Doryman's Meanderings

After a busy couple of days with family and friends we're on the road again. We're in Richfield and in the morning we'll go get the boat out of the garage, offload some of the load from the bed of the truck, and get on our way to Laughlin, NV. Friends from Tucson have given us a route to bypass bottlenecks at Hoover Dam and Phoenix on our way to Tucson.

The weather has been gorgeous -- not a cloud in the sky. It's these crisp, bright, clear winter days that brings out the best in the Utah landscape. (No photos yet, sorry -- cameras are buried in the truck!)

Warren
 
Warren and Lori --
Nancy and I are sleeping in the boat tonight at the Valdosta KOA on the GA/FL border tonight. What a great New Year's Eve -- a special night for us that marks the anniversary of the first steps of our 35 year journey together. It's a real plus that it is warm, and we are toasty. Last night we went to sleep at about 50 degrees in Paducha, KY, but Nancy let me know in the middle of the night it had dropped to 27. :cry:

We will launch at Key Largo on January 2 and look forward to crossing courses with you sometime in the next few weeks. We were going to do Wefings about the same time as you but made a last minute decision to delay it until the end of the trip. We hope you enjoy Apalachicola as much as we have. As we and others have noted before, Marc and the crew at Wefings are first class.

By the way, the only real plus to living in Iowa is that we have to tow only 1800 miles or less to go anywhere. Enjoy the rest of your long trek.

Greg and Nancy on the Nan-C
 
Mesquite, NV

This morning we made our way to Brent & Dixie's place in Richfield to pick up the Lori Ann, where it had been stored since October in one of Brent's many garages and outbuildings. (Their new place in Loa is to die for -- something like 1500 square feet of living space and 4500 square feet of garage!)

With the radar scanner mounted, the boat is 13'4" high -- 4" higher than the 13' garage door. To get it in the garage, we had to dismount the scanner and lay it on the cabin top. Thus configured, the boat was approximately 12'9" high -- plenty of room if the garage door did not sag, which it did. But thanks to a strategically-place piece of conduit wedged between the door frame and the door, we were able to achieve the full 13'.

Our only difficulties arose because the new GMC truck is significantly lower than my now-retired Dodge Cummins hauler. The truck, on the gravel driveway, was an inch or so lower than the boat, on the concrete pad of the garage. When we lowered the coupler onto the hitch ball, we were unable to retract the trailer jack to its traveling position. However, by blocking the trailer up with scrap pieces of wood and metal, we were able to retract the jack. We then drove the trailer off the blocks. Not an elegant solution, but it worked! The only casualty of this procedure: a formerly-square piece of metal that now looks more like free-form sculpture, which we left as a thank-you gift for Brent and Dixie. I'm still scratching my head trying to understand why we could not get the trailer out of the garage the same way we put it in.

After re-mounting the radar scanner without incident, we headed west on I-70 about noon. Sure feels different to have 10,000 lbs. hanging off the rear again! But the rig drove well and we spent the afternoon making our way to Mesquite. We're at the Virgin River Casino, a singularly unremarkable lodging and dining establishment.

Tomorrow we need to find a 30 amp locking-to-RV converter so we can run the boat's electric systems from RV park hookups. The Home Despot in Richfield did not have it; we're hoping to find an RV store that will.

Happy New Year to All! And many thanks, again, to Brent & Dixie for storing the boat. I can't imagine pulling a trailer through the snow and ice we experienced getting here.

Warren
 
Hi Warren,

Those 30 amp adapters are frequently carried at Camping World, as well as Boaters World and West Marine. We've also gotten plenty of use out of our 30 amp twist lock to 15 amp adapter (standard household) for use when "camping" in a driveway. When we're in a campground and don't need to use electric heat, we often use the 15 amp adapter and an extension cord instead of lugging the 30 amp cable around. Handles our needs and less bulk to wrestle.

You can also pick up the parts at an electrical supply place and make your own.

Travel safe.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Warren,

Good to hear that your making progress south toward the warmer climes. I don't remember any issues with the truck being lower than the jack, when we unhitched you, I think it's all the stuff you are hauling in the bed of the truck, depressing the truck suspension. There was a handy-man-jack in the other garage, that you could of used to lift the boat tongue enough to pull the pin on the jack leg. Glad the scanner reinstall went without a hitch. Working on anything out in the cold is always a chore.

Good luck finding an RV 30 amp to marine 30 amp adapter. You may have to buy the ends at different places, then use a short piece of 10 gauge wire, and make your own adapter. That's what I would do.

Brent
 
Glad to hear you are on the way. Yesterday and today was 78 degrees at our house in Pensacola (better than in Calif which Ieft yesterday AM). The next week still looks good, but a little cooler a couple of days.

Good traveling! Just don't find any 13 foot overpasses!
 
Kingman, AZ

We wanted to get further than Kingman today, but could not find a place to stay that was not further than we wanted to drive. So we stopped and spent the rest of the afternoon making a start on getting the boat ship-shape. We have a lot of stuff to stow but the good news is that we've moved about a third of the stuff from the truck to the boat. I can actually see out the back now!

Warren
 
Warren - great following your progress! I know Brent and Dixie's driveway and area by the garage, had a DEVIL of a time just turning around back there! Wishing we could make our way to warmer climes, wishing WE were on our way to Florida (woke up to another light dusting of snow here in Fall City this morning...:cry:). Dr. Bob, Marc - hang on, we're coming one of these days!
 
Warren and Lori,

Good to hear you are making way to the warm. That has got to feel good. Just curious if you have considered weighing the truck, trailer combination, before the transfer and or after the transfer to see where you are weight-wise truck vs tow?

Travel safe,

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
We got up early (well, earlier!) and made 357 miles today, through Phoenix and Tucson to Benson (40 miles east of Tucson.) Here's a photo of the rig at a "rest stop" (no bathroom facilities) between Phoenix and Tucson


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For all you Ike fans out there, here he is on his back-seat "throne."

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We've come 1892 miles thus far, with 1732 miles to go. Tomorrow: Texas!

Warren
 
Warren,

Good luck on your Waycross

T....................e...................................x..............................................a.........................................................s

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Sonora, TX

One of the challenges of driving in Texas is that you can't always drive the exact distance you want every day, because towns along I-10 are fairly widely spaced. This means that sometimes you have to stop earlier than you'd like because the next town is too far down the road for the current day's drive. But sometimes things work out the way you want, and yesterday we made 400 miles to Van Horn. We heard on the news that freezing rain was expected the next morning, so we delayed our departure until about 10 a.m., and I am glad we did because there were numerous indications that early-morning driving was quite treacherous. Our truck was covered in ice when we went out to get it loaded.

Fortunately, by the time we left, the ice was off the road, although the rain continued to fall and form ice on the windshield. We had to stop once to scrape off the windshield and wiper blades, but eventually we left the rain behind and enjoyed 45 degree temps the rest of the drive to Sonora. We decided to stop here early, after driving 261 miles, and from 4 to 6 we completed the job of offloading gear from the truck into the boat. Not everything is stowed away, but most of the important gear is now on board.

Tomorrow we are going to try to do some sight-seeing in San Antonio.

On a more geeky note, I came up with a minor hack involving the blog I have been posting these comments to (for family and non-Brat friends) and my SPOT. One of the addresses I set up for SPOT was the address that allows me to make posts via email. If you click on the link to the blog you will see the SPOT-generated blog post!

Warren
 
Today we drove into San Antonio to do some sightseeing. Wow, the highways in this town are a maze of narrow, twisting lanes, frequently under construction. But thanks to the miracle that is a GPS system we made it to the downtown square where the Alamo is located. Here is Lori at that iconic Texas location.

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Just like being in a church: men have to remove their hats and no one can take photos. On reflection, that's not a bad comparison: the Alamo is the cathedral of Texas culture.

After returning to the KOA campground where we are staying, we spent another couple hours stowing stuff away in the boat. It is impressive how much you can pack away in a boat if you really try!

Tomorrow we are headed to Louisiana!
 
Hi Warren and Lori,

Did you make it to the RiverWalk? That is one of my favorite parts of San Antonio - the shops, the water taxis... may even still be some holiday lights along the river.

San Antonio is one of the oldest cities in Texas. It seems to get "overlooked" with some of the other large cities in the state, but it is the 8th largest city in the country.

Try to time your passage through Houston to avoid rush hour times.

Travel safe and keep us posted.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Warren and Lori,

Good to see you are making progress toward Florida. The roads in Houston are mostly free of construction. However from Houston, east on I-10, its a mess most of the way to the Louisiana border. There are miles of barrier wall bordered road with two narrow lanes. At least that's what we found west bound on I-10. Just slow down and definitely try to avoid the rush hours.

Louisiana has overlaid most of the rough jointed concrete on I-10. Its much improved over what we found in 2007. Unless you intend to see New Orleans, stay on I-12 to bypass that area.

Brent
 
Jim -- we did make it to RiverWalk (so close to the Alamo it's hard not to!) and we walked quite a way down, but discovered that the water level was way down for some sort of maintenance. It will be back up by Friday. I would have enjoyed a water taxi ride.

Brent -- I had to chuckle about your warnings about I-10 from Houston to Louisiana because we are now in Lafayette, at a KOA, and have survived the construction. Bob suggested that we make sure to get through Houston by 2 pm -- good advice! What road did you take to Florida?

We are planning to drive a short distance to the New Orleans KOA and go into the city for dinner, if we can find some sort of public transportation to the French Quarter. We have been advised not to try to drive in.

Warren
 
Hi Warren,

The French Quarter is an interesting place... let the good times roll! :wink A few things to consider:

Definitely get begnets at the Cafe du Monde. Have a muffaletta sandwich. Stroll down Bourbon Street and have a Hurricane (don't drive afterwards). Keep your hand on your wallet. Not all the girls are girls in that area. Watch the street performers and give 'em a buck. It's a different world there after dark. The proper call for beads is "Throw me somethin', Mister!" (Lori will have better luck with this than you, unless you wander too far down on Bourbon Street :shock: )

Have fun.

Best wishes,
Jim

PS I-10 all the way into Florida.
 
Warren, you can park on the main streets all around the French Quarter and walk in. They shut down Bourbon Street after dark for all traffic (only police and emerg vehicles are allowed). It's pretty easy to find parking this time of year. Don't try it around Mardis Gras....

A fun place for a short time, once or twice....

Charlie
 
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