It's a new day...

In the words of the philosopher, Annie: "The sun 'il come out tomorrow..."

A walk around, showed no damage on our stuff.  I did have to bail out one of the kayaks... first time I've ever had to bail on top of the boat.  A look at the branches that broke...

Time to clean up, take on the new day, and hit the road.

Batten down the hatches!

We're on dry land.  Parked in an RV park for the night.  By coincidence, some HitchHiker friends of ours are in the park and came over to say hi when we pulled in.  We agreed to get together after we settled in and had some supper.

Joan and I went to Greg and Judy's HitchHiker for that visit.  We talked about cats and kids, RVs and boats, caught up on what some other friends are doing, and just had a nice visit.  When we were heading out, I said, "Come to the front door so I can get a picture"...

As we said our good-byes, Greg said, "There's a weather watch for severe thunderstorms for this evening.  If it gets bad, we'll come by with our truck."

I laughingly said, "If it rains too much, we'll come by with our boat."  We all chuckled and waved good-bye.  As we walked back to the boat, the sky was looking pretty bad to the northwest.  Oh - and lightning!

It started with a gust front - winds that rocked the boat.  LOTS of lightning.  And then the pounding, horizontal rain!  We had our a/c through the center windshield.  I said, "With the rain coming from behind us, that should be fine."

Yeah, I was wrong.  In the middle of the worst of the rain, we pulled the a/c and battened down that window.  The front panel was soaked.  Joan got to it with a towel before any of our electronics got wet.

Then the first crash... a big branch blew down into the cockpit.  That tree that we were happy to see at our site since it would provide shade... yeah, that tree was now dumping broken branches on us.  I stepped out into the cockpit to toss the 30 pound branch overboard... and stepped into about 3 inches of water standing in the cockpit.  Joan turned on the cockpit lights - the cockpit was filling up like a bathtub!  Any higher and it would start leaking in the cabin door!  I didn't have to worry about getting my feet wet, 'cause I was soaked to the skin in about 2 seconds once I stepped out.  I tossed branches overboard, and opened a couple cockpit floor hatches to let the water pour into the bilge... the bilge pump would help get rid of our flood.

Now, some of you sailors are asking, "Why didn't the cockpit scuppers take care of the water?"

Thanks for asking.  We are parked slightly downhill, allowing the water to run towards the cabin instead of the stern, like it would normally do if we were on the water.

Joan hollered out the cabin door, "Don't let the leaves get into the bilge - they'll clog the pump!"

"Kinda busy here right now!"  I opened the hatch over the bilge pump and pulled out leaves and branches that went down with the water.  We have had Wild Blue in some nasty weather on the water and never had this much water in the bilge.  "Dry ground," my ass!

With wind gusting above 55 mph (according to the weather site we were watching), the boat rocked, but it wasn't much of a concern.  All that lightning, and us under a tree... yeah, that was a concern!

Here's a photo I took right before the storm hit...

The sky was black - that light you see in the sky was from the lightning!

And here's what it all looked like when we first pulled in...

Yeah, that tree.  It's down to a sprinkle now, and the occasional shudder of the boat from the wind.  Tomorrow, I'll go out and check all around the boat and truck to see if there are any other surprises.

I'm guessing it's going to be real humid when this passes.

This sounds like a country song...

"Two long days of driving, and we barely made it across Texas"... and that's because we were going N/S not E/W.  A couple ugly traffic jams slowed our progress; hard to make time when it takes you nearly an hour to go 2 miles.

Mother Nature gifted us with a good tailwind most of the way... and then gave us 95º and 300% humidity.  Flying J messed with us by having unmarked non-functional pumps, but we just turned up the air conditioning and made some miles.

When we pulled into an RV park for the night, Joan went to the truck to get a few things while I got stuff set up in the boat.  A while later, I looked out, and she was waving me out of the boat... our HitchHiker friends Greg and Judy are in a site just a few over from us.  Greg said, "We have the a/c running and it's cool in our place.  The truck is unhooked and you can take it if you want to go out for supper.  Whatever works."  They are just the nicest folks!  We had already decided to cook in after a long driving day, but it will be a treat to visit with them after supper.  What are the odds that we'd run into friends out in the boonies?

Little Izzy spent most of the day on Joan's lap or the center console of the truck.  We call her our "super model cat," because she is long and lean (especially compared to Molly, who was 2 1/2 times her size).  Joan took this shot, and couldn't get all of Izzy in it...

OK, cropped off the hind end so she could get that pretty face, and...

Yep, that is one long, skinny feline.

But, did I mention we had a tailwind all day?!!  One in a row!  12.7 mpg.  Down for the day, full bellies, and an adult beverage.  We are beyond most of the city traffic from here on, so it should be easier to eat up some miles.

Umm, where would I find...

... pretty much, anything?  First night out on the road with the boat.  When loading, I carry stuff to the boat, then lift it up to Joan; she puts it all away.  Pretty easy to figure out which of us is the mule, and who is the organizer.  I had to ask quite a few times, "Where would I find...?"

Little Izzy had no problem finding her food, potty, toys, and blanket... well, she was given "a tour" when we settled in.

This park has a small lake (well, pond), so there are ducks and geese that wander the grounds.  Pretty obvious that these birds are used to being fed - they walk right up to each new rig that pulls in.  When Izzy got a look at the geese, the hunting instinct kicked in and she crouched down, ready to pounce... until the geese got close enough that she could see they were bigger and there were more of them!  "Momma, save me!"

Up and at 'em this morning.  Nobody slept great (new bed, new noises), but we've had showers and breakfast... let's take on the day!

We be rollin'...

We got a late start; took a while to get the last minute things stowed and the house closed down.  But, around 1:00, we hit the road.  We stopped frequently to check the tires, hubs, and the kayaks strapped on top... all went well.

The hubs were all comfortably cool, and within a couple degrees of each other.  (Find me some wood to knock on.)  The straps for the kayaks were new and needed a bit of tightening at each stop, but no problem.

Mother Nature only gave us a headwind for a short duration - much of the time we had a crosswind and even an occasional tailwind!  We averaged a bit over 12 mpg.  It was hot when we left town, 85º with a hot, humid wind.  It quickly built to over 90º when we got further inland... and continued to climb to 95º.  We stopped for fuel and ice cream... Joan didn't make it to the truck before the hot wind had her ice cream cone running down her hand.

Little Izzy took it all in stride; she rode most of the day on Joan's lap...

She is not fearless, but is an amazingly adaptable travel companion... never a fuss.  It's been a while since we've taken the boat on a long trip.  She checked for her food, toys, and potty - yep, it's all good.

We stopped south of San Antonio for the night at an RV park.  We needed electricity so we could run the air conditioning.  The office had a guy take us to our site... no need to unhook from the truck, just get the electricity plugged in, and get the air conditioner in the front window!  A guy in a 5th wheel next to us said, "You two have done this before.  I thought you'd be roasting in that boat, 'till I saw you put that a/c in.  That's really smart."

"No, that's survival."  ;-)

It took a while to cool down the cabin.  I hooked up to cable TV while Joan got us set up inside.  It's not as luxurious as the 5th wheel, but it sets up fast!  And, we're right across from the shower house.  I'd rather use my own shower, but that ain't gonna happen in an RV park, since the showerbox puts the water overboard.

So, Joan has cable, Izzy has chow and a comfy bed, and I have faster internet than the RV park's wifi... yep, it's all good.

Loaded...

Wild Blue is on the trailer.  The boat and truck are loaded... Big Red's truck bed is bulging!  A few more things to try to find places for, then we'll close down the house.  I'm not anticipating that we'll get out early or go far today.

Boat out today...

That's the plan.  Still plenty to do, though.  We have the trailer out of storage, double checked everything on that.  Truck packing to go, then close down the house.  We have our head in it.

It's a long ways to our destination in the PNW... just shy of 2,800 miles.  The proposed fuel costs give one pause when you see them in writing.  We don't plan to do any sight-seeing along the way, just make some miles without pushing too hard.