Day 30 of 30 | Port Huron to St. Clair Shores

2/18/2025

Saturday, August 10, 2024: OMG, today is the day....we are going home! At 11:16 a.m., we're starting to pass beneath the first bridge. Since they coordinate the openings, the second bridge opened for us at 11:22 and we were out on St. Clair River moments later; passing the first freighter within 20 minutes

Look closely and you'll see the white caps on the river; not my favorite conditions but I'm anxious to get home. :-) At 12:39, we were passing another freighter as they were entering the river and we were exiting. At 1:24 p.m., 9 Mile Tower was in sight; a welcomed view.

Our friends and boat neighbors from home, Tom & Judy, were watching for us and were able to take pictures of us coming into our boat slip at 1:32 p.m. It thrills me when I get to see pictures of us that others have taken while we're in motion. I'm standing in the back, waiting for Larry to safely guide us into our slip before I go out to secure the lines.

WE'RE HOME! It's been 30 days since we pulled out of this boat slip to start our adventure. We spent a couple of hours talking and visiting with our friends and then we started unloading the boat. After many trips back and forth on the dock, we filled Larry's truck up with everything that needed to come off the boat.

Soon we were at home. Larry came into the house and walked in and out of every room, opening the windows as he went. Then he went to the patio to start moving all of the potted flowers back into the right place. I was in the kitchen for quite awhile, putting things away. I walked into the living room and was surprised to find a tiny plastic duck inside one of the potted plants. I thought that was odd and assumed one of our grandkids must've been over and left it. Then I saw a couple of more ducks and laughed that they must've had a handful of ducks that they left. I didn't give it much more thought and went back to what I was doing.

About a half hour later, I walked upstairs. When I went into our bedroom, I nearly had a heart attack! There was a mounted deer head hanging on the wall above our bed!!! I gasped and stood there for a minute with my hands over my face, quickly looked at it again, and then went downstairs to get Larry. "How did you walk in our bedroom and not see this thing?!" I loudly asked in between laughs, horror, and my racing heart. Larry had no idea what I was talking about and went in the house, upstairs, and in our room to see for himself. He laughed and knew the kids did this as a joke. He immediately took it down and out to the garage.

I started a group chat with the four adult "children" to let them know we found the "gifts" they left for us. By this time, I had found a handful of ducks. I was pleased with myself and sent them a picture. They laughed at our small success and said there's about 150 more to find! ;-)

Several days later, I filled a sandwich bag with all the ducks we found. I put a piece of paper in the bag with the amount that we had collected so we'd know when our duck hunt was over. Somehow they discovered my bag and they started re-hiding the ducks! O M G! As I write this on February 18, 2025, we still haven't found all of the ducks. :-)

This trip has been the most amazing experience of our life together. Larry and I reminisce on a regular basis. It was a blessing that my Facebook account was hacked in November 2024. Even though I lost all of the daily posts from all of our trips that I wrote about over the years, it prompted me to start my blog, Language of a Boater's Soul. Revisiting all of the pictures and writing about the daily experiences from memory, for the blog and this book, helped us feel as if we were reliving the entire trip.