We are Kathy and Tony Bottini, both of us originally from Pennsylvania. We met while Tony was attending medical school at the University of Pittsburgh in the early 1980's. We married, went into the Army for sixteen years, had four sons and lived in Honolulu, Minneapolis and Tacoma, re-entering civilian life by moving back to Minnesota in 1998.

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And until we heard the Voice we had never done anything crazy in our entire lives. . . . 

 

The whole idea resurfaced one sunny afternoon while on a family vacation in Santa Maria Island in Florida. Tony had discovered the Great Loop as a concept nearly 20 years earlier and read the classic book, Honey, Let's Get a Boat. That book planted the idea of looping in an entire generation's consciousness and really popularized the concept. The idea of starting a multi year adventure while exploring the waterways of the United States and Canada was always a very attractive one but with the advent of Covid and the breakdown of civilized society, now seemed a really good time to get a boat and get away.