Wikipedia says about it .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_loop

So we got to thinking about getting a houseboat and doing The Great Loop. Maybe looking for a location to call home somewhere along the loop? Who knows? But first I felt it would be a good idea to try a weekend rental .... then maybe a weeklong rental .... test the waters, so to speak. See if Tom and I can live together in such tight conditions and still remain friends.

I also needed to test how I would feel. Would I get seasick? Would I be able to sleep on the boat? During our first weekend on Lake Norfolk in Arkansas I seemed to instantly adapt to being on the water. No problems walking or sleeping or anything. HOWEVER ... once I got off of the boat, I felt like the land was moving ... and I continued to feel that way for several days. I dubbed that feeling "landsickness" and I just ran a search to see if there was such a thing ... and sure enough ... Landsickness . Wow .... I hope I don't get that forever version of landsickness.

Anyway ... by renting and trying different boats, Tom and I can get a feel for what sort of things we would want to have in our own boat. What would be important to us? Where would we need extra room because of our sizes? How many bedrooms would we want?

So this was a start .... and I am planning to blog our way through the whole process.

Next stop: A houseboat Expo in Louisville, KY in March .... http://houseboatexpo.com