The many ways doing The Loop has changed me...

How has this trip changed me? Or should I ask, how has living on a boat changed me?

Clothes: Since I love to have many options with my outfits, I brought a good portion of my clothes from home. With the exception of my work clothes, most of my closet is here on our boat. I'm blessed to have a lot of storage space to stow my many outfits. I also have a good deal of heels on board and have worn only one pair one time since we left our slip August 2nd. But, I'm not willing to remove them yet, I may find that when we get further south I will be busting those out...I hope, at least that's what I'm telling myself every time I try to grab something from the closet and my bag of heels gets in the way!! It's hard for this short girl to give up being a few inches taller!! So, what I have realized is that I tend to wear the same 5-7 outfits and those include the many shorts and tanks that I have (and I can always stand to have a few more!), or when the weather turns a bit I'm in leggings and long sleeves. The many cute sundresses I have, seem to be reserved for our nights out and someone always makes a comment about how dressed up I am. I have found that in the boat community dressing up is not the norm. Another weird feeling as I LOVE to wear dresses. I find dresses are the easiest thing to wear. One item to put on, one item to take off and one item clean. But when we are under way and I'm on the deck handling lines, a dress really isn't the appropriate attire. O'well! Ben is in shorts and t-shirts everyday, with the occasional dress shirt on evenings out. I have learned that I could do this trip with HALF the clothing I have with me! But, shhhhh! I'm still keeping them all just in case!

Laundry: Since we do not have a washer/dryer on board, doing laundry when we get to a marina is priority. It also happens to be every one elses priority too! Quarters have become a hot commodity here as most machines require $1.75 to wash and another $1.75 to dry only in quarters. We have learned to sleep in our sheets for a few weeks, when at home we wash them weekly. At home I wash our towels every time we use them...not here! If it doesn't smell, we use or even reuse it! I often wear some items of clothing multiple times (I'm not the only one trust me...this is boat life) because of laundry limitations. I've learned that you better keep track of the time on your laundry. There is always someone waiting to start their clothes and if you aren't there right as the dryer stops, they will remove your clothes and place them on top of the machine so they become a wrinkled mess (this happened to me once, my fault, I now set a timer). I however will NEVER touch someone else's clothes. What I've learned from this is that I do my laundry in the evening when everyone is in bed! I still can't believe I wear some of my clothes a couple times before washing. Ewww, something I would have NEVER done at home.

Being social: I tend to be more of a hermit crab at home, but here I'm somewhat forced to be social. You pull into a marina and most other Loopers are ready to chat and get to know you. I actually like this and have gotten used to being more social. I think that I have let go of the shy part of myself...I think!

Crocket: We have a very easy dog, he just loves that we are with him everyday. He sleeps while we are underway, knows that he has to go potty in a new place everyday, gets along with others well and we have gotten creative with his play time. We hide toys on the boat and have him hunt them up for a good hour if there isn't a place to let him run. This is usually finished with a treat and a walk when we are onshore. Otherwise if we anchor for the night he knows he has limited time to do his business and he's all good.

Check out the smile on Crocket! He's a happy dog!

Planning: Planning?? Are you crazy? The day we left our slip I had to let go of that person, you know, the one who needed to know where and when we are going, and for how long. Now, we literally plan day to day...I'm still not used to this but I think I kinda like it. Where exactly are we going to be in February, my friend wants to know. I wish I could be specific but we won't know until...hmmm, let's see, about February. I know every one is on a schedule and I appreciate that but I really don't know exactly where we will be this far in advance as many factors could alter our plans. We are at the mercy of the weather, current, locks, other boats, our boat and ourselves. We had no plans to stay at one marina for 2-weeks, but we did. We had no plans to have our shifter cable snap and delay us a day, but it did. We had no plans to stay only in marinas on the Cumberland, but we did. We are loving this new way of life, but the old self sometimes comes out and needs to know, just like my sweet friend, where will we be next week? But, until we are there we won't know.

Food/Provisioning: Before we left we stocked our freezer (which is pretty large compared to most other boats) with all the organic meats, fish, and some veggies we could fit. We like to cook most meals on the boat, so we needed to make sure we had a good start. What we have found is that a lot of stops have farmers markets so we stock up on fresh produce there and eat it right away. We are never more than 5 days away from a store to shop, so much like at home we do a weekly stock up on fresh veggies and fruit.

Exercise: At home I LOVED going to the Y for my workouts and classes. I had cute friends to connect with and support getting in shape and I couldn't blow them or my classes off. Besides I paid to be there so I better get my money's worth! Here on the boat I have no one telling me to get my butt up and do some squats. I canceled my membership at the Y so now I have no money excuses! What I have found is that Crocket is my motivation, he makes me walk multiple times a day, he likes to play fetch which gets me out throwing his toy. It breaks up my day and keeps me from being lazy. I only have 5-pound weights and various exercise bands with me, but these are all I need. I work my upper body (100 reps of everything) with the weights, lower body with the bands 3x/week and work my core everyday with either sit-ups, leg lifts or planks or all three. Ben has been using the boat rails to do push ups and has been walking a great deal with Crocket and me. Boat life is doing us both good, I'm down a good 7 needed pounds, and Ben is approaching his fighting weight of 215!!

Our relationship: How many people can say they spend 24 hours a day EVERY DAY with their spouse? We can!!! I would say what has changed for us is that we know pretty much everything the other has experienced because we typically shared in that experience. I'm not going to say that it is healthy to spend that much time together, but we seem to be making it work (and love it). It certainly can be a challenge at times. We both are very strong willed, stubborn, passionate, sensitive people. This can make for some pretty intense days aboard Jammin Jane. What we have learned is to allow the other to speak their mind and then we work at moving on. I'm not going to say that we have this perfect relationship, I just know what we have seems to work for us. We have respect, love, goals and friendship binding us. Don't get me wrong, I have had days where I have called him names and played the silent treatment too. But in the long run we are here together and need to rely on each other, work together and get up the next day and do it again. 95% of the time we are both smiling, that other 5% stay away!!!

What day is it?: Since we retired in December 2014, there is no significance to the days of the week anymore. Friday is no longer my favorite day of the week, Wednesday-hump-day is no longer on my radar, Sunday-funday slips past me at least every Sunday now! It seems everyday is Friday in my world! I wake up each morning and am thankful for where I'm at and what I'm doing. I'm happy that I have a plant, Sophia, that needs watered once a week...we decided Monday was a great day. I'm writing this post on a Tuesday, and just realized I haven't watered Sophia! What day is it again???

Boat time: Living on a boat has changed my sleeping habits and I'm still struggling. I love staying up late and really dislike getting up early. It has been a problem my whole life! Ben on the other hand is like the energizer bunny. The minute his eyes open in the morning he is ready to go. He also likes to go to bed early (for me), like 10:00pm. Living on a boat, NO ONE is up late! It is crazy! Someone said to me that 9:00pm is midnight for boaters. Boy they weren't kidding! Most everyone I've encountered is on their boats, winding down the day by 9pm. I mean gosh they've been up since 6:00am. I guess I should be tired too. So I'm trying to embrace 'Boat time', up with the sun and ready for bed at dark. It's hard for me to get used to, but on days we are traveling and I know it will be an early morning...I try to stick to boat time or just an hour later 10:30/11:00pm!

Personal Hygeine: I don't know why I have a hairdryer or straightener on the boat. I haven't used the straightener since we left our harbor over 2 months ago and the hairdryer maybe 5 times in total. As I'm typing this I'm still in my pajamas (shorts and t-shirt) at 2:00 in the afternoon. I haven't showered since yesterday, and I don't care. Gross! My hair is always up in either a bun, pony-tail or braids. I have semi-curly hair that is annoying. So, its just easier and better for my hair to let it air dry (I'm in the sun most of my days, adding more heat is a no no!). Then when I see how my air-dried hair turned out, I just throw it up so I don't have to deal with it. Showers are mostly done off the boat when possible. We have hot running water just like at home, only our water comes from tanks we have on board. So, if we aren't going to be able to have access to water we try to conserve. I love to take a hot shower and that is possible on the boat, we hold almost 300 gallons of water, but we turn the water on to wet down, turn it off and lather up, turn it back on to rinse (sometimes I can't help it and run the water the whole time I'm in there when I know we can fill our water tanks) Usually I don't stand in the shower long so I welcome a clean marina shower that isn't still steamy from the previous shower washer and still has hot water! OH! I wear flip flops in the shower...just to be safe.

SHHH! These are my pajama's!

There are many many ways boat life has changed me, but one in particular seems to be the amount of "stuff" we own back at home. We have lived on our boat since the end of April and have survived with out a lot of material things...When we return home we will be "trimming down" our possessions. It really has given me an appreciation for living simply. What's most important to us is the time spent together and the awesome adventures, friends and places we have encountered.