There it is!

A sun break! Didn't last long, but I have proof...


We put the little car in line for the ferry, then walked around a bit before heading off the island. When we've been here in the past, it has been by boat. These past couple days, we had the opportunity to explore the island by car. The "highlights", Friday Harbor, Roche Harbor, English Camp, are all places folks said we should see... and we have, by boat. Driving across the middle of the island, you could have been in any rolling hills, forested two lane area. It is those unique places along the shore that make this area so special.

Our last look around the marina, I found this boat again...


This is something Joan frequently calls me... you have to say it with a bit of sarcasm to get the full effect. I may see if they need a deckhand.

Not as many cars heading onto the ferry today as when we came from Anacortes. There was a school bus full of high school age kids - boys in ties, the girls dressed nicely; must be on a field trip or maybe heading to a basketball game? They were well behaved. Plenty of room for everyone, with space to spare...


I'm guessing it doesn't look like that during the summer. Our parting view of the marina...


We watched that seaplane come in, but I didn't have the camera out. And, we're off...


My phone with the Navionics app this time...


I had to take a second look to see what this was; the zoom lens helps...


It's a large propane truck on a small ferry. Understandable - you can't take hazardous materials on a passenger ferry.

It wasn't perfectly smooth, like the trip over, but the ceiling was higher and no precip. We could see snow on the mountains as we approached Anacortes. It seemed chillier and windier than the weather at Friday Harbor.

We stopped a couple times on the way back towards Seattle; a nice lunch out and luggage shopping. Seems that we were maxed in our luggage on the way here, and we picked up some stuff at the boat show and some study materials for when we come back this summer. Plenty of traffic late afternoon; I think the pace of island time suits us better.

The time was short, but we really have enjoyed being here.

A rain-free day...

Mostly. The news reported "a sun break today," and we saw it! Toured around the island, visited with some locals, found the breakfast place Tom told us about. We came equipped for the "island weather"... with a t-shirt. Oh, and a turtleneck, a fleece vest, and a GorTex jacket over that. ;-)

The place we are staying is nice. I used the hot tub the first night we were here. The place was mostly unoccupied. There were guests in the room above us last night... from the sound, I think they are part of a clogging troupe. :-0 Another reason I like my own accommodations.

We'll line up for the ferry today to start the trek southward.

Back to being an island boy...

Certainly not a tropical island.

We drove north from the Seattle area today, in the more typical PNW drizzly conditions. Destination: Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. Not knowing what the demand would be for the ferry, we arrived an hour and a half early, and we weren't the first ones in line...


Trying to get into the island spirit, we kicked back and read and surfed while waiting for the ferry. Easy to say that when this is a once in a great while thing for us. They started loading the ferry about 12 minutes before the scheduled departure...


It was interesting watching the guy guide in vehicles, deciding on the fly which lane they should head to.


We wound up close to the front on the port side.


If it hadn't been raining, I might have just picked the car up and carried it under my arm and just paid as a walk-on. ;-)

Once underway, we went upstairs to the comfortable seating. Joan pulled up Maps on her iPhone to check the route, I went for the Navionics marine app...



The water was smooth as glass on the ride over; we only saw one boat out moving around...


A 42' Nordic Tug - a good looking boat that looked kinda small from this perspective.

This may be old hat to folks who live here, but the ferry ride was a treat for us. It took off right on time and pulled into the dock at Friday Harbor right on time.

We were in Friday Harbor nearly 6 years ago on our boat. It looks quite different this time of year: very few people out and about...


We walked the docks for a bit (the rain stopped) - saw a couple C-Dorys, reminisced about where we had last been on the docks, and enjoyed seeing the boats. We passed one other person out on the dock while we were there. Yep, it's quiet here. We visited with a nice guy in the Harbormaster's Office - very friendly and informative.

Time for supper; we set off in search of an Italian restaurant our friend Tom told us about. He couldn't remember the name of the place, but Friday Harbor isn't that big... a half our later, I stopped at a convenience store to ask. "Oh, that must be Vinnie's. It's good food." He gave me directions. Yeah, "Take a left by the ferry" didn't pan out for us, so Joan Googled it. Never would have found it, since it sits off the street and has no signage that you can see until you are right in front of the place. Of course, it was closed. I had my mouth ready for Italian, so we went to... Kung Fu Pizza. Chinese and pizza. Sounds odd, but the pizza was outstanding. And the Chinese menu looked good, too. We may have to go back tomorrow to try that out.

We visited with the young man who waited on us about life in Friday Harbor - he was originally from Florida and couldn't say enough good about this place and the people who call it home.

The room we are in for the next couple nights is compact, but very liveable. Right across the street from the place we were told to go for "the best breakfast in town." And, they have a hot tub. I can't imagine there'll be a crowd in there tonight. Quite a different pace from the past few days.

The Purchase...

Some of our friends seem to think we came here to buy another boat. Truly, Wild Blue suits us just fine. But, today, we did the "In The Water" portion of the boat show...


BIG boats. I don't think Big Red is up to towing these. ;-) And for our sailing friends, yes, we checked out the sailing options...


A 27' Hunter was the smallest boat there. For the power side of things, a North American 28 was the smallest thing on the water. We did look at some bigger stuff, too...


This one has a little more walking around space than Wild Blue. Without getting crazy, I did pick out my "If I Win The Lottery" boat...


And, inside...


Joan was feeling pretty comfortable at the helm of this one...


I nearly got a nosebleed after the climb to that upper helm.

Lots of fun. Oh, and that purchase... it wasn't a boat, but we did buy a couple of neat do-dads for quick deployment of fenders; seems that we pick up some of those at every boat show we go to... and sometimes they actually work. We bought a few more little odds and ends; I enjoy seeing "the better mousetrap" that inventors come up with for things that we didn't even know we needed.

The new Raymarine chartplotters are impressive. I haven't worn ours out, yet; but when I do, these will deserve strong consideration.

It's been fun seeing folks, checking out new boats, and getting a chance to be immersed in the type of boats that we enjoy... even if none of them were C-Dorys.

Still going...

The party last night was big fun. About 60 like-minded C-Dory folks. Some of us went by bus to Pat and David's Tap Room...


There was music by one of our own C-Brats, Peter and company...


Not just music - AMAZING musicianship by all 5 guys!

Good food and lively conversation...


Sorry I didn't get more photos; it was 3/4 of the way into the evening before I even thought to pull out the camera. The C-Brats are a great bunch of people... united by the boats we drive, unique and friendly. A lot like the forum itself. It was the opportunity to renew some old friendships and meet a lot of folks that we knew by their posts on the forum. Great to be able to put the faces and voices with the names and the writing.

This morning, it was lunch in the lobby area, with more visiting, and now we're off to look at boats and boat stuff again.

Adventures in boat show attending...

Even though the show didn't start 'till 11:00, we were excited to get out and about. Nobody told me I was gonna have to start the day like this...


Yep - ice on the windows. The traffic was pretty thick on I-5 as we got close to downtown. The last time we were here, I commented on how polite other drivers were to us... not so much today, but that might be the California plates on our rental car!!

We drove around downtown a bit, got our tickets, then parked the car. $11... on a square footage basis, they are getting a good price for this Speck...


I cursed at the size of the car when we picked it up... not much else would have fit into that skinny parking space.

And, here we are at the boat show! We stood in line, waiting for the doors to open. Did I mention that it was cold? No? It was. Good thing we didn't leave our coats in the car, but then we had to carry them around all day.

An overview...


I was not surprised to discover that there wasn't a single C-Dory on display at the show. Disappointed, but not surprised. One of the most active displays is the Ranger Tug area...


Since we were some of the first ones in the door, we were able to get that shot before it filled up with people. We were able to say hi to Jeff Messmer (we bought our C-Dory from him when he was with C-Dory - he's a VP at Ranger and doing a fine job of taking care of owners) and tour through the boats; one of each model on display. While they all look good, the new 31 was getting a LOT of attention...


VERY cool cockpit seats that fold out from the sides. Of course, the big attraction of that model is the new command bridge...


One of the really great things about coming here is the opportunity to see friends... and Joe and Ruth are some of the nicest people you will ever meet...


We walked our feet off, made it past many of the displays, visited some of the folks at the various booths, and barely made it through this part of the show before we had to head back to the hotel to catch the bus to the C-Dory gathering this evening.

I did stop at the Hinckley display to check out the beautiful picnic boat...


They must be selling like hotcakes, cause that guy you see in the photo was barely able to look up from his computer to acknowledge me. It is a beautiful boat, but I would have to get surgery to have my nose turned up in order to buy one. Or maybe get an ascot? That is a stereo-type, and he was playing the part to the hilt.

Looking forward to seeing lots of C-Dory friends tonight and doing more boat show looking tomorrow.

Spoiled...

I admit it: I'm spoiled. We took a flight out of Phoenix today... left the coach 3 hours early for a 3 hour flight. You never know what the traffic will be like for the 25 minute (normally) drive to the airport. You're supposed to check in 2 hours early. Then stand in line to get undressed and go through security, then hope to find a seat at the gate... where you will wait for another hour and 45 minutes.

We were a bit late getting out... seems we didn't have a crew for the airplane. "Hey, anyone here know how to fly a 737?" ;-)

The flight itself was fine; Southwest still makes you stand in line a couple times before you get on the plane, then you hope to find two seats together... unless you pay an extra $10 each to "check in" early... and you'll still stand in line a couple times.

There was snow on the mountains on the way north, when we could see between the clouds. Only partly cloudy as we made our approach into SeaTac... a rare bit of sunshine. I like to think I brought that with me, but I know it won't last.

The luggage came fairly expeditiously, only a 25 minute wait. Then, we schlepped the luggage outside to wait for a rental car bus... and waited another 25 minutes. The rental rate on the car (looking to get the least expensive option) was $67 for the 5 days we'll be using it... then add on the taxes (not the insurance)... a fuel charge (bring the car back empty and it's not a bad deal)... and that total comes to... $188. Seriously? The car is a Chevy Speck; no, not really - it's an Aveo. That's an old Indian term that means: car made from tin foil and a moped motor. My fault - I did say, "the least expensive option." Seriously, the glove box on Big Red has more room in it than this little popcorn fart of a car.

The iPad found our way to the hotel, where we waited in line for... any guesses? Yep, about 25 minutes. It's a nice place, but there were two couple in front of us and only one person at the front desk... until it was our turn, then they added another person at the desk.

Oh, the spoiled part? We used to fly everywhere, get rental cars, and stay in nice hotels. It's been a while since we've had to do that... traveling by boat or RV is so much easier: you only pack once, you have all your stuff with you, your own potty, kitchen, seating, and bed. And, you can use any of those amenities while enroute.

Traveling this way reminds me of how spoiled I've become. Flying isn't fun anymore; hell, it isn't even interesting. People-watching while in line showed darn few people with smiles on their face. We're here for some fun stuff (boat show, C-Brat gathering, and some "recon" for this summer), but the getting here was more of a chore than a pleasure. Yep, I'm spoiled.

Dry wash...

An oxymoron. Like, jumbo shrimp, or rap music.

At the RV show we attended in the Rio Grande Valley, I bought a waterless wash kit. It has a great extending brush that uses attached miracle cloths to put some of the "stuff" on it, then rotate it to the dry side to wipe it off. That's the premise.

In use... well, it works. I did over half the coach yesterday in less than an hour, then finished it up today. Maybe a bit less work than scrubbing the exterior down with soapy water, rinsing it, then drying it. But, the big deal with it is a lot of RV parks do not let you wash your rig on the site. After a day or three or 4 on the road, the coach gets pretty grubby. I was concerned that dirt would get ground into the finish, but if there is grit on there, I think I would still wash it with water before using this stuff.

Keep in mind where we are... this is the same park that doesn't allow cargo trailers. Oh, you can have a shed, a dog run, or leave your crap all over your site, but you can't have a nice-looking cargo trailer to keep it all contained out of site. But, I digress... I have no doubt that we would get a demerit, or be shunned, or get some sort of black mark on our permanent record if we tried to wash the coach. In spite of that, I did use some soap and water in a bucket and then a brief hosing with fresh water to knock the bugs off before using the waterless wash... and that worked really well.

It is now an hour after a finished the coach... and the sky is looking pretty dark off to the southwest. Sheesh!

Down...

Settled in, got to spend the evening with our sweet daughter and son-in-law. We need to do some cleaning on the Love Shack, after 1,300 miles of road grime. I'll have more time to figure out what's going on with the landing gear jacks. Hoping to find some time for kicking back, too. ;-)

3 state day...

250 miles across the last of west Texas, a stop at Camping World east of El Paso, across New Mexico, and into Arizona... it was a long driving day. Did you know that El Paso is an old Spanish term for "really crazy drivers"? I call it Tijuana Taxi meets NASCAR - crazy ass lane changing, cutting across 4 lanes to make an exit, 20 mph over the speed limit through a construction zone (oh, and that was a school bus), and it goes on for about 25 miles.

New Mexico has new license plates... they still say "Land of Enchantment" (an old Indian term for "blowing dirt.") We've made this trip a lot, I'm always amazed at how Mother Nature can schedule a headwind no matter what direction we're going.

Way less RV traffic on the roads compared to a year ago... a sign of higher fuel prices and the ever-dragging economy. Same scene in the RV parks: plenty of spaces anywhere we've been.

Nice days and cold nights so far - it was 28º when we got up this morning in west Texas! Plenty comfortable in the HitchHiker.

Jacking me around...

Problems with the front landing gear jacks again. They quit while trying to get level on a very uneven site last night. Turned out to be a blown fuze. This morning while retracting the jacks, they quit again. I was in a hurry to make some miles, so I just cranked them up by hand.

After a long driving day of nearly 400 miles into west Texas (and still 200+ miles to go to get through it), we are down for the day. It's not the fuze. I check continuity on the wiring, the switch, and all the connections - they seem fine. Big ol' pain in the butt. For tonight, we are in a site that is reasonably level... but, if I have to drop the 5th wheel for any reason (and I will have to at some point, I am in deep doo-doo.

I've run through my ideas of what to check. We are going to have to find some service somewhere to get this taken care of.

Blue Monday...

Some folks consider this the "gloomiest day of the year." Factors like the weather, post-holiday debt, and low motivational levels make it the gloomiest date on the calendar.

Warm, sunny, and windy (a tailwind!) as we get ready to leave the Tropical Tip today.

North and west to Arizona, then a side trip to Seattle for the boat show. And a peek at the 10 day forecast for Seattle...


Not a bit of sunshine in the foreseeable future. That would be tough to deal with on a day-in day-out basis. Hand me my guitar, I feel the need to play the blues.

---------------------

On edit: down for the night just south of San Antonio. We had a lovely tailwind all day, and the fuel mileage showed it: over 12 miles per gallon! We're in a Passport America park that we've stayed in previously... and the sites are quite a ways off level. Tonight, I do believe we are in their premier off-level site... with jacks extended all the way, we are still a half bubble off level (insert your own "half bubble off level" joke here). Shorts and short-sleeve weather all day, Joan has the A/C running right now. Little Izzy has had supper and is checking out the neighbors. I'm minus one G (only 3G instead of 4G), but I'm not in a hurry.

Local weather is showing a headwind for us tomorrow... running across West Texas generally gives us the highest fuel prices of this route. Just doing our part to keep the economy going.

Close...

The Love Shack is loaded, we are exhausted. We'll be rolling in the morning. I need a driving day so I can get some rest.

It took little Izzy about 12 seconds to get comfortable again in the HitchHiker... she has her small tower and plenty of toys - she is content. Me, too - I have 4G. ;-)

Those odd tracks...

It's what you see when my ass is dragging... and it is. Load after load went into the 5th wheel today. Joan is a master packer - I am always amazed at how much stuff any of our conveyances swallow up when she goes to work.

Being a guy, I open a drawer, take what is on top, and toss it onto a pile. Pretty easy, actually. The other of us, who isn't a guy, takes time to visualize, then puts it together like a watch-maker. At one point today, we took everything out of the belly of the 5th wheel, added more stuff, then put it all back in... and it fit. I think we have somewhere around 3,000 pounds of useful load, and I'm pretty sure I carried that much from the house to the truck to the coach... thus, the ass dragging.

Fridge stuff and toiletries, close up the "vacation house," and we are on the road again.

Getting loaded...

I don't know what you people are thinking - I'm talking about loading up the 5th wheel. We had to put in new batteries this morning; the old ones just gave out... fortunately, they held in there long enough to get out of the storage lot. Seems that marine/RV batteries are only warrantied for 12 months... they live a tough life: getting charged all the time that the rig is plugged in, getting drained down when they aren't, and time in storage, usually hot or cold. I complicated the procedure by bringing the wrong batteries to the counter, then having to exchange them before I even left the counter... but had already paid for them. My bad.

We swapped out some furniture in the coach and sanitized the fresh water tank and lines. Food, clothes, and some odds and ends to go... feels "like home."

In and Out...

Wild Blue is in, the Love Shack is out. And in between, we went to the Rio Grande Valley RV Show. Not as easy as it seems, since Mother Nature decided to blow the wind from the north at about a gazillion miles per hour! Of course, I am kidding - it was only a half a gazillion miles per hour... strong enough that I was talking myself out of getting the 5th wheel out of storage. We decided to take in the RV Show and take a "wait and see" on moving the coach.

It's been quite a while since we've been to an RV show; in fact, the last time we went to this show was before the RV industry imploded. There were plenty of campground and stuff vendors; lots of park homes; and plenty of travel trailers, 5th wheels, and Class C motorhomes... and not a single Class A, gas or diesel, at this show.

I was pleased to see some HitchHikers at the show...


The dealer from Buda, Texas, had 3 of them on display. One thing we noticed when we stepped inside was the difference in noise - the HitchHikers were quieter inside.

With the cold windy weather, we thought the crowds might be light... we were wrong. Plus, they all seemed to know what row we were in and gathered in massive groups, managing to stay one RV ahead of us.

One new thing that I hadn't seen before: slide outs that moved a kitchen counter over another counter...


Nice use of space. And some wide open interiors...


The RVs were all under cover - even though it didn't rain, this would sure make the displays less dependent on nice weather.


Speaking of the weather - yesterday, I posted a photo of the boat that had Joan in the background... in shorts. And today...


Yep, a winter coat. Yesterday was in the upper 70s and light wind; today was in the low 50s, and I already mentioned that biting wind. By the time we had taken in the whole RV show, then a late lunch, the wind had let up to moderately miserable... we decided to go for bring the Love Shack in. At the storage lot, the folks in a slot just a couple up from ours were having a problem getting the landing gear jacks up on their 5th wheel... dead battery. I lent them our jumper pack so they could get hooked up. Our batteries were weak, and I'll probably replace them before we head out, but they made it through our hooking-up... it's been 3 1/2 years.

Even with the ugly cross wind on the last leg today, Big Red did a fine job of handling the 5th wheel... great road manners! We put it on a site and will start the loading process tomorrow.

Oh, we didn't buy an RV today... it was never a consideration; we went to the show for the entertainment factor. We did see a few smaller RVs that were impressive, but nothing in our size that would make us consider a change. We did buy some stuff for cleaning the exterior. We really enjoy RVing, the RV lifestyle, and the folks we meet along the way... BUT... something about an RV show brings out stupid behavior in a lot of folks. Is it really necessary to slam open and closed every damn drawer in an RV that you have no intention of buying?? People eating corn dogs as they walk through brand spankin' new RVs - really??? People looking in a small Class C and saying, "I'd never buy this - there's no room for a washer/dryer." It's a 24 foot mini-motorhome for goodness sake - did you really think... oh, nevermind. Or, people looking in an 18 foot travel trailer and saying, "Look - it has a built-in coffee maker! You could live in this!" And my favorite today: a woman standing in a 5th wheel asked, "Where's the motor in this one?" And I did see a woman pull a small door off a cabinet, after pulling like a mule on it... "Well, I wouldn't buy this piece of crap..."

They need to put a sign in 'em like in an antique store: "You break it, you buy it." Aw, it probably wouldn't help.

Coming out...

We had some serious low tides this morning, so we put of pulling Wild Blue out until around noon. Joan and I work together to make this easy: she pulls the truck and trailer to the ramp and backs in down into the water; I bring the boat around (it's about a mile to the ramp) and pull it right onto the trailer, where she is waiting to clip it on and winch it snug. I pull the rig out, then we work together to clean it up and get it ready for the road or to be put away.

I held my breath as the boat came out, anxious to see how the new bottom paint did... it's been just over two months.


Looks great! A little slime here and there that washed off with very little scrubbing. With the motor flushed, the boat and trailer hosed down thoroughly (salt water can be hard on a trailer if you don't flush it thoroughly), we strapped the boat down, put away lines and fenders, and headed off to the storage lot.


She looks rather regal amongst the mostly RV neighbors. Back home and just enough time to put away fenders and lines from the boat and dock before I had to head out to photograph some family portraits for some friends.

Busy days; we're right on schedule.

Take it off...

Yeah, baby. The plan is to pull Wild Blue out of the water tomorrow, so we spent the day getting the camperback off, cleaned and put away. And all the stuff that you tend to gather onto a boat. It was dry and sunny, with the wind out of the north at about a gazillion miles per hour, so anything we wiped down (like all the eisenglass windows) dried in a heartbeat.

Tomorrow: bottom scrubbing, general boat cleaning, and off to storage.

Moving slow...

No, not the achy muscles from our work on the trailer yesterday. I got up this morning, turned on the hot spot, and... 3G. I knew it was too good to last. My morning surfing wasn't as much fun. I uploaded a couple photos and it took minutes instead of seconds. Oh, I know some people have it much worse. ;-)

And then, by mid morning - it was back! Oh, happy days!

We're getting short here, and prepping Wild Blue for coming out of the water. Mother Nature messed with our plans by making today a rain day. We can work inside the boat, but the humidity is around 3,000%... better to have things dry when we put her away.

On edit: we took Wild Blue out for her last pleasure cruise for a while. The rain stopped, gray sky, gusty winds, in the upper 70s. Nice ride, but it's time to change gears once again.

Cargo Trailer, level 2...

I have a love/hate relationship with the solid fiberglass tonneau cover on our pickup - it looks great and protects whatever we want to carry in the bed, but it has to come off when we tow the 5th wheel... and it is a beast to try to move around. It usually takes three of us to get it off the truck and move it onto our patio deck so we can haul the 5th wheel. Joan has been after me to come up with a way to store it in the cargo trailer so we can take it along or just store it in the trailer, out of the weather. Being an old sailor boy, I came up with a block and tackle for raising to the ceiling inside the trailer, but the top supports just couldn't handle the weight (I did mention that the thing is a beast). So, today, I went back to Plan B... which was really Plan A a couple months ago: we'll heft it onto some 2x4s mounted on the walls with joist hangers. Cheap and simple; and plenty solid.

Yep, that works...


There is just enough room to clear under it with the windshield on the motorcycle, and no loss of any other storage space! And with the truck parked just behind the trailer, it's relatively easy to move the beast back and forth with just the two of us!