For die-hard boaters, like us, there’s no better feeling than heading out on the road (for trailerable boaters) on the cusp of an adventure, we were just itching to do a little river cruising. We took our Kismet on a 680-mile road trip, from Traverse City, Michigan, before we floated her off of…

The little red tug, Kismet, is on the move again, we’re headed south this fall to cruise the Tennessee River; a 220-mile trip (approx.) from Grand Rivers, Kentucky to Rogersville, Alabama. First stop was Cloverdale RV Park in Cloverdale, Indiana. Not a lot going on here but it was a…

Our son, Skyler, got married to the love of his life, Sarah, on Labor Day Weekend. Most of our summer was focused on this big event; except for a few boat trips, we stayed close to home preparing and enjoying all the activities. I have to confess it took quite…

In stark contrast to our time cruising the North Channel this summer was our 5-day stop in Charlevoix, while on our way home, for the 2012 Venetian Festival; one of our all time favorite festivals. We called Charlevoix’s harbormaster, Hal (below-right) to receive our slip assignment soon after we arrived…

Heading back to Spanish, time to load our boat onto the trailer to drive back to the states. This was the first bad weather day of our trip. No sooner had we got the boat secured onto the trailer and into the parking lot when it started to rain hard….

In light of some of our road trips recently, the one we took today was relatively short. We started by heading north along the scenic route of northwest Michigan. We drove Kismet across the Mackinaw Bridge, through the Upper Penninsula, across the border into Canada and finally, 260 miles later,…

The North Channel is one of our favorite cruising destinations, there I said it! For those that have been, it most likely is one of your favored routes as well. If you haven’t been, the following photos, although very, very nice can never do justice to what Mother Nature provides…

Torch Lake has lots of fond memories for Lisa and I. We each boated here before we were married and began our boating adventures together on this lake. We used to trailer our 21-foot Four Winns Sundowner to Torch Lake to spend long weekends on the hook, but since our…

Jim and I started our boating adventures in the early 90s with a 21-foot Four Winns Sundowner. On many weekends during our short Michigan summers, we’d trailer it to Torch Lake for a relaxing few days on the hook. Jim was studying for tests at the time and I’d catch…

Today we trailered our boat up to Charlevoix and launched her at Ferry Avenue Lake Charlevoix Municipal Boat Ramp. This ramp is just outside of Round Lake, on Lake Charlevoix by Irish Marina. As you can see (below) we were operating in a clouds of bugs that were hanging out…

After driving for three days we are finally home. Here we are stopping for lunch (below) one day. When trailering a big boat you don’t have as many options for stopping at just any restaurant along the way, we often have to look for a long time to find somewhere…