Meet the Loopers

How are your Golden Years? After years of a career and busy family life, did you think your retirement would lead you to paradise and time for romance with your spouse ? Instead, do you feel like you are drifting, that freed from deadlines you and your mate are caught in a meaningless and boring circle?  It’s time for you to meet the Loopers, an adventurous Captain and his First Mate who are circumnavigating, seeing and sea-ing America.

Before we ask permission to board ship, let me share with you how my spouse and I started our retirement years together. My book character Charli can explain:

I’d had high hopes that when we retired, we would have fun together. But what exactly should we do? Just take it easy and binge watch multiple TV seasons? Hold hands as we count our pills into the little plastic containers?

We all want more connection and meaning in our later years than that! So, let’s see what the Loopers are doing. The Captain and First Mate have been married for over 36 tears (oops I mean years, really!) and they both had demanding and fulfilling careers and raised a child. After retiring, they set off on September, 2015 on their 46 foot recreational trawler, Inspeyered Adventures, with a goal: complete the Great Loop of the Eastern United States. They left Nashville, and headed south to Mobile Bay and then to Florida. After wintering in Florida, with a quick jaunt to the Bahamas, they will continue north on the Intracoastal Waterway up the east coast. Then they will head west through the Canadian waterways and finally finish the loop back to Nashville via the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio and Cumberland Rivers. For a complete description of their trip, and a lively blog of their adventures, click here.

While they may be circling, their loop has an invigorating goal and purpose, over 5,000 miles of adventures together!

Their life on the water has taught them new skills, from complex nautical and technical knowledge, to how to cook in the galley. The Loopers have experienced bridges, locks, fog, sunsets and dancing dolphins. They have visited Key West, historical places, museums and many marinas. But the best part of their journey is the opportunity to connect- with each other and with other loopers that they have met. After a day of swabbing the deck, and sailing to a new cove, this Looper team loves to relax and grill on their boat’s stern “porch” with friends.

If you are fortunate enough to be healthy in retirement, look for ways to connect with you spouse and start your own loop of adventure!

“Here’s to tall ships,

Here’s to small ships,

Here’s to all the ships at sea.

But the best ships are friendships,

Here’s to you and me.”