In North Carolina

The end of May has arrived and we are headed back to North Carolina to see our granddaughter  who Dee has not seen since Christmas.  She has changed so much and it was so much fun to watch Lilia and Capi get reacquainted again.  We are back before Memorial Day Weekend to see our nephew graduate from high school.  He has endured Covid through his high school years and that makes me sad, but he is so ready for his next chapter…..  Dee and I were so glad to be here today and that Hannah was able to join the family with Lilia.  My mom and dad watched their last grandchild graduate from High School.  And the proud momma watching her baby graduate.  Now we will return to more Lilia time.  Dee and I cherish these weeks that we got to spend with her and watching her smile, learn and grow.  She is such a happy baby.  Sadly this time came to an end quickly as mid June arrives and Hannah and Aldo plan their move to the Chicago area for the next 4 months.

Now we can get back to focussing things here in NC like visiting local Yadkin Valley Wineries, seeing Fury and getting Messin Around ready to go on the lake for a few weeks.  She gave us a little trouble with the battery but finally we were on the water.  Loving our Friday night sunsets again on the water with friends.  We loved having a visit from Jesse and getting her on the water.  It was great to catch up and have Harley around even on the Messin Around.  Maybe it is because we are cruisers now, but watching people on Lake Norman especially trying to anchor on a windy day is now one of our favorite thing to do when we are home in the summer.  Enjoy our clips of boaters trying to figure it all out. We remember those days.

At the end of June we enjoyed dressing up and taking friends to the Evening with Dove House, a charity near and dear to our hearts.  This event is a big fundraiser and we were glad to be here to support this event.  Next, July 4th arrives and we enjoy a great day on the lake and fabulous local fireworks.


Now it is time to head back to Journey in Mexico.   Luis picks us up at the airport and transfers us safely back to Journey.  We are glad back in Mexico aboard Journey!

May has arrived and with Metallika now street legal we can start getting the miles on her so we can  explore.  We have to go slower than most traffic here in Mexico for the first 300 miles (500 km). Mostly Dee would explore the poblado across the highway, but we wanted a little more adventure so we set out to explore Akumal about 20 km from PA.  We have loved La Buena Vida since our first visit to Akumal back in 2014.  We enjoyed the view and some great margaritas. Afterwards we explored the poblado side of the highway  which is a very small community.

We love our Pool days and we always enjoy the sites around the pool… hmmmmm.  

Next up was Mother’s Day and to celebrate all I wanted was to try a Caribe Cooler from the Nauti Burro. I met some ladies who would not stop talking about them.  It was yummy!  We met Obie, a dog, who wanted some of Dee’s French fries and watched the Sol beer can dance across the table! Dee also picked up some beautiful flowers for me which lasted all the way through our anniversary the next weekend.
May is an exciting month here in Mexico because Dee and I will celebrate our 33rd Wedding Anniversary!  We planned another Moto adventure down to Soliman Bay where we stayed on our last friend trip in 2017.  We returned for margaritas and pizza at Hotel Mereva which was a favorite spot.  We enjoyed a good meal, drinks, and the views.  We rode to the end of the road and back finding the house we rented on VRBO.  Such good memories!
The next part of our anniversary was a trip to El Cielo, Cozumel which you saw in the last video.  As Dee was doing engine checks we found an issue - the raw water pump on the port engine was not pumping.  Thankfully we found another one in Cancun, but the bad news Dee had to take the moto on a 3 hour round trip to get the part on our anniversary.  He is the MAN he went up to Cancun,  returned, installed, and we were pumping water by late afternoon.  The next day we headed across to El Cielo to enjoy this beautiful spot.
As the winds settled some we had more Shelby days and finally went to check out more of what we call “The Hole” here in PA.  All the charter boats end up at the “The Hole”. Maybe we should call it the drinking hole.  On a rough day charters head straight to this location.  This area was created with a small sandbar and to protect the boats.  Here you can stand and socialize.  The nice thing is Shelby can get all the way to the rock wall out of the way of charter boats.  Well, sometimes, those captains like their spots and sometimes when we go now we feel like we are always moving her.  But it is always a fun time.  We enjoy watching all the crazy fun in “The Hole”
We do have another adventure to share,  On our trip south where we found Playa Zuri we saw a small opening into a bay.  I researched on the maps and it leads into a cenote.  So the next calm day we headed down to Casa Cenote which seems to be by an old abandoned resort.  Fresh and salt water mix here so it is blurry to snorkel but so many fish and cool water.  Sad part we were run off and told it was privada or private so we didn’t argue and left, but really sad we will not be able to return here again.
New neighbors moved in. This Mexican family left from Acapulco, Mexico 3 years ago and sailed around the world.  They were almost finished once they leave PA their last stop is Veracruz, Mexico.  It was quite a story especially 3 months on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea when covid hit before they could get ashore anywhere.
On Saturdays in PA there are two markets, the produce market and the PA Beach Club host one with food, clothing, etc.  On our first visit we met Charlie Coffee and bought some of his coffee.  It is the best!  He was so interested in our boat and our journey to Mexico, so we invited He and his wife Marianna to spend a day on Journey.  It was a beautiful calm day so we just shut the engines down and started floating about 300 yards offshore in 900 feet of water.  This is an interesting fact about the cost of Mexico.  You don’t have to go far to fish offshore and be in really deep water.  This is also why we can’t find many places to anchor.  While floating in this beautiful blue water we could not help ourselves.  We had to jump!
It is almost time for our visit home to the states and we are going to relocate Journey onto a Mediterranean mooring.  This is new for us and yes I have some anxiety.  Dee wanted some lines in better shape so he took to learning how to splice line.  Success.  On both splicing lines and locating journey onto the mooring by ourselves.  We moved onto the mooring and although we are working on how to get on and off Journey a little easier we like being off the wall, and now we have a better look at the fishermen when they come in and get to know Flaco better who watches out for us! (He is in the fluorescent hat and knows how to fillet fish and bait ballyhoo fast.
Next Stop NC and giving Lilia lots of love.  Dee hasn’t seen her since Christmas.