Barge Date:  05-20-2018

Givet, France and the trip home

This is a catch-up post for a  time when not much happened.

I did elect to travel up the Meuse to the French town of Givet.  Come hell or high water we were going to travel this piece of water.  I and all the others wanting to take this route to France knew the estimates for the opening of the trouble spots and if they held I would be fine.

The idea was to use this time to work on the boat, things that needed to be done and some elective work.  And I did just that.  Painting of the raised portion of the cabin and its top.  A bit of red trim around the front.  A couple of coats of green and red on the dingy. Arranged all the Ethernet lines needed for the 4 cameras I brought with me from the US and the placement of the control box and TV monitor for these cameras. Cleaned the brass that is on the boat and added brass "touches" here and there.

I was able to do some sight-seeing around Givet so not all work. I also made friends with a Dutch/German couple that have been on their sailboat for 6.5 years, a boat that they fabricated in Germany. Leo and Yuki are headed back to Dusseldorf.  We shared some time on both boats. Nice people. Hope to catch up with them.

About May 21 I took a bus and train back to Brussels for the return flight to the US for Jinglei's high school graduation. Was able to spend some time with the Belgian family and also make a trip back to Antwerp to purchase the rope I forgot to buy in an earlier trip.  Will have to take it with me to the US and bring it back on the trip with Marianne to Paris and on to Strasbourg.

Yes, Jinglei graduated.  Along the way she won a PC for her work at the tech school where she completed a number of college classes.  The entire family was able to travel to Thomasville for the event and it was wonderful to have everyone together. We ate well and had some fun time and I was able to get some work out of the boys.  Will we do it again when LiQiong graduates from college next year?

Was able to do some work in the wood shop to make some items for the boat that are needed for the camera systems.

Left the two girls in charge with a credit card  and boarded the planes for Paris.