outbackbill
Member
After living full-time on our C-Dory since April of 2013, we recently rented a house in North Carolina. We had already made the decision to find a house this Spring before we knew that the CoronaVirus would be changing all of our lives. We found a small house in a rural area West of Winston-Salem and moved in on April 1st.
In our years of living aboard we have traveled to 41 states and 3 Canadian Provinces. We have traveled almost 19,000 miles by water and 164,000 miles in our truck. We spent our Winters in Florida and for the last 6 years have volunteered at Hontoon Island State Park on the St. John’s River from mid January until the C-Dory gathering in early March. We usually leave Florida by the 1st of April when it starts to get hot and slowly follow Spring as we migrate North. Once Summer arrives we are somewhere around the Great Lakes or in Canada and in the Fall we return South.
Last Summer we finally made the trip to Alaska. We met C-Dory friend Colby on “Midnight Flyer” at a campground in Montana and traveled together to Prince Rupert B.C. We crossed Dixon Entrance and entered Alaska on May 25th. We had a great time traveling together and enjoying the scenery and wildlife. We ate lots of fresh seafood. We provided most of the fish and Colby kept us supplied with Dungeness crabs. Colby left in mid July to head home and we stayed another month, returning to Prince Rupert on August 10th. Our total Alaska boat trip was 2,082 miles. We were in no hurry to head back South in August so on our way back we boated at Flaming Gorge in Utah and visited family in Wyoming and South Dakota. We spent a week visiting another C-Dory friend, Pat Clow, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We finally headed South near the end of September. We spent a week on Bull Shoals Reservoir in Arkansas, then a few days boat camping while we kayaked and explored the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri. We met C-Dory friends, Dale and Carol, on “ See Ya” at Kentucky Dam State Park in early October and spent 3 weeks exploring the many nice anchorages around the Land Between The Lakes.
We arrived at our daughters house in North Carolina where we officially started our trip from in late October. Our total trip was 11,000 miles. It was 4,000 miles to Prince Rupert B.C. and 7,000 miles to get back. Now that we have a house, when it’s safe to travel again we still plan to spend time in the Winter boating in Florida and to take a few other trips throughout the year.
Some things have changed since we began living aboard. We had just retired and had two grown children when we started. We now have two grandchildren that we want to spend time with. We had no idea when we started how long we would want to live aboard but it has turned out to be an adventure of a lifetime.
Bill and Becky Smith
In our years of living aboard we have traveled to 41 states and 3 Canadian Provinces. We have traveled almost 19,000 miles by water and 164,000 miles in our truck. We spent our Winters in Florida and for the last 6 years have volunteered at Hontoon Island State Park on the St. John’s River from mid January until the C-Dory gathering in early March. We usually leave Florida by the 1st of April when it starts to get hot and slowly follow Spring as we migrate North. Once Summer arrives we are somewhere around the Great Lakes or in Canada and in the Fall we return South.
Last Summer we finally made the trip to Alaska. We met C-Dory friend Colby on “Midnight Flyer” at a campground in Montana and traveled together to Prince Rupert B.C. We crossed Dixon Entrance and entered Alaska on May 25th. We had a great time traveling together and enjoying the scenery and wildlife. We ate lots of fresh seafood. We provided most of the fish and Colby kept us supplied with Dungeness crabs. Colby left in mid July to head home and we stayed another month, returning to Prince Rupert on August 10th. Our total Alaska boat trip was 2,082 miles. We were in no hurry to head back South in August so on our way back we boated at Flaming Gorge in Utah and visited family in Wyoming and South Dakota. We spent a week visiting another C-Dory friend, Pat Clow, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We finally headed South near the end of September. We spent a week on Bull Shoals Reservoir in Arkansas, then a few days boat camping while we kayaked and explored the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri. We met C-Dory friends, Dale and Carol, on “ See Ya” at Kentucky Dam State Park in early October and spent 3 weeks exploring the many nice anchorages around the Land Between The Lakes.
We arrived at our daughters house in North Carolina where we officially started our trip from in late October. Our total trip was 11,000 miles. It was 4,000 miles to Prince Rupert B.C. and 7,000 miles to get back. Now that we have a house, when it’s safe to travel again we still plan to spend time in the Winter boating in Florida and to take a few other trips throughout the year.
Some things have changed since we began living aboard. We had just retired and had two grown children when we started. We now have two grandchildren that we want to spend time with. We had no idea when we started how long we would want to live aboard but it has turned out to be an adventure of a lifetime.
Bill and Becky Smith
