Today was supposed to be "The Day"

According to the original plan, which was formulated many many years ago, we were supposed to untie the lines this morning at 7 am and head across Lake Ontario to Kingston, Ontario Canada. After a few days reliving all the good times we have had in that city, we would then proceed to cruise out of the St. Lawrence Seaway, past Montreal into the Bay of St Lawrence, and swing around the Gaspe' peninsula heading down to PEI and Nova Scotia. By July we had hoped to be in Maine for the summer, and then work our way south, joining the migration in October. That was THE plan, and we were not wavering from it. I jokingly wanted to go through the Erie Canal, and avoid all the cold foggy weather up north, but Deb insisted that she see that part of the world, as she never expected to ever go that far north again. That, and she adores Beluga Whales. So, why is it we're sitting here in Florida and not following the plan? Seems we skipped a few steps eh.

A funny thing happened on the way to retirement. General Motors, and their henchmen over at Delphi had their scam unravel and both companies went bankrupt. When the companies went under, so did our plans.
We kept a stiff upper lip through all the confusion and disillusionment surrounding us at that time, and hoped to find another way to escape Lake Ontario before we were too old and gray to proceed. After giving our situation some thought, we decided we were going to go anyway. Stick to the original plan. Screw GM and Delphi, and let's not let them mess with our lives. We'll figure it out as we go along. Sounds good, but it was a scary thought.

As we inched closer to 2013, and the date we were supposed to take off, we got a tad panicky. Can we do this? We could just go, unemployed, cruising until the money ran out. Our boat needed some gear, but nothing we couldn't do without. After much discussion, and some pushing from Debra for me to get the hell out of GM before it killed me, we started focusing on just how to leave Upstate New York.
We saw an opportunity to surprise some people, and we went for it. Debra managed a transfer, and I managed to escape the clutches of  General Motors. As you have read, we made a quick run down the coast to someplace warm. Debra is putting a little more time in at work, and I'm a boat bum looking for work to keep my brain occupied. This situation is not ideal, and is not what we expected, but it is a Plan B that worked out pretty well for us. Debra enjoys her place of employment, and has some nice people she works with, so this makes it easier for her to stick around a bit longer. I am about as relieved as can be to be out of the factory. I really miss some of the great friends I made there, but there are some people I hope never to see again. These are the people that wake up every morning wondering who they can screw with to make their own lives seem important. Good riddance. Wow. That felt good just typing it.

Never look back we always say, but the first words from Debra this morning were "It's a sad day." I had to be reminded of the significance of today's date. She got me thinking about our original "plan", that spawned this post, but as I type this I realize that things worked out pretty good. We are warm, floating in salt water and bathed in sunshine. We had an awesome trip south, and met some wonderful people. We have many blogging friends we hope to meet someday, and some we have met that are just as nice as their blogs portray them. Thanks to Facebook and email we never lost touch with our loved ones, and friends. In fact, we are closer to some of them we have not seen in such a long time. We are also close to the Bahamas, and other warm destinations. We have no debt, and everything we own is aboard this vessel, and my van. We live a much simpler and carefree lifestyle, even though we are not cruising yet. Yet. We tend to be a bit unpredictable, so stay tuned.

Belugas are overrated.

P