We've found Chloe! Or at least we now know what she'll look like and what kind of Boat Chloe will be. We've made a decision based upon our viewing of the Garcia Exploration 45, 'Pearl', who was lying in the Bahamas. We've since contacted the boat builder, Garcia, in Cherbourg, France - hammered out the broad bush strokes of build spec, and placed our order. So we're now in the Delivery Queue!
Exactly a year from now Chloe will be launched in Cherbourg. So for us, it's time to finish up our trip in the USA and head over the pond to Europe. We would have liked to have toured further North, heading into Canada, but the North American snow conditions are still such that we'd be hanging around in the Virginia or Maryland areas for a couple of months perhaps. Dawn's Mum and Dad just had another 12" dump and we're busy cleaning it up. Snow that is.....
Instead we will jump over to Europe and enjoy a change in culture and scenery. Plus, as Chloe's build is kicked off, it would be a great opportunity to meet the folks at Garcia in Normandy - and talk a little more about Chloe's systems.
The last thing we needed to do in the USA is to sell our car. It's sale will time our remaining stay in the USA. We'd try to fit in a few more visits while the car was being looked at.
But Wow.. did she sell fast! So many people were interested in buying a Tesla - most of the buyers were more than happy to buy a Model S with over 67,000 miles on the clock - while they waited impatiently for their ordered Model 3 to be built. The explosive demand for the Model-3 has put a lot of pressure on the Tesla manufacturing team, back home where we had lived in San Jose - where they are struggling every day to double their production rate every few months. Explosive growth for the world's best car. Way to Go Tesla!
So, we started to drive up North from the Kennedy Space Park - Dawn wanted to hit a couple of historic towns on the East Coast. We managed to fit in Savanah, GA and Charleston, SC before getting to Washington, DC, where we sold our electric buggy.
Savanah was a small town split into a Tourist District along side a busy Port. The tourist area was dotted with old, gnarly oak trees - each in turn, covered with Spanish Moss. Savanah's numerous little parks are famous perhaps, for the line, "Life is like a Box of Chocolates... you never know what you're going to get", spoken here on one of its many tree shaded park benches, in the movie, "Forrest Gump". Savana's a nicely preserved picture of colonial, trade town life from centuries past.
Further North, up the coastal road, Charlestown had it's own unique character too. Charlestown was once, the capital of America's historic slave trade and had bathed in the riches that the trade in human beings had brought the Slave traders at that time. We didn't see a single confederate flag in Charlestown - perhaps some shameful recognition of their disturbed racist history - unlike the areas we had driven through, further South where deep ignorance and racist hatred is still very visible on the streets.
We continued to DC, passing through Richmond which didn't really stand out as a very attractive area.
Finally, we made a quick get-away from the US, once we found ourselves back in an old oil burning rental car...
We almost forgot to fill the tank with Petrol before giving her back to Hertz.
Overloaded with our two suitcases and carry bags, we struggled onto a plane heading to Switzerland....
