About Us

                                                                        Mike                                                    Barbara
 This July we will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. God has blessed us with each other and a wonderful life. Our story began at West Point when Mike was a cadet.  He asked where I was from which prompted him to tell his absolute favorite story of his trip with high school buddies Ralph, Scott, Jeff, and John down the Mississippi up the Illinois Rivers and up Lake Michigan on Ralph’s father’s 40 foot Chris Craft to Mackinaw Island.  There he joined Ralph’s grandparents as crew on their 60 foot Chris Craft to the North Channel. I of course was entranced and followed up with a lot of questions since I had also cruised the North Channel as a babysitter on a 40 foot sailboat. I firmly believe this common experience was the fertile ground in which we would grow our relationship and lead us to eventually make this bucket list journey to explore together the north channel on our American Great Loop tour. We have three children and 5 grandchildren.  I retired from teaching in October of 2020 and Mike retired from the Army in 2003 and from his second career as a senior executive in the Department of Defense in July of 2021. Mike is the Captain and videographer and I am the first mate and blogger😊


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