sv EXIT STRATEGY Breaks Record

Believe it or not- it is just over eight years since Dan and I retired and moved onto the boat.  And EIGHT YEARS is a new record for us living in a home.  Previous to sv EXIT STRATEGY, the longest we lived in a dwelling was seven and a half years.  Many of you know that Dan was a special grades sales rep for various stainless steel mills based in the USA.  Over the years, his career took us to places we’d never been and to some we’d never choose to go.  However, we welcomed each with a fresh enthusiasm for a new adventures.

Then, in October of 2010, our retirement and transfer into the cruising lifestyle took us to places beyond our wildest dreams.  Cruising has been a good life for us and we are forever grateful that our family and friends have accepted and humored us through our abbreviated visits and sometimes seemingly mundane blogs.  

OUR HABITAT HISTORY
2 years:  2 bd. 1 bath apartment in Summit, IL 
Where I could walk to work as an LD Teacher and where our upstairs neighbors were occasionally frightfully loud. We learned that the neighborhood was nicknamed “Peyton Place”.

3.5 Years:  3 bd. 2 bath tri-level in Lockport, IL  
This was a new development with lots of families and both our babies were born here, although they don’t remember.  I had to get a driver’s license to commute 14 miles to work.

3.5 years:  4 bd. 2 bath 2-story garrison colonial in Nashua, NH 
New Englanders can be clannish, but we were welcomed warmly by all in this woodsy setting.  Plenty of children around, but our son’s best friend was a big black Lab named Dusty. 

3.5 years:  4 bd. 2.5 bath 2-story contemporary in Wheaton, IL
Glad to be back in the Midwest near family again and ensconced in another kid-filled area where babysitters were a dime a dozen.

                        Windjammer South Lane, Indianapolis, IN

5 years:  5 bd. 2.5 bath 2-story modern colonial in Indianapolis, IN 
Here we learned that there IS “more than corn in Indiana…”  We lived in this area the longest, but in three different homes.  The kids found a red-coated stray here that we adopted as our first family dog, Amazing Grace (aka, Gracey).   Our daughter began babysitting for a neighbor here and this part time gig financed her love for thoroughbreds, equestrian jumper competitions, and more!

6 months:  2 bd. 1 bath apartment in Fishers, IN  
Yes, two adults, two teens, and one small dog managed to somehow cohabitate here somewhat comfortably while our “DREAM HOUSE” was being built about a mile away from our previous home. 

7 years:  4 bd. 3 bath multi-level contemporary in Fishers, IN  
This home was well worth the six month wait in close quarters.  We designed every part of it and that made it a perfect fit for each of us.  This is where we worked together to erect a barn and bring our daughter’s horse home from the stable.  This is where our son’s punk rock band practiced and his buddies organized a “camp” in the woods.  This is the place our children claim as “home”- Indiana.  

Geist Road, Fishers, IN

6 months:  2 bd. 1 bath apartment in Springfield, MO 
By this time, both kids were in college, so Dan and I lived here with Gracey until we found the next house. 

3.5 years:  4 bd. 3 bath 2-story country estate in Springfield, MO
As “empty nesters” we didn’t need all this space, but we were sold on the 12+ acres along a river and the cave.  Dan bought and enjoyed two man toys here: a tractor and a bass boat.  Sadly, Gracey died of old age here and so, a year later, we adopted a blond mutt we named MO. 

Donna Marie Drive, Homer Glen, IL 

(Decorated for "Meet Me in Margaritaville" Party)

7.5 years:  3 bd. 3.5 bath contemporary ranch in Homer Glen, IL (formerly part of Lockport, IL and near our first home) 
With all the sadness that 9-11 brought to the USA, it fortunately brought us back to live in the Midwest again when flights were cancelled indefinitely causing Dan to cancel a job interview in Houston, TX.   He had already been offered a position back in Chicago and I was silently routing for that destination.  This house was in another pleasant neighborhood with lots of children.  At that time, we were in our early fifties and only about six of the forty-eight homes were owned by old codgers like us. 

8 years and counting:  3 cabin 2.5 head Bavaria 46
We began in the BVI in October of 2010 and so far, have visited about eighty different islands or cays sprinkled along the northern, eastern, and southern edges of the Caribbean Sea. And there are still so many more to explore! 
 

After all, Captain Dan, "Home is wherever I'm with you."