There are moments in life that feel too big to fully process while you’re inside them. One of those moments came early in our Great Loop journey, just after we crossed from Florida into Georgia – only our second state along the route. My husband, Evan, and I had spent the evening in the small town of St. Mary’s with Josh and Haley, a couple we considered friends then, but not yet knowing how deeply our lives would intertwine. Walking back to the marina, I remember laughing until tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t tell you now what sparked it, but I remember the feeling and the thought that followed. “This is only the beginning. How much better is this going to get?”
Moments like that continued to unfold over the course of the year until we found ourselves pulling into the finish line, or what Loopers call the “wake crossing.” We had plenty to be proud of, but one thing rose above the rest. We hadn’t just completed a dream we set in motion years earlier, but we had done it alongside two people who had become family.
Standing beside us, shaking champagne and celebrating every mile, were Josh and Haley. The same people who were once just names on a screen. The same people who became our daily companions, our problem-solving partners, and ultimately, some of our closest friends. We hadn’t set out to travel the entire Great Loop with a buddy boat, and we certainly didn’t expect that buddy boat to be a sailboat. But in the end, what defined this adventure wasn’t the route we took. It was who we shared it with..
Growing up in Eastern Iowa, Evan and I met and began dating in high school. At one point during those teenage years, Evan learned about America’s Great Loop and simply asked if I’d ever be interested in an adventure like that. With roots on the Mississippi River, we were no strangers to the water. Seeing as our entire relationship was built on tiny adventures, the idea of it was thrilling, but we both assumed it was decades away. Years went on, and after graduating from separate universities, Evan’s job took us 1400 miles south to sunny South Florida.
This was our golden ticket.
