Goodbye Kentucky Lake

We left Kentucky Lake today. I will miss the dramatic landscape and plentiful, well protected anchorages. The landscape reminded me of the North Channel in Canada. Rocky, steep hills. It's been a nice break from the rivers. 

We're now on the Tennessee river and I'm not at all looking forward to the crappy riverside anchorages I assume we will have for the rest of the way to the Gulf of Mexico. 

We have 535 miles to the Gulf. Without taking currents into consideration, and assuming we travel an average of 30 miles a day, we have 17 days before we reach the ocean. We are traveling 40 miles today, so I'm hoping we can make it in 12 days. 

We've been traveling with a group of boats. It's fun to hang out with other people, and we've made some super great friends. But in some weird way it adds pressure and expectations. 

Everyone is rafting up, we will look rude if we don't? Do they hear our kids crying? Is everyone eating together? Will we look rude if we leave before everyone else? The group wants to travel another 10 miles, if we stop now, and then they stop, will we feel guilty for slowing them down?

The friends we've made are so nice, we want to hang out with them until it's time to put the kids to bed. By the time the kids are asleep, we are tired from a day of traveling and want to go to sleep. The next day we get up and do it all over. Leaving no time for LeeAnn and I to talk with each other and work through the emotional roller coaster of turning our lives upside down. Or to just be alone with our own thoughts. 

After a few weeks of this, we started to slump into a depression

Traveling on our own has been really nice. We've taken some really easy days and it has made everyone feel better. We can keep to our own schedule rather than the groups, and when we stop for the night we relax and recharge. 

I had also been really stressed about money, and it was making LeeAnn stressed. Then I spoke with a business acquaintance and he asked "if you could do anything for 8 hours a day, what would you do?" 

I thought about it and realized at best all I have is an hour or two for work right now. 

So I don't have time to work for clients or customers, and worrying about money isn't going to solve anything. It's just going to ruin this once in a lifetime experience I'm having.

As my buddy Jon told me: "Don't worry about money (I know easier said then done).  You'll always have the ability to make enough money.  You won't always have the ability to sail with you wife and kids to the ocean."

LeeAnn and I discussed this, and both agreed to just not worry about it. When we get to Florida we will find a nice place to dock for the winter and I'll figure it out then. 

Between traveling on our own terms and letting go of our worries about money, our onboard happiness guage has gone from empty, to half full and rising!