The REAL Journey begins.....

Since the last blog we moved slowly towards Crick for the boat show and arrived nice and early and found a half empty marina. Following a pump-out (you all must know by now that we carry our poo around in a tank and every 4 weeks get it "pumped-out") We moored in the spot allocated to Milburns and then gave the boat a bit of a clean. On Sunday Morning we were all excited as we were going back to Southampton to see family and friends. While waiting for the lovely Kelly Moksa to turn up look below at what we spotted........

This is what the fishermen are fishing for......
Big eh? I think it's a Carp??
oh, and that is a ginger biscuit it is nibbling on!

So, it's off to Southampton we go to see family and friends.....the journey in the car was not good as our life on the boat moves around 2 mph and in the car it changed to 50-70mph.....quite scary!
Anyways it was worth it to see most of the family again including my brother Graham who we couldn't get down to see with Swamp Frogs due to my bad back. Graham came with a bag of goodies for us all we need to do now is find homes for them......we have "homed" one at the moment and thank you Graham as it looks perfect on the top of Swamp Frogs.

Our frog we have named Graham

After spending 2 days wizzing around Southampton we got back home after doing a BIG shop as we had the use of a car and then set about getting our home ready for the show not that much needed doing......Steve and Andy both came to complete the very small snagging list whilst we cleaned the boat inside and out and we're now ready......
.....Sandie, Steve and the kiddies turned up late Thursday and found the camp-site closed until the morning so parked their caravan next to the crane for the night.....a couple of beers later all is ok and no problem!

Big surprise was on Sunday the phone rang.....
oooooh it's my Daughter Claire!
"Hi Dad", says Claire, "hows it going"?
"Yep, really well thanks, very busy but good. Hows you all"?
"Yeah we are all fine, what's the weather like at Crick"?
"The weather is lovely and warm with a clear blue sky"
"Great says Claire we are about 10mins away and didn't bring our coats"
So the day was made better as we got to see Claire, Jacob and Ellie May. No Dan though as he took the opportunity to do some more work on their house. (you work too hard Dan)

Over the course of our travels we are going to try and find boats with our Grandchildren's names
here is the first.....

We have seen a Kayliegh but didn't have the
camera to hand!

The show itself was very busy and although we didn't win best boat in show Swamp Frogs was very busy with a constant flow of people all three days...John, Patsy, Andy, Emma and Pete, you guys worked so hard and deserve success from the show. We know you have 1 confirmed order and we hope you get many more!

I'm not sure what Suzie is saying to the Milburn's but
they are all listening!

ok, Reece......you win....very scary!

How Suzie and Sandie got right into
the spirit of the show and greeted
potential customers.

Jacob......looking very scary and Terminator like!!! 

All the fun of the FREE funfair!

Far too many rides were had.....they can't stand up!!!

Just such a lovely picture!

OK.......The show is over and it's time to move on. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Crick and met some lovely people and made many new friends.....Adam and Adrian owners of NB Briar Rose, great hospitality, thank you.....Paul and Elaine who own NB The Manly Ferry aka Caxton we got to meet at last.....Stuart and Tracey NB Midnight Trace, who were our neighbours throughout the show, Kate, owner of NB Priscilla (you'll love it Kate, we hope you got home safe and sound) and Dennis and Ann owner of NB Emily (very worthy winners of best boat in show. We looking forward to our drink in The Romping Donkey next month. Oh and Dennis, have you changed those screws yet?)

We delayed our departure from Crick as the weather change but from here on our lives change again. Since moving onto Swamp Frogs on March 5th we have had some sort of plan.....up until now!
Our time now is our own with no real plan apart from going north to see my Dad and Stepmum but when we get there we don't know.....so it's time to sit back and relax and enjoy what we have.

We both know how lucky we are to be able to eat when we are hungry, drink when we are thirsty, sleep whenever we are tired and get up whenever we want to!
We get to see Mother Nature at her glorious best as the seasons change, we get to see an abundance of wildlife and see animals that some people didn't know existed here in England.
The stunning scenery from our windows change daily......
............THIS TRULY IS THE LIFE!

So, it's up north we go.........

Since the last blog we've done 23 miles, 13 locks and 1 tunnel!
This gives a grand total of 72 miles 100 yards, 59 locks and 4 tunnels (tunnels over 1000yds only).