Let me break down our 3 crazy days of picking up this dinghy. First up, we needed to rent a truck, but most rental places are closed. Lucky for us, the New Bern airport was still renting cars, and they had one truck left in the lot. ONE! We looked real flashy driving up interstate 95 in the shiny 2019 royal blue Dodge RAM. Not gonna lie, for being a Ford fan, I liked this truck. It drove like a dream, our butts and legs never went to sleep or anything, and we drove straight to Maine from North Carolina in one day. That was over 18 hours of driving, during a pandemic. Jon and I wore our masks, washed our hands religiously, and took care to keep our interaction with anyone to a minimum. Which was easy to do, as no one was out and about. Seriously, the roads were empty. The rest stops and visitor centers along the highway were all but abandoned, which made using the restrooms easy and our interactions with others a nonissue. Before we left, we decided not to drive through NY city, as it was the hot spot of the country for Covid-19 at that time. So we opted to drive up and out towards Albany, then cut across to Maine. This route also avoided all the mother f*ing tolls that NY has. I mean WTF New York, seriously, a total of $68 in tolls to drive through, one way! Ridiculous. During our 18 hour drive, Jon said he was going to finish editing episode #34, but the power socket would not work. At your first stop to fill up with gas, he even took out the fuse box to see if that was the problem. However, it was not, so you will all have to keep waiting for him to finish #34.

The rest of our drive north went by pretty quick. The roads were so empty, so there was no traffic, and all the rest stops were like ghost towns. I had never been to New York, so when the rest stop/ visitor center came up on the right side, we took the chance to use the restrooms and a picture with the I NY sign. As we closed the distance to our destination, we drove into a snowstorm. It was light and short-lived and did not require us to use the 4X4.

Now, I am sure you are thinking where in the world are we going to stay, all the hotels are closed in this area because of Covid-19. Lucky for us, our friends Jess and Josh were kind enough to set up their airstream for Jon and I to spend a total of 4 hours in. We left New Bern around 8:30am and arrived in Round Pond, ME (about an hour north of Portland) at 3:30am.

The next morning, we decided to have socially distant coffee with Jess, Josh, Vela, and Josh’s parents. Which was so hard to do. All we wanted to do was give each other hugs. We eventually broke down and allowed a good cuddle sesh with the Duder, their dog, who, I love as much as if he was my dog too. Masks and gloves still in place of-course. It was hard not to give their daughter Vela a giant hug and kiss and show her how to braid her my little pony’s hair, which she calls her Shanny Pony! After our visit, we said our goodbyes wishing once again we could be closer than 6 feet, then set off to pick up the dinghy in Falmouth.

We pulled into the driveway and set eyes on what will be our new dinghy in just a few moments. The owner, David, came outside to meet us and show us the Fatty Knees 8′ which his kids had learned how to sail in. She had thick black bottom paint on her, and we could see where repairs had been made in the past. The gel-coat was covered in spider cracks, but nothing Jon and I could not fix in a few days. We did not waste to much time with the transaction and kept our distance from each other. Davids’ son watched us excitedly from the upstairs window, as he had not seen another person for over 3 weeks. We handed over the $900 in cash,  received the sail, accessories, a t-shirt, and even a burgee, then loaded it up in the back of the truck. We had well over 12 hours to drive until we reached Jon’s cousin’s house that night, so we needed to get moving.

The drive back south was nothing special, and seemed to go by very quickly. We made stops only to fill up with gas, and a few rest stops to relieve our bladders. We made it to our families home by 8 pm and were welcomed with air hugs and desserts. Being as tired as we were, we talked for a little while then hit the hay. Remember, we still have another 6 hours to drive till we are back home. After coffee and a light breakfast, we said our goodbyes and hit the road once again. We were happy to be done driving for a while, then remembered we still needed to drive back to New Burn to return the rental. What’s another hour of driving?