Lake Powell 2009

Pat,
That was supposed to be a picture of the smoked salmon. After I finished the post I deleted the picture from my album. I thought it would stay in the post, I guess I thought wrong. At any rate, I will be bringing a goodly supply.
 
After several days delay, we are on our way to Powell.
Looks like we will arrive right in the middle of the Labor Day weekend.
Is Powell as crazy as the lakes here in Texas on holiday weekends?

If so we might loiter along the way and arrive after the holiday.

Thanks,

Tex and Sharon
 
Tex

Yes the holiday will be big if the storms don't scare them away. But there is plenty of room just go up lake till it calms down.
 
We were hoping to make the gathering at Lake Powell this year and meet some of you fellow C-Brats. As usual, work won't allow it. We are headed to Halls Crossing in the morning and will spend Labor Day weekend on the Lake. We will return to Halls Crossing on Monday. Who knows maybe we will run across someone arriving early. The Lake is plenty big enough so I am sure we can get away from the crowds. It will be the first time at Powell with our C-Dory. We are really looking forward to it. Hope all of you have a great time at Powell in the coming weeks.

Bill and Sue
 
We arrived about in Page an hour after dark today (Sat) and are camped in the Wall Mart parking lot. After towing the Becky Thatcher 3 days and 1400 miles I am frazzled. (The last 2 days in rain on slick roads, I did not think it was supposed to rain in the desert). Makes me want a Sea Dory even more. Will scope things out tomorrow and may launch in the afternoon if the crowds are not too bad.

Where is a good place to buy a fishing license?

Tex and Sharon
 
Got license and great fishing advice at Sticks.
We did the dam tour today, very interesting and only five bucks.
Hope to get on the lake tomorrow.

Tex and Sharon
 
I have posted some pictures from our Labor Day Weekend trip to Lake Powell. They are in the C-Swell photo album. For all of you getting ready to head out for the September Lake Powell gathering you are in for a great time if the weather is anything like it was for us this Labor Day Weekend. Day time temperatures reached about 90 degrees and night time temperatures dropped to the high 60's. We had a brief rain shower on Saturday morning for about a half hour. The water temperatures were from 77 to 80 degrees. Once we were out on the water the crowds were not to bad. Never did see another C-Dory. It did take a little searching to find a spot to beach the boat each night. There will probably be a lot fewer boats on the lake in the coming week. I hope your time on Powell is as wonderful as ours was, have fun.

Bill and Sue
 
We'll be launching at Bullfrog the following day, Monday 9/14. Hope you guys won't be too far away! I need to return the book I borrowed at Chuckanut, Northern Escape, fun little read!

sportner":23wxnwxi said:
Toni and I leave this morning with a planned launch on Sunday 9/13 from Bullfrog . We will be monitoring channel 16 & 68.
 
We're at Stateline launch ramp and are launching today, Friday, Sept. 11.

We're going to see some of the different canyons, perhaps staying tonight and tomorrow night at Last Chance Canyon, and then to Antelope Point/Navajo Canyon. So we'll plan to see some of y'all in the Wahweap area after you launch, and maybe go to Rainbow Bridge and Oak Canyon with you.

Hope to see you on the lake!

Lyle and Janda
See-Saw
 
We are at Yakima Wallyworld waiting for Jim and Laurie to arrive on Laurna Jo! Security guard remembers us from last year, rather amazing! We had our drinks and dinner, last we heard from Jim and Laurie they were in North Bend, had a flat tire, some brake issues and missed their turn-off back to the freeway - talk about when it rains it pours! Connected through the BlackBerry Storm, really a cool deal. Sorry, Bill, don't think I could do this on the little screen with the virtual keyboard, I need my Macbook! Tomorrow on to Jerome, Idaho, and Sunday (we think) to Green River, Utah. Monday to Bullfrog Marina! Should be a day or two behind Russ and Toni. So far so good!
 
Major setback for the Andersons...at a reststop outside of Pendleton, somewhere behind us we lost a hub and we are traveling on one wheel into Pendleton to the local Les Schwab...don't know if they can do it, there is a place called PJ's Trailer Repair that can do it but it will be Monday before they can get the part...bummer.
 
Hi Pat and Patty,

Sorry to hear about the hub problem. On the spare we got when we ordered the trailer from the factory, there is a spare hub as well as the tire/wheel. Not saying yours is the same, just thought I'd mention it... just in case.

Hope you're able to get going again very soon.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Pat Anderson":1i5acn7l said:
Major setback for the Andersons...at a reststop outside of Pendleton, somewhere behind us we lost a hub and we are traveling on one wheel into Pendleton to the local Les Schwab...don't know if they can do it, there is a place called PJ's Trailer Repair that can do it but it will be Monday before they can get the part...bummer.

I agree, BUMMER! Sorry that happened!
 
And now, as they say, the rest of the story. Posting this from the Mountain Home, ID, Wallyworld, so you know the story has a happy ending.

We stopped at a rest stop about 20 miles north of Pendleton on I-82. When I came back from the restroom, Jim said something like "Didn't you used to have two wheels on that side?" Yes, Russ - wheels are VERY important! What we had was a bare spindle. Tire, rim, hub, brake shoe (our trailer had drum brakes since just before Lake Powell last year, but that is another story) - all gone, gone, gone. It came off somewhere between Yakima and that rest stop, and I didn't feel a thing while I was driving.

A couple of phone calls to places in Pendleton, PJs Trailer Repair said he could look at it on Monday, Les Scwab said bring it in. I was a little concerned about driving 20 more miles on one wheel, but options seemed limited, so we did.

The Les Schwab guy looked at it, but the manager wouldn't let him repair it for liability reasons. So I bought a replacement rim and tire, and we start trying to find parts. The NAPA in Pendleton didn't have a hub, but the one in Lagrande did. So with fear in my heart, I drove the 50 miles from Pendelton to Lagrande on one wheel.

Bless Jim's heart, he knew exactly what I needed to buy at the NAPA in Lagrand, and bless NAPA, they had everything we needed, including a pretty important chisel, since the remains of the original bearings were pretty much welded to the spindle. They didn't have a proper spindle castle nut, but they had a nut the right size, and no washer either, so they gave us a star washer.

Off to a rest stop a few miles out of Lagrande to see if we could go from a bare spindle to four wheels on the ground. The remnants of the old bearings came off with some coaxing, and the hardest part turned out to be cleaning up the spindle so the new bearings would slide on. A file and some emery paper, and a lot of elbow grease (mostly Jim's), and it went back together just fine. Jim packed the new bearings, we salvaged enough of the old spindle washer, then the star washer, our nut. Greased her up good through the zerk, bolted on the rim and, somewhat amazingly, we were back in business. No brake in this one however, but we'll get that handled when we get home. I needed to change back to disk brakes anyway.

So we owe Jim Martinson a HUGE debt of gratitude for saving our vacation with his mechanical skills (and tools), and Laurie for her patience cutting into her vacation time to get us fixed up!

Along the way, I got a pretty good education in spindles, bearings, and hubs - believe it or not (I know, it is not hard to believe), I had no idea what was in there - I can definitely do this on the CD16 trailer now, which has no brakes. I also have a new grease gun, Daydream ain't rolling from here on out without a shot of grease in each zerk! I have to change the dust caps out so I can get to the zerks with out having to knock the caps off each time, but that should not be a big deal.

All in all, we lost about five hours of travel time, hence Mountain Home rather than Jerome, and it was late, late, late when we pulled in. But there is joy again! Overall, it looks like we are still on schedule, more or less, for a Monday launch!

 
Pat Anderson":1g4wsdp0 said:
...

All in all, we lost about five hours of travel time, hence Mountain Home rather than Jerome, and it was late, late, late when we pulled in.

But there is joy again!


Good to hear you are back on the road, rolling! Good job, Jim! :thup
 
We have been following the Anderson's adventures with great interest. We got as far as Cape Foulweather, about 20 miles, when the wheel bearings started to go. We did get into Les Schwab in Lincoln City with steaming wheels and they fall off when we jacked her up. Upon replacing the wheel bearings and seals we discovered that the brakes were not working. At this point we decided to abort the trip. We are looking for a new trailer or will rebuild this one over the winter. See yea next year.
Hank and Maralyn Gerdes
 
Hank Gerdes":1slh1l7o said:
We have been following the Anderson's adventures with great interest. We got as far as Cape Foulweather, about 20 miles, when the wheel bearings started to go. We did get into Les Schwab in Lincoln City with steaming wheels and they fall off when we jacked her up. Upon replacing the wheel bearings and seals we discovered that the brakes were not working. At this point we decided to abort the trip. We are looking for a new trailer or will rebuild this one over the winter. See yea next year.
Hank and Maralyn Gerdes

Sorry to hear about the problems with the trailer!!!!
 
Hank and Maralyn - sorry to hear of your troubles...Jim says "Brakes? Who needs brakes? I don't need no stinking brakes..."

All is going well so far today! I have an laser thermometer, and am checking the temp at each stop. Temps are running between 85 and 106 degrees, which I assume is OK (Jim's are about the same). Got kind of a late start out of Mountain Home, but I think we are basically still on schedule. We are having lunch now at the Traveler's Information Center and rest stop just south of Tremonton, UT. We will provision and gas the boats in Price, then to Green River to camp, hopefully at the Green River State Park. Looking forward to a SHOWER tonight!

On to Bullfrog Monday morning!
 
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