Houseship the end

Well here we sit in Las Vegas airport waiting for the redeye back to Atlanta and Greensboro. We got to the airport about 6 hrs early, but it certainly eliminated all the stress of normal airport arrival. Last night we rode "The Duce" which is what Vegas calls their double-decker bus line down to Fremont Street to see the light show. Fremont Street is an incredible happening every night from dusk to midnight in downtown Vegas. The street is covered by the world’s largest video screen. The show runs every hour on the hour, and is different every time. In the meantime, the street is lined with casinos that seem more liberal than the ones on the strip. Also there are various other attractions going on between the light shows. We had a nice diner in one of the casinos at an oriental buffet that was quite reasonable. We watched a motorcycle stunt show where three guys rode wildly inside about a 14-foot steel cage ball. It was unbelievable. We also saw a guy that played piano from the back of a semi at light speed tempo, a fellow playing various jazz saxophones, and a pretty good rock band. We also spent some time wandering around the various casinos and shops. We rode "The Duce" back to the Tropicana and turned in for the night. This morning we enjoyed a good breakfast and packed everything up for leaving at 11:00am. We hauled all our stuff down to the Previa, and packed up. I had looked up how to get to Bob’s Original Country Steakhouse. This is an old restaurant (started around 1955) that Vickie and I found the last time we were here. When it was started it was out in the desert from Vegas and had a flashing blue light so the folks could find it driving across the desert. All the food is prepared on a Mesquite Grill inside the place. The walls are covered with autographed pictures from celebrities like John Wayne, The Lone Ranger, The Rat Pack and many others. It has been a Vegas staple for years. Now days it is surrounded by housing developments and a freewa y, but still has all the flavor and great food of the past. We had a great lunch there. Afterwards we made the scenic drive up to Mt. Charleston and it’s National Recreation Area. The road leaves Rt. 95 North of Vegas and goes pretty much straight up for 5000 feet. We had a great time visiting all the scenic areas, and used up some of the time we had to wait till our flight. We then headed for the Vegas airport, and now here we are.

Later—the return. As always the red eye flight home leaves you disoriented and tired. We arrived in Atlanta on time (the next morning) and the same at Greensboro. Our luggage arrived concurrent with us, which is always welcome. We were met by our good friend Chris who had benevolently stored our autos for the two weeks we were gone. He lives in close proximity to the airport and was very helpful in managing our cars. We were soon loaded in our own cars, and enroute for home. As wonderful as traveling is, arriving home is always wonderful beyond description. So around noon Saturday we were back in Eastern Daylight Time at our respective homes. There is always the 2 weeks worth of mail, newspapers etc to deal with, but there were no tragedies in our absence, a great feeling. I decided since it was a nice day, I’d do some work outside. Since we got some serious rain in our absence, the ground was soft, and a prime target for my 930 # roller. I hooked up the Kubota, and spent a coup le hours taking the humps out of the yard. Toward the end, the steady lull of the diesel overtook me, and I just had to go to sleep. I stopped the tractor, but left the engine running and put my head down on the steering wheel to sleep. I woke up when Vickie shook me after running from inside fearing I was dead from a heart attack. I guess sleeping on the running tractor was a little uncommon. I hate that I scared her so bad, but I just had to go to sleep. Later we thawed some nice tenderloin we scored at Kroger a couple of weeks ago and celebrated my birthday with steak, baked potato, and some sparking wine. For desert there were some great vanilla wafers, and bed was soon on the horizon. All in all what a wonderful adventure. And now we have a wonderful cohesive group of three couples we can plan future adventures with. Our next scheduled adventure is Alaska in February to see the Aura Borealis. Until then or some other spontaneous adventure, thanks for sharing this with us.

Cheers,

Wes

Houseship #12

We arrived yesterday from Zion National Park to the Tropicana in Las Vegas after what was at times a harrowing trip. We left Zion yesterday afternoon after touring the park. One of the cool things we did before leaving, was a hike to the overlook where the entrance road comes in through this huge canyon of switchbacks and a long tunnel. Just where you enter the tunnel coming in is a parking area where you can get on the overlook trail. It is listed as an easy hike with 165 feet of elevation change. My knee was feeling pretty good, so I decided I could make this hike. Jerry and Brenda lent me their walking sticks, and Vickie declined to go. It turned out to be more a moderate difficulty hike, and often quite scary as you traversed smooth sandy rocks with drop-offs and no railings. But I was determined, and made it up and back. Nothing stopped working, and other than a sore hip joint, I survived quite nicely. After the hike, we headed back out of the park through the Springdale Ut ah exit. Along the way we stopped at the park visitors’ center and took advantage of the picnic area to have lunch from stuff we had brought from the boat. After our picnic, we headed out for Las Vegas, eventually joining I-15 for the trip into Vegas. The drivers were pretty crazy on the interstate, and Jerry did a good job of getting us safely to our destination. We saw one incident where a tractor-trailer accidentally cut off a small car. The driver of the small car went into a fit of road rage, and drove up beside the truck and threw a full can of liquid at the window. He then got in front of the truck and pulled off and dared the driver to stop and fight him. The driver didn’t so he rejoined the fray and harassed the trucker again for several miles. Oh and by the way all this was going on at about 80 mph as the speed limit was 75. Also during the trip, we experienced the "Nevada Lane Change". What this consists of is, you turn on your turn signal and change lanes after about tw o blinks, even if there isn’t any room to move over. The other cars just have to get out of the way. (all at 80 mph)

After arriving at the Tropicana, we checked into 3 adjoining rooms, and made plans for the stay. It was decided that Jerry and Brenda would take Judy and Jimmie touring today since they had never been to Vegas. Miss Vickie is pursuing her love of gambling, and left me to catch up on my writing and such. We had a great (if expensive @ $11.99) breakfast buffet this morning. After that I retired to the room with a beautiful overlook of "The Strip" to communicate. During breakfast today, we had a discussion, which leads me to a soapbox topic.

Las Vegas has really changed. The days of reasonable rooms and reasonable food in Las Vegas are past. In the past, Vegas wanted to get you here to gamble, so they enticed you with amenities and good prices. Today just the opposite is true. They know folks will come, so they stick it to you every chance they get, just like any other resort. The rooms we are staying in are nice enough, but nothing special for the price. There is no in room coffee, no complimentary continental breakfast, and even a tiny TV with very few channels. (and no curved shower rod) Breakfast at the buffet was $11.99, and dinner last night at the Garden ala Carte restaurant was quite high. To get a cup of coffee this morning, it was $4.95 at some special coffee restaurant, and then Internet access is $11.99 per day. It is free most every where else. A soda from the machine down the hall is $2.00 but then the machine does take AMEX. I’m sort of disappointed. I used to think Vegas really wanted me as a tourist , now I feel like it is just another resort tourist trap. Wish I could snap my fingers and go back about 25 years and be here. Oh well the joys of being a "Boomer" tourist.

I’m going to take a shot at uploading some pictures from the week.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #11

The morning of our docking dawned bright cool and calm. We got up, ate breakfast leftovers and whatever. We did some research, and found that Wal-Mart, would take back all the food, liquor, and mixers we hadn't used. (good old Wally Mart). We came up with a plan for some of us to take the return stuff back and the others to stay and return The Ship. I was required as the small boat captain, so I went with the return crew. Prior to leaving The Ship, we packed everything up, and reordered her in preparation for docking. After de-anchoring, and stowing the anchors and lines, we headed in. We arrived early in the small boat, unloaded it, gassed it up and turned it in. While we were off at the Wally Mart returning the stuff, Capt. Jimmie arrived at the dock, and astutely had the young fellows at the dock land The Ship at the gas dock and then unloading dock. We ended up putting about $500 of fuel @$3.95/ gal. in The Houseship. We were way under what the literature predicted we would use. We did all the riding we desired, and ran the generator as much as we needed, so we were pleasantly surprised. We attributed it to Captain Jimmie and I having small boat experience, and knowing that medium speed on outboards is much more efficient than wide open or near wide open. The Houseship was equipped with twin 115 hp Mercury 4 stroke outboards. Normally while cruising, we ran them about 3200-3400 rpm for 7.5 mph forward progress. Max speed was about 5200 rpm, but we didn't use that. We found that as expected, the speed increase of the boat vs. the speed increase of the engines was definitely much smaller as you got over cruising speed. I.E. the boating law of diminishing returns. Also, I had brought along a refrigerator thermometer, and I could monitor the temp of our stored food. I only ran the generator as much as necessary to keep the food safely stored. We kept all our ready access drinks in a cooler, and avoided opening the refrigerator constantly. (this was suggested in the boat literature) The return crew got back from the Wally Mart, and we proceeded to haul all our stuff up the hill back to the old Previa Van. After a somewhat sad parting with good old S76, we headed off to Zion National Park. Zion was about 2.5 hrs away across a great 2-lane road through the desert. We arrived at Zion about 5 p.m. and checked into the Zion Park Lodge. The Zion Park Lodge was very nice, and we secured dinner reservations for 8 p.m. at the restaurant. We watched the deer gather on the front lawn of The Lodge to graze, and then had a festive evening celebrating Jerry and Brenda's anniversary. We ended the evening in the rocking chairs in front of the huge fireplace in our lodge foyer, planning our seeing of Zion tomorrow.

More Later,

Wes

Houseship #10

All during the night last night, the wind howled past the rear of the boat. I got up once to check the anchors to see if they were pulling out. But our anchor team and the size of the anchors did the job. This morning dawned calm, cool and bright with the boat still securely attached to the shore. We had a hearty breakfast and are now preparing to up anchor and head downlake.

The de-anchoring went without a hitch, and we headed back toward our home bay with speedboat in tow. Everyone settled down to the routine of cruising. Some read, some played cards, and some napped. It is a very scenic slow cruise moving The Ship around on the lake. We got back into Waweep Bay, and went up creek past the marina to a great anchorage we had found. Captain Jimmie beached us smartly and retook the refrigerator punting record. We got anchored, and were fortunate to find a significant amount of driftwood to collect for a fire. That along with the supply of wood we had brought allowed us to have a nice fire that evening. The previous very windy nights had pretty much precluded beach fires. We had a dinner of leftovers from the week, and had a little beach party till it was time to go to bed.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #9

This morning dawned bright and cool. All the wind yesterday really changed the weather. The sun is bright today but the air is cool. We have had to run the heat on The Ship routinely for the first time. As it turns out we made an excellent decision to hole up from the high wind. The folks got back from visiting Rainbow Bridge and the marina guy told them he spent yesterday dragging folks off the lake to shelter. (and later when we checked in at our marina, they said they had boats wrecked on the rocks and adrift everywhere in the lake) The hiking crew took off in the small boat to go and see Rainbow Bridge, similar to yesterday’s plan. I settled down with Tom Clancy to await their return. The trip went off without a hitch this morning, and after a 19-mile boat ride (one way) and a mile and 1/4 hike, they saw the sight. They said it was definitely worth the trip. It was about a 4-5 mile ride up a narrow canyon from the main lake to the boat parking area. They were early enough th at they were the only ones there until a tour boat arrived as they were leaving. Today I started a list of the things we had and needed for the Ship Trip. We intend to document things carefully so we can do this better if we try it again. When they got back, we had some lunch and de-anchored (I invented this word). Jimmie and Jerry offered to let me pilot this leg of the voyage, and I jumped on it. I told them I’m the kind of guy that will jump on anything with a throttle and steering mechanism and drive it. I smartly de-beached us and drove down river heading for Padre Bay. The wind was fierce the whole way, but I figured out how to use the huge side area of The Houseship as a sail to improve our speed. We arrived in Padre Bay and our scouts found us an anchorage in Right Fork Cane Wash. I got to make my first attempt at a beaching. After my beaching in a horrible side wind, I now hold the record for moving the refrigerator the furthest across the kitchen. I think in the process I managed to have the engines wide open in every configuration but neutral. Like the book says 5 tons and no brakes. We ended up on the beach with me frantically fighting a crosswind with the engines while Jerry and Jimmie tried to get the anchors buried. We ended up safely anchored to the beach and I was very relieved. Now we are starting dinner and the girls are playing cards. We are having the classic hot dogs, hamburgers, and beans for our meal. Tomorrow we have to move down stream about 27 miles and get near by the dock where we have to return the boat Tuesday morning.

More Later,

Wes

Houseship #8

The computer says it is 09:17, but that is Eastern Standard Time. That makes it about 06:17 here in Utah on Arizona time. Go figure. The Navajos don’t recognize Arizona time, and Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings time. But Utah recognizes Daylight savings time and the lake is in Arizona and Utah. But all the marinas operate on Arizona time, even if they are in Utah. (I think) Then my cell phone keeps changing towers between Utah and Arizona, so I never know what time it really is. But then on this wonderful trip, we don’t care. We sleep when were tired, and wake up when we want to. I’m an early riser, so I monitor the sunrise and let everyone know when it is starting to get beautiful. This morning it is a little bit cloudy, and the sky isn’t as pretty as yesterday. But then isn’t as pretty here is still stupendous. We beached last evening in Rocky Creek Canyon amid a setting of buttes that looks like something out of the Roman times. Just above us is a rock formation that looks like an ancient roman ruin. Oh the sky just went fiery pink as the sunrise is on its way. It’s 0: something: 26. We were talking yesterday while exploring Navajo canyon: this day in age, there is no way the environmentalists would let them build a dam and flood a canyon like this. I am in favor of protecting the environment, but this is a whole other environment unto itself. Yesterday when Brenda and I scouted this landing location in the small boat, we commented, we might as well be on an alien planet. This place is that remote. We are in the middle of the desert on a boat. Sounds strange doesn’t it. It’s had to imagine what our forefathers found when they discovered this area. With the water, many of these canyon walls are 5-800 feet high. Without the water they would be like 1600 feet high. We keep looking up on the tops of the canyon walls expecting to see a Navajo raiding party preparing to attack us. Today, the hikers are going to take the small boat and head for Rainb ow Bridge, which is the largest natural arch in the world. When Glen Canyon Lake is full, you can boat to the arch, but with the current water level (90 feet down from full pool) it is a 1 plus mile hike to see it. Well everyone is stirring and it’s time to start the generator and make coffee.

Later...they all came back early because the weather report called for high wind warnings. They gassed up the small boat that took 21 gallons for our use so far. (@ $4.135 per gallon) We proceeded to double secure our anchors and batten down anything that could blow away. Our preparations were not in vain. The wind picked up to gale force and buffeted The Houseship far into the night. We cooked dinner and enjoyed the comfort and safety of our home away from home. We are staying at our anchorage tonight again and we will repeat the attempt to see Rainbow Bridge tomorrow.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #7

Woke up early this morning since I had left the drapes open on purpose. The sky prior to sunrise was unbelievably beautiful. While we were still in relative darkness, the rock canyon walls looked like a black cutout against the colored backdrop of the sky. As the sunrise got closer, you could see more and more detail of the rocks, until the sun finally popped up over one of the promontories. While awaiting the sunrise it was so silent you could hear the ducks muttering to each other along with a loon and the small waves lapping on the shore. After watching the sunrise I headed in to start the generator and breakfast. We had a great breakfast, folks had showers, and we’re headed off in the small boat to explore Navajo Creek. Navajo Creek was an incredible experience. We rode 12 miles up the canyon with walls of often 500 feet on each side. The canyon twisted and turned, with new unbelievable vista at every turn. It took us a couple hours to make the round trip to Navajo Canyon in the small boat. When we got back it was time to unanchor the Houseship and head up the lake. We proceeded back down Warm Creek and turned upstream headed for Rock Creek Bay/Canyon. We had to do some serious time distance figuring to see if we could make Rock Creek before dark. We ended up raising the Houseship speed slightly and made it with half an hour to spare. As we approached Rock Creek Brenda and I jumped in the small boat and scouted ahead for a landing spot for the Houseship. We rounded the pump-out station, and turned up Rock Creek. Because of all the houseship traffic on this lake, they have pumpout stations where you can stop and pump your holding and grey water tanks. This keeps the lake pristine and the water close to drinkable. About 4 miles up Rock Creek we found a cool beach complete with fire pit. We couldn’t reach the Houseship on the radio, so we ran back down the canyon until we could talk to them. We reported our discovery of an acceptable beach to Captain Jim mie and awaited their arrival. We did the compulsory anchor digging with great care as the weather is forecasting 30-mph wind gusts for Sat night. We intend to keep the ship parked for the next 2 days and use the small boat for sight seeing. We fired up the grill tonight and cooked steaks with salad and baked potatoes. We sat around the diner table telling stories of the most famous people we have shaken hands with or been close to. It was an amazing list of folks that included some very famous people. Watched a movie and turned in for the night.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #6

I woke up early this morning. Got up, made coffee, and watched the sunrise. This is an incredibly beautiful place. We were still at the dock and the sunrise/scenery was unbelievable. We had planned a classic bacon and eggs breakfast for our first morning on the water but since we never left the dock we made a collective decision to switch to the second day抯 plan of a light breakfast and save the killer breakfast for our first real morning on the water. We got everyone fed, washed, brushed, and dressed, and were ready to leave the dock. The wind was still blowing but significantly less than yesterday. Vickie and I took the speedboat and stood off in the harbor awaiting departure of S76. Captain Jimmie backed our houseship smartly out of the slip and pivoted toward the harbor exit. Vickie and I slipped out through the exit to take pictures of the maiden departure. Captain Jimmie handled the wind and unfamiliarity with the boat and made it safely through the exit buoys. We headed up into the wind and soon secured the powerboat for tow behind the houseship. After that we turned downstream keeping the appropriate buoys on the appropriate side of the houseship. Forward progress was at approximately 7.5 mph and we motored down the lake toward the point where we had to disconnect the tow of the speedboat to traverse "The Narrows". The Narrows is a passage through the rocks with 100-foot cliffs on either side. Vickie and I drove the powerboat followed by Captain Jimmie and S76. When we reached mile marker #9 on the other side of "The Narrows" it was time to reconnect the tow. We proceed up the lake observing the incredible scenery heading for an anchorage in Warm Creek. I commented to friends "This is like the Grand Canyon only full of water" and that抯 what it抯 like. If you built a damn and filled the Grand Canyon full of water this is what it would be. We proceed up Warm Creek and found a likely looking place to land. About this time the guys from the marina s howed up with a replacement speedboat. On our original boat I had noticed an ominous looking puddle of oil under the steering wheel that reappeared every time I wiped it up. In the middle of them arriving, we beached the houseship quite smartly. It being our first time The Captain wasn抰 sure exactly how fast we should approach the shore. We know now we were going a little faster than we should have been. I believe the guys from the marina had a good story to tell their friends when they went back. But then they have probably seen it all in the boat rental business. A little while later Jerry said, "Does this kitchen seem smaller?" Turns out that a full size household refrigerator, slap full of food ice and drinks, combined with having wheels and a fast beaching, equals forward motion. In essence the boat stopped before the refrigerator did by about 5 feet. We proceeded to bury the 4 huge anchors in the sand as we had been taught in the training video. Quite a bit of manual labor w as involved for Jimmie and Jerry. We had to dig four holes in the sand 3 feet wide and about a foot deep. This is necessary to keep the ship from being blown off the beach by the wind in the middle of the night. Idea is you don抰 wake up floating in the middle of the channel as a navigation hazard. After we had securely anchored, we extended our bow ramp, and hung out on the beach. Jerry and I decided to try out the water slide the boat is equipped with. (well actually Jerry first) The water temp was about 2 degrees above stopping your heart when you splashed down. However, after you were in for a while, it was not all that bad (to me). I got Vickie to get me the bar of Ivory soap and I had a lake water bath. Later I slow cooked a ham on the grill, made some scalloped potatoes, and we had a fine dinner. The hikers in the group went on a nature hike while I cooked. After dinner we had a small fire on the beach and turned in early for a good night's sleep.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #5

Getting the ship and getting all the supplies yesterday was quite a memorable event. We arrived at the rental office soon after 8am and were assisted by a very nice knowledgeable girl. She processed all the paperwork, and we headed down the hill (because the water level is 90 feet below full pool) to The Ship. We found our ship which was #S72. We inspected it for necessities i.e. Coffee filters, pillows, paper towels, ice bucket, and ice cooler capacity and soon our instructor arrived to teach us how to houseboat. Jerry & Vickie left and drove the van to the loading dock. The rest of us stayed with the instructor as we went to the fuel dock to fill up the tank. We filled up the 290-gallon fuel tanks and moved to the loading dock. Vickie & Jerry were waiting on us with carts full of luggage. We loaded the luggage onto the ship realizing immediately there was no place for luggage on the ship. We said we’d worry about that later and sent the shopping team off to Wall y Mart. With knowledge and lists in hand Jerry, Vickie, and Judy headed off for supplies. Brenda, Captain Jimmy, & I stayed for houseboat training. The young houseboat dude whose name was Will from New Zealand proceeded to take us through the indoctrination (of course Will had only been working houseboat training for 6 mos. of the 10 mos. he’d been in the US). When I asked Will why the lights on the right side of the AC electrical panel were not on he said "Oh they are just burned out". After I proved to him that there was no juice on that side of the panel, he called the electrician who took the screws out of the panel and condemned the ship to the repair dock. We then moved all of our stuff across the dock to our new home #S76 which had a functional electrical system. Jimmie, Will, and I proceeded through the training. It was soon obvious that we knew way more about the boat than Will did from studying the DVD that they sent us. As soon as we had had all the compulsory CYA in doctrination we tipped the young boy and sent him on his way. I called Vickie on the cell phone at the Wally Mart and she reported the shopping was proceeding and I informed her our new ship number was S76 so they would not put the groceries on the wrong ship. Jimmie, Brenda, and I sat around on the new ship awaiting the arrival of supplies. In the meantime, Brenda and I went through the training on the powerboat we had rented to tow with us. The training involved.... here’s the boat....here’s the lifejackets....here’s the throttle...here’s the key....you push the throttle forward to go fast....end of story. The crew adjourned back to the boat to await the supplies again. Finally I got a cell phone call from Vickie that they were in route with supplies. I stole a cart from another houseboater who was not using it and stood prepared in the parking lot for unloading. Vickie said they were 3 minutes away 15 minutes before they arrived. Jimmie and I stood with the dock cart in the wind driven sandstorm in the parking lot awaiting their arrival. After we were thoroughly sand blasted the overloaded Previa came waddling down the drive. We proceeded to unload the contents of the van into the rolling dock cart. The first load was so heavy Jimmie and I tandem pulled it. Finally all of the supplies were transferred to old S76. Jerry told me that his first trip through the Wally Mart checkout was $576.00 (of course he had the liquor list). The girl at the checkout asked him if he was starting a business but he said no it was just a good party. She asked him if she could come. He said only if you have a boat. We proceed to stow the supplies in every available orifice in the kitchen, which is very large by boat standards including a full size stove, microwave, and refrigerator. Something I forgot to mention was that the wind was 15 mph gusting to 24 mph on our inaugural boat day. We astutely decided that since it was already 3pm (dark coming at 6:15) that we would stay ti ed up to the dock and shore power the first night. All of the folks we talked to on the dock said that that was a wise decision considering the wind and water conditions. We festooned the vessel with our four strings of Flamingo hanging lights. We then fixed dinner consisting of slaw and Mario's’Salmon Tailgate Packets then watched a movie and went to bed planning an early departure.

More later....

Wes

Houseship #4

We got up this morning to a pleasant surprise. The continental breakfast here at the Page Quality Inn is superior to most. It was almost like a breakfast buffet minus bacon and sausage. They also had this porridge like stuff called Blue Corn Mash. It was Smurf Blue, and the cook said this was the only place you could get it. All served in a dining room overlooking the most incredible view you can imagine. This particular Quality Inn goes high on my list of value for the money. The people were great, ambience was stupendous, food was good, and they even got the curved shower rods right. As we ate breakfast with 2 busloads of tourists from Russia, Vickie and I commented we had paid 3 times as much to stay places with about ¼ of the coolness. When Vickie and I stayed here 4 or so years ago, this was a Ramada. Since then it has joined Quality Inns and Choice Privileges.

We made all our shopping lists etc last night, and are on our way to The Ship and Wally Mart this morning. Hopefully we’ll be headed out this afternoon. Probably won’t hear from us for a while because I don’t expect any Internet connections to be available on the lake.

More later,

Wes

Houseship trip #3

The plan was this morning, Wes was supposed to get up early to write and then wake everyone for breakfast at The Lodge restaurant. However, Vickie decided to wander down to The Lodge for coffee and while there was informed by the nice boy that if we wanted breakfast, we better get there cause "the food was going fast". She came back and got everyone moving. We just pulled on clothes and went as we were. The breakfast was good, and eating overlooking the sunrise on the Grand Canyon was priceless. (AMEX took care of the rest). After breakfast, we did the clean up and shower thing. One of those interesting ironies awaited us in the bathroom. There was a cool placard proclaiming how Xanterra Parks and Resorts ^R was protecting the environment by using bulk soap and body wash dispensers. Also how they were conserving water and protecting the environment by not changing the sheets and towels unless requested. Then it happened I got in the shower and they blew it all. There s hould have been a line on the placard that said "Oh and by the way, we have diverted half the Colorado River through your shower for your cleaning pleasure". I have stayed in motels where the showerhead put out less water in a week than these put out in a minute. Had me a little conflicted about the whole conservation issue. (but I really enjoyed it) After clean up, Jimmie, Judy, Brenda, and Jerry went for a short hike (complete with our new stupid hats and walking sticks) on one of the trails. It was especially cool since Jimmie and Judy have never been to the Grand Canyon and Jerry and Brenda have not been to this side. Vickie and this old gimp decided to hang and prepare our gear for departure. I used the time to download the pictures from the camera and catch up on my writing. When they get back it’s off to Page and the Houseship Adventure. We drove out of the North Rim and stopped at Point Imperial overlook. The view was stupendous. As we continued out of the park, we had to s top and take the luggage off the roof cause it was snowing. It snowed/sleeted for quite a while as we exited toward Page. We made the trip over the mountains and across the high mesa to get to page. The scenery is like nothing you’ve ever seen. We stopped at the bridge across the Colorado River, and the Navajo folks had stands set up selling stuff. The girls shopped, and Jimmie Jerry and I stood and admired the Colorado flowing through the gorge. Finally we arrived at Page, and found the Quality Inn where we had reservations. We stopped at the Super Wally Mart and picked up some chicken to eat at the motel when we landed. We had 3 adjoining rooms, and I set up the laptop so we could work on our planning for the Ship Trip tomorrow. After much wrangling and discussion, we ended up with a shopping list for tomorrow. We can access The Ship at 08:00 tomorrow, so we are planning to get an early start. Continental breakfast is included here and starts at 06:00, so we are planning for that .

More later.

Wes

Houseship trip #2

We had an excellent breakfast this morning at the buffet at the Stratosphere. It was $10.95, which seems pricey for breakfast, but the spread of food was unbelievable, and the quality was high. We loaded up the Toyota Previa and realized the amount of luggage and people we had was a little over the internal cubic capacity of the vehicle. We came up with a plan, to stop at a Wally Mart and transfer some of the "stuff" to the roof rack so conveniently provided. Wally Mart in Nevada is truly your one stop shopping spot. We got bungee cords, liquor, wine, batteries, limes, cups, mixers, and a cold drink. I was surprised they didn’t have a casino in the Wally Mart. Heck they even have slot machines in the gas stations. With a couple of our rolling adventure bags safely lashed to the roof, we were on our way. The elevation at Las Vegas is around 1900 feet, and the lodge here is around 8700 feet, so it is a climb the whole way. The route out of Vegas follows I-15 and then we cut off ne ar Huricane Arizona toward the Grand Canyon. Along the way we passed through Nevada, Arizona, Utah and back into Arizona. Also according to the cell phones we passed in and out of a couple time zones. The Grand Canyon is on Mountain Standard Time. Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings Time. When you make the final turn off to get to the North Rim, it’s about 50 miles through the wilderness to get there. Along the way we stopped at a meadow and observed 2 animals the driver (Jerry) had astutely spotted. We stopped the car, broke out 2 sets of binoculars (one HUGE set), and proceeded to have a lengthy discussion as to what we were looking at. Jerry says it was bears, Vickie thought it was a skunk, I thought it was a ground hog at first, but then settled on porcupine. Jimmie and Judy decided it was a badger. The debate continued for the next 30 miles and we passed numerous herds of deer and finally reached the entrance Ranger Station. The ranger informed us there were no bears in t hese parts, and said it might be a badger. Everyone agreed it might except me and I still insist it was a porcupine. We arrived at the North Rim Lodge just in time for sunset. We scurried around changing cloths in the parking lot. Reason was it was 80ish when we left Vegas. It was 48 and the wind was blowing at The Lodge. We made it down to the outdoor deck on The Lodge for the last 45 minutes of the sunset. The scenery was indescribable and even the digital pictures can’t do it justice. The whole scene at The Lodge was kind of party like since it was the last night of operation for the season. All the kids who are seasonal employees here were looking forward to starting vacation tomorrow. Most of the folks staying at the Lodge were here because it was the last night. Out on the lower deck was a fireplace you could park a car in, and it was blazing away. All in all it was the kind of night you just can’t pay money for.

We had a dinner reservation for 8:00 p.m. so after the sunset we checked in and adjourned to our assigned cabins for a while. The ladies headed off for the gift shop where they were having a 20% off end of season sale. We guys sat around a sipped a beverage and enjoyed the ambience. The cabins we were staying in are called "Frontier Cabins" They have one room, are made of logs, have no television, and are totally cool. The bathroom is reasonably modern, and well equipped. We had two that adjoined each other with a door in between. We used those two as the gathering place. At about 7:45 we rounded everyone up and headed to dinner at The Lodge. We had to wait a little while, but were soon seated in the huge high-ceilinged dining room. Our waiter was a gem and he told us to make our food choices quick since the availability was going fast. The menu wasn’t extensive and we quickly choose. Jerry, Jimmie, and Judy opted for the pan seared Mountain Trout. Vickie went for the North Rim Pasta which combined pene, crisp bacon, peas, pine nuts, Alfredo sauce and romano cheese. Brenda had a salad, and I decided on the Free-Range Meatloaf. (exactly what a free range meatloaf is is a good question) At the last minute, I decided to switch to the trout. It was a good decision. The trout was very delicious topped with a diced tomato and pineapple sauce I am going to have to figure out how to duplicate. I was worried it was going to be one of those trouts that look up at you from the plate, but it was a filet. All the food and drink was excellent and the ambience was beyond compare. Thanks to Jerry for the excellent planning. We wandered back to the adjoining rooms after dinner to contemplate the universe. We sat around and chatted until Brenda broke out one of those unexpected joys in life, a whoopee cushion. She first caught Vickie unaware, and things degenerated from there. We took turns seeing who could get the best result, and belly laughed like a bunch of teenagers t ill late in the evening. We planned our exploits for the following morning and snuggled to our respective cozy cabins for fine rustic sleep.

More later,

Wes

Houseship trip #1

Well here we sit waiting on our fellow travelers. It is Sunday afternoon, and we are ready about 1 hour early. We have to catch a plane in Greensboro. Catch a plane that is the key phrase. Yours truly hates planes. There is so much hassle involved with flying, and they have made the coach area seats of the planes so small, I genuinely hate it. I remember when I was young, and flying was a treat. Seats were big, you could smoke, (and smoking didn’t make you a social leper) no "security", no crowds at the airport, and happy airline folks. Now that is all just a faint memory. I get my Dr. to give me what I call "flying pills", something generic in the Valium family. I take them when I leave the house and right before I get on the plane with an adult beverage of my choice. I end up blissfully unaware that I am crushed into space a midget couldn’t enjoy, hurtling through space at 560 mph. at the mercy of an air traffic control system that is precarious at best. My favorite airplane j oke is "Damn, he would have survived that 600 mph. fiery crash into the ground if only his seat back and tray table had been in their full upright and locked position." Vickie really fusses at me when I say it. (I think she’s tired of hearing it) Many of the airline folks are very nice, but the percentage of grumpy troops is much higher in this age of pay cuts and airline bankruptcy. I use the wheelchair service available from the airlines with my continuing leg issues. They are very kind (especially when you tip them well) and it makes moving through the airports and changing planes much less stressful for this old gimp. When the flight is far away, they ride you in one of those electric carts. I like to sing harmony with the beep, beep, beep the carts make. Vickie pretends she doesn’t know me.

Well now we’re here at the airport, the whole arrival check in process was made greatly less stressful by Brenda’s Delta Medallion status. Since we were traveling with her, we got to go to the special check in reserved for the Medallion and First Class passengers. One of our good friends that lives very near the airport is babysitting our cars, so Jerry and Jimmie took off to ditch the cars as soon as we checked in. I was a "Primary Alarm" at the walk through detector at the security gate. Never been called that before. It involved the usual wanding with the metal detector and body search along with rubbing my hands and knee brace with the little wipey thing that goes in the explosive detector. I wasn’t explosive and didn’t have any concealed weapons, so I got through quite nicely. In reality, it was one of the better experiences at security I’ve had. Vickie rounded me up a nice iced coffee and we’re settled down to await boarding.

Later.... all in all the flights on Delta today were uneventful. (slam ass full, but on time and well run) We arrived in Vegas, got our severely overloaded mini van, and made our way down the strip to the Stratosphere. We had booked rooms at the Stratosphere as it was the most reasonable, and we were really only crashing for one night. The stories we had read about lines at check in at the Stratosphere were true. However, we discovered an automated kiosk that let us check in with no line and very little fuss. Only problem was we were supposed to have adjoining rooms and they were the exact opposite. Each couple was in a different tower and floor. After we figured out the curious room numbering system (our room was 03-10-46, which stood for building 3 floor 10 room 46), the rooms were serviceable and we had landed. We did the Vegas night stuff till about 2 Vegas time, then crashed with plans to meet for breakfast. After breakfast it will be into the mini van for our trip to the G rand Canyon. Just discovered the Internet here costs $9.95 per day, so this may be a while going out. Good old Vegas, never any coffee in the rooms, and you pay for Internet. I’ve stayed at cheap rundown strip motels, but they still had wireless Internet and a coffee maker in the room. Jerry commented on how few channels were available on the TVs in the room. His take, "they don’t want you drinking coffee, watching TV and surfing the Internet in your room". They want you downstairs gambling. After all I added all these fancy casinos and hotels didn’t build themselves, it took a lot of folks losing a lot of money. More later.

Wes

Houseship Trip Itinerary

Sun, Oct 14
Delta GSO→ATL
Delta ATL→LAS
Lodging – Stratosphere Casino Hotel – 2000 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, (702) 380-7777

Mon, Oct 15
Drive to north rim of Grand Canyon National Park
Lodging – Grand Canyon Lodge – North Rim, AZ, (928) 638-2611
Dinner – Grand Canyon Lodge Dining Room

Tue, Oct 16
Drive to Page, AZ
Lodging - Quality Inn at Lake Powell - 287 N. Lake Powell Blvd, Page, AZ, (928) 645-8851

Wed, Oct 17→Tue Oct 23
Onboard the ship!
Leave from Wahweap marina (available at 8am).
Houseboating.org, (801) 487-7206

Tues, Oct 23
Drive to Zion National Park.
Lodging – Zion Lodge – Springdale, UT, (435) 772-7700

Wed, Oct 24
Drive to Las Vegas
Lodging – Tropicana Hotel and Casino – 3801 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV (702) 739-2222

Thu, Oct 25
Lodging – Tropicana Hotel and Casino – 3801 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV (702) 739-2222

Sat, Oct 27
Delta LAS→ATL
Delta ATL→GSO

New England #11

Well change of plans. As we were getting in the car yesterday, my son called and suggested since we were in the neighborhood, we come by his place. Didn't realize we were so close, so we went. Had a nice ride over through Getttysburg and the battlefield area. Then swung down to Manassas through Fairfax. We had a nice visit, Vickie got to play with the grandbaby, and we're going to head home Sunday rather than Sat.

Wes

New England #10

Well we shagged our way on the Interstate from Conn. to Chambersburg PA yesterday. Our plan was to attend our Sister in Law’s birthday party Saturday night in Blacksburg. Oops we were a week early. That will be the last time Vickie believes that I know anything about dates. Thank goodness we have Outlook on our computer at home to keep up with life. Hope I’m not a week early for my funeral. Since we were in the neighborhood we decided we’d just head on home. Yesterday was your normal Interstate day of dodging trucks and avoiding folks that can’t seem to keep a constant speed. I like to play a game of setting my cruise control, then seeing how many times a particularly bad speed varrier will pass me and vice versa. We had a crazy encounter with a physco truck driver that twice tried to kill himself and run over a couple cars. When he made an attempt to run over me, I boxed him in and made him drive 55 for a while, then went to light speed and all he could ever see after that were my taillights. He tried, but every time he started closing the distance, I politely danced out of his way. After a while he must have gotten tired or turned off. We ended up at a nice Country Inn and Suites in Chambersburg PA with a cool discount coupon. (for the record, this place passed the curved shower rod test, but lost style points for the old magnets in the shower curtain on the fiberglass tub trick) This is a relatively new motel chain, and I recommend them. All we have stayed in or seen so far are new and include an indoor pool. Had supper at a Fuddruckers nearby, they really do great burgers. Up early this morning and hit the pool. Usual Continental Breakfast fare. (I made my own waffeel with no assistance, Thank you very much) We will be on the road soon. I-81 is one of my least favorite, but does go down through the mountains, and is pretty scenic this time of year. Thanks for sharing this trip with us. Next we are off to Lake Powell in Arizona with 2 other couples for what we are calling our House Ship Trip in mid-late October. (actually it’s a houseboat, but Vickie calls it a ship cause it’s pretty big) Take care.

Cheers,

Wes

New England #9

We ended up today in Torrington CT at a Quality Inn. Stopped a little early cause we reached empty on the laundry tank. Going to do a load today to get us home. This is without a doubt the weirdest room we have ever stayed in. It is also sort of rough, and won’t get a good review from me. (I think carpet was at the Battle of Gettysburg) The room is your normal something by something motel room with AC unit and bathroom. But then where the back wall of the room should be there is like another little room ½ again as big and the regular room with a ceiling light directly in the middle of it. Looks like a dining room. Very strange. We called the desk to ask and the girl said she didn’t know perhaps it was converted from something else. Oh and while I think about it---does anyone know why Massachusetts has this little hangy down part where Rt. 202 crosses the border into Connecticut? The entire Southern border is straight except for one little rectangle hanging down. I told Vickie pr obably back in 1789 or thereabouts, someone wanted to live in Mass. rather than Conn. Since they couldn’t move their land, they paid someone off to change the border. Or perhaps they were an influential politician. Other than the above mentioned hangy down part, and some jumbled street signs, wasn’t much to see today, and pretty slow going on Rt. 202. We have decided we’ll jump on the Interstate tomorrow and make some miles Southwest toward home. I uploaded some more pictures of Acadia and various other stuff. Continental breakfast at the Quality Inn was the usual fare with a new twist. There was a sign on the waffle batter dispenser that said "Do not touch the waffel machine, someone will assist you". Well the person who couldn’t spell waffel (pronounced wafeel) was nowhere to be found, so after waiting a while I just toasted a bagel and ate some yogurt. While I was eating, the breakfast attendant returned and started fixing her own waffel. There was a tip jar on the table, and I was conspicuous by my non-contributory nature. Well we’re off to utilize Ike’s legacy, ought to be an interesting day exploring uncharted territory for us. More later.

Wes

New England #8

Left Bar Harbor yesterday and headed south along Rt. 1. The coast of Maine is quite beautiful and the water vistas just keep on coming. Yesterday in Maine, however, it was 92° in some places and above 90 almost all day. (don’t anyone tell Al Gore).

Made myself a note of a couple of soapbox items yesterday. Has anyone noticed the "Project Planet" placards hanging in motel rooms nowadays? It is the motel owners looking to save money masquerading as saving the planet. The placards encourage you to reuse your towels and only have your sheets changed when they need it. (boy that’s novel—seems like exactly what we do at home) I went on the web site of Project Planet, and guess what business they are in? You got it, selling stuff to hang in motel rooms. On their sight they tout some motel chain that was going to save $1.3 million with their program, while saving 4 million gallons of water Seems to me the $1.3 million is way more important than the water when everything else at the motel is disposable. (especially the new little coffee pots with the extra plastic disposable thingie) And oh yea, how about the water saving shower head you have to run around under to get wet, directly across from an old style 3 gal per flush toilet? Also, it allows the illegal alien room people to handle way more rooms per person if they don’t have to change the sheets. I don’t mind that they are saving water, but don’t tell me you are doing it to save the planet. (I’m dumb, but not that dumb)

The second box I want to get on is, who are these guys that design motel rooms? How come the air conditioner always blows up into the drapes causing you to have to engineer some kind of holding device for the drapes to keep the spotlights aimed directly at your window out? You know my ongoing position on curved shower rods. This place got the installation right, but added an interesting new wrinkle. They have magnets in the bottom of the shower curtain—with a fiberglass tub. Must have missed high school physics class. And what is it with desks and no place to plug in anything?

The third soapbox item is tourism. Dawned on me day before yesterday at Acadia—this horde of tourists doesn’t really even include the Boomers yet. Vickie and I are "Early Early Boomers" in that we are early boomers and retired early. The make up of the crowd at Acadia was all mostly older folks like 65-75 and beyond. In addition most of the folks we see on the road are this same advanced age. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in 10 years when the Boomers really start retiring. You better get your National Park reservations 3 years in advance.

Along the way down the coast, we passed through Bucksport Maine that calls itself "The Center Of The Known Universe" It is the site of the British Battle "Disaster On The Penobscot in 1779" and also site of the new Pneobscot Narrows bridge and observatory. The bridge was very interesting. It has nitrogen pressurized chambers the suspension cables run through to prevent corrosion. It also has an observatory in one of the 420’ towers. As we proceeded further down the coast of Maine yesterday, we decided we had seen enough water vistas, and headed inland. My great navigator found some Maine back roads (read barely roads) and we cut across to Rt. 202 which we intend to follow for a while. Oh and something I wanted to mention, when the State of Maine posts a sign that says bump, they really mean it. (like 1 mph bumps) Also I was introduced to a new sign yesterday called "Frost Heave" The frost heave sign is usually followed by a road that looks like the aftermath of an earthquake, bu t with more rounded edges. We set our sights on Rochester NH for the night. Well turns out when we got to Rochester there were 3 motels. One that really fooled us was named Residence Inn. I don’t believe it will be entering the Marriott system anytime soon. The other two were its brothers bad and worse. So we headed on to Concord NH which was the next bold (on the map) city. Our GPS showed motels there, and we had coupons for several. By this time it was getting late and we were tired. Our first stop was a Fairfield by Marriott. They were full but the Day’s Inn down the road was supposed to have rooms. To make a long story short, we got one of the last two rooms at the Day’s Inn, cause it seems like there were a bunch of Democrats in NH having a debate. The Day’s Inn refused to honor our coupon siting a special event. What was that special event? Not the Democratic debate but Fall Foliage! Guy said oh they’re coming in from all over for it. However the coupon is valid for September and October which is when the fall foliage is, so we are a little miffed. We’re going to write the Room Saver folks and the National Day’s Inn folks just for the venting of it. (we weren’t dumb enough to not take the room, regardless of coupon or not) Since it was late, we called for Chinese delivery, and had a great room picnic in front of the TV. Then right after dinner, the water died in the whole motel. It was back before we went to bed, but made for a harrowing night. We’re heading East tomorrow. Good Continental at the Day’s Inn this morning and quite a bit of rain. Made instant mud on the car. Looks like it might continue for a day or so. More later.

Wes

New England #7

Made it to Bar Harbor ME yesterday. Rt. 1 in Maine is a rough old girl in many places and quite a bit of construction. Vickie and I were wondering how they would ever get it all finished before the "permafrost" sets in. You can tell there might be something to the winters here by the way their firewood stacks are often almost as big as the house. Most of our day yesterday was spent at Acadia National Park. This is one of the few National Parks on the East Coast. Basically it is a lot of islands and peninsulas that stick out into the Atlantic from the coast of Maine. Bar Harbor is pretty much completely surrounded by the National Park. Last I was here, many many years ago, Bar Harbor was a sleepy little town where you caught the ferry to Nova Scotia. Well you still catch the ferry here, but boy has it built up. Looking at some kind of local paper we picked up, 9 cruise ships are scheduled to dock here this week. One of the "cruisers" said the Queen Mary 2 was due here next Saturd ay. I was curious where cruise ships would come from to get to Bar Harbor. I asked one lady, and she said her ship sailed out of NYC with stops in Boston, Bar Harbor, Halifax, and some other places. This is really off-season for Acadia Park, but because of the cruise ships, it was slammed yesterday. Nothing like meeting a 48-passenger giant bus coming down the mountain road around a curve at you. However despite the droves of people, Acadia is a most beautiful place. The view from Cadillac Mt. at 1500+ feet above sea level is worth the trip. There is a park loop road that takes in most of the more popular sites. We spent our time on the loop with the roof down enjoying the park. Also there is a bus service that you can utilize to see the whole park. Since it was late in the day, we decided to stay in Bar Harbor. After the cruise ships pulled out around 5:00 (so they could get out past the 12 mile limit and open their casinos) the place was pretty empty. We enjoyed sitting on the ba lcony of our room at the Quality Inn with beautiful weather, and surprisingly few bugs. (oh and on the scorecard—this place didn’t get the memo, the curved shower rods were installed so that the shower area is now smaller than before) We later went across the road to something called The Saltwater Grill, and enjoyed the early bird specials. (makes me feel like a very old tourist to say early bird special) However in this case 1 of the early bird specials was a lobster, fries and slaw for $15.95. Great deal and it was good. I added an appetizer of steamed mussels and was in heaven. Miss Vickie ate the early bird sirloin tips in that she doesn’t do well with shellfish. I rounded it all off with a crisp Maine apple back at the room, and collapsed into a protein coma. Tomorrow, we plan to continue down the Maine coast on Rt.1 and eventually turn back inland before we get into the millions of folks called Boston. Oh and last night, Old Blue didn’t have to sleep alone for a change. He go t to snuggle up to a nice new maroon C6 with the same color top. I was hoping I might find a little Corvette pedal car when I went down this morning but nothing happened. (probably both boys) Ran down this morning to see the departure of the ship called "The Fast Cat" to Nova Scotia. It is this huge all aluminum catamaran car ferry with 38,000 hp (4 engines/9500) that runs from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth Nova Scotia at around 45 knots. Came back and went to breakfast at the same restaurant as last night. Usually isn’t possible to screw up breakfast but they did. Food was bad service was worse. More later.

Wes

New England #6

’m sitting here in a jacket after spraying myself with 98% Deet. I’m overlooking one of the most beautiful scenes on the trip so far. We lucked up and ended up in this cool old strip motel on the bank of some tidal river. We have sat here all evening watching the sun go down and the moon come up. We watched little shore birds fly in formation, we watched something that looked like the lock ness monster (neighbors later told us it was probably seals). We watched the old guy go out to the moored boat and adjust the moorings meanwhile messing up the whole mirror pool effect of the wide spot in the river. Vickie just took a picture of me writing this. It is impossible to put into words. The coast of Maine is unlike anything we are accustomed to. There are no beaches, just rocky coastline. We lucked up and found this place in some little town called Machias. Earlier this afternoon we were at Quoddy Head State Park in Lubec, ME which is the furthermost East point in the continental U S. There is a nice old lighthouse there and the water view was beautiful. The tides in this area run 28 feet. Everywhere today we saw the low tide cause it was at 3:50 p.m. The high tide is supposed to be at 9:30 tonight, and low is at 3 am (I’ll be sure to see that one) and high is again at 9:30 am tomorrow. Vickie just reminded me we have a full moon overhead. I didn’t realize it. It might not be full but it is 17/18^ths full. I mean, you couldn’t pay money (which we did) for a setting like this. The motel is populated by a mixture of tourists and construction workers. It is interesting. I have overheard big old burly construction workers on the cell phone telling their families how incredible the view is here. I believe I’m going to have to keep this place a secret to only my closest friends. Put this place on your list of places to visit on the coast of Maine. Oh it’s a ring around the moon---what does that mean? I’m going to have to look that up. I just can’t st op looking at how beautiful this setting is. I’ll post some pictures later.

Yesterday I made myself a note to mention the cute little coffee makers they have started using in most motel rooms. They have little disposable baskets with coffee already in them, and they brew only one cup at a time. Also don’t have warmers so you don’t have to worry about leaving them on. You brew directly into the Styrofoam cup you drink out of. So now instead of biodegradable paper filter packs and coffee grounds, we have an additional plastic tray per cup of coffee. Much simpler for motel though and people don’t take the coffee packs with them to use later. (unless they have one of these curious little machines at home.)

Helen’s restaurant is in the same parking lot as our motel and is supposed to have good food. We are going to wander across the parking lot and partake of their fine food some time this evening. We stopped today at Calais at the Maine tourist bureau. We picked up a lot of literature for our trip down Rt. 1 and two very pretty free Maine apples. We asked the nice lady if there was a good diner in town for lunch. She directed us to Karen’s diner, which she said was the most popular. We found it quickly. They had posted that their off season hours were only till 2 p.m. on Mon and Tues. We got there about 1:15 and they took us in. The menu had all sorts of cool things. I ended up with a cup of split pea and ham soup (excellent) and a "Haddock Sandwich" Boy was it good. Vickie ordered Macaroni and cheese with a diner roll. It was quite interesting made with a vegamel sauce laced with cheese. Well it's later and we are off for the restaurant across the parking lot for dinner . (back) Food was pretty good, I had stroganoff and Vickie had a hot pork sandwich with gravy. I brought back a piece of Maine apple pie for later. Rose early this a.m. in time to see the sun rise over the water (a Kodak moment) then proceeded to Helen’s Restaurant once again for breakfast. We got back to our room and the water had risen to within feet of the deck. Going to upload some pictures to share and get ready to go. Headed for Bar Harbor today.

Wes

New England #5

Monday morning finds us in Bangor Maine at a Holiday Inn. We used a great coupon out of one of those paper travel books you pick up at the State Welcome Centers. (we have saved like 30 or 40 dollars off the normal walk in room rate by using them) Vickie has a great method. She doesn’t show the coupon until after she asks if they have a room. That way they can’t say they don’t have any rooms, and then point to the fine print that says subject to availability. I let Miss Vickie handle all the hotel room negotiations. She is a tough negotiator. I think I mentioned that we stayed at a VERY pricey Comfort Inn in St. Johnsbury VT Saturday night. Well the place just wasn’t up to the standards of the price they charged. I was outside cleaning the car windows and packing up, and the lady at the desk made the mistake of asking Vickie "how was everything?" Vickie, being honest, told her we were quite disappointed and that we had paid half as much for better quality accommodations at severa l other places. Turns out Comfort Inn has a satisfaction guarantee and we ended up getting the room free. This was not our intention but we did feel they really hosed us on the price of the room at the self proclaimed "Taj Mahal!" of Vermont.

We left St. Johnsbury heading East following Rt. 2 and eventually came to the New Hampshire border and Mt. Washington. For those who don’t know, Mt. Washington is like the highest peak in New England and has an auto road to the top built in the late 1800’s. I had been up it years ago on a motorcycle with a friend. I suggested to Vickie we ought to try it. (little did she know I was really talking about driving up a mountain) It was a beautiful sunny clear day, and we got to the entrance pretty early ahead of the crowd. The sign at the entrance said there was a high wind warning at the top, but I decided to go for it anyhow. We headed up the narrow winding road, which is a 12% or better grade for over 8 miles. The road is just barely wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass and there are no guardrails with thousands of foot drop offs. It was really a fun time but Vickie was terrified. We got to the top and lucked up cause 9 out of ten times the top is cloud covered. Because of the high wind, we had several times when the clouds rolled off and we could see the whole vista. It was really amazing watching the clouds go by directly in front of the windshield moving VERY fast. Mt. Washington is the place where the highest wind on the surface of the planet has ever been recorded of 232 miles an hour at –47 ° . Glad it wasn’t yesterday. We got safely down and continued across New Hampshire and Maine to Bangor. The fall foliage just keeps getting better and better. We camped at the above mentioned Holiday Inn and found out the Cole Land Transportation Museum is right next door. So this morning we are off to see that. It is supposed to have the largest collection of snowplowing equipment anywhere and several 50’s tractor-trailers. More later.

Wes

New England #4

Saturday morning we left Rutland VT in good time, and headed up the road to St. Johnsbury VT. After the "bus people" left the Inn in Rutland, we were able to partake of their fine continental breakfast and carb load for the day. We stopped on the way out of Rutland and topped up the gas. Other than one time I got snookered at a Sunoco station we have not paid more than $2.99 for high-test the whole trip. At the mentioned Sunoco station, they had 4 grades of gas, and they advertised their 91-octane stuff as top grade on the sign. It was advertised for $2.99 but when I pulled up the 93 octane was $3.03. I should have pulled off but we were in the middle of no where and I didn’t know where the next gas would be. Back to today. We had a beautiful trip, about 125 miles through the mountains. We stopped for coffee at a little roadside market and Vickie found a beautiful "Vermont" embroidered hooded fleece sweatshirt for a great price. I got a giant homemade thing like a devils food ca ke except it was maple with that killer white cream stuff in the middle. I ate about a third, and saved it for later to avoid a sugar blowout. Along the way we went through a little town named Williamstown and the high school kids were having a car wash. This was the class of 2010, which made me feel 100 years old. (I graduated in 1967 which is 43 years before them) The car was real dirty after 1000 miles, so I turned back and let them wash it. Made their day, and we made a donation to their cause. After we had ridden a while and everything dried out, we put the roof down and enjoyed the incredible scenery. This country is really remote. There are very few Wally Marts, K-Marts or any Marts. Today I needed some McGuires Quick Detailer, so we stopped at a True Value hardware store, which was the only place that remotely seemed to be a possibility. They had a small automotive section and 1 bottle of what I wanted. It was too early to check into the motel so we stopped and had lunch at Anthony’s Diner that had been mentioned in our Road Trip USA book. Food was great and atmosphere was perfect. Had some New England clam chowder (first time to have it actually in New England) and Egg Salad sandwich on toasted white homemade bread. Sandwich came with homemade potato chips, and everything tasted great. After lunch, we checked into the St. Johnsbury Comfort Inn and Suites, which calls itself "Vermont’s Taj Mahal!" (complete with exclamation point) After we checked in, we used our Quick Detailer to get the car back to pretty. Then we took some cool pictures in front of the fountain with the hundreds of mums in front of the place. If I get time tonight, I’m going to post some pictures from the trip so far. Well by now you have probably gotten an invitation to view our pictures. Don’t know what is involved on your end, but I do know it’s free. We went swimming for a while earlier after finishing the car. Then I came back to the room and worked on editing the pictures. I t was getting late, and Vickie said hey there’s a button on this phone that says pizza delivery. I said go for it, and we ended up with a delivered Hawaiian pizza that was great. Vickie has been busy saving marigold seeds from some interesting white marigolds she found out front. She even taught the young pregnant desk clerk how to save and grow marigold seeds. We are working on our route for tomorrow. We plan to get an early start and perhaps get to the coast of Maine. We have gotten some good travel suggestions from our friends Mary X. and Charlie Russell. The pool opens at 05:00, and we plan to get in some aerobic swimming prior to carb loading at breakfast starting at 06:00. Hopefully we can be on the road as soon as it is light. Oh and just a few comments about the current Taj Mahal. The sign over the front door says #1 Comfort Inn and Suites 2003. Well, it’s been all down hill since then. A bunch of stuff in our room didn’t work and they took care of things, but we had to ask a lot. Latest not so good: dutifully got Vickie up at 05:00 so we could swim before breakfast at 06:00. Went to the Inn front desk for towels and the lady said, "oh the pool doesn’t open till 5:00." I said it’s 5:30, she said no it’s 4:30, I said but the clock in my room said 5:30, she said but it’s 4:30. Note to self—check the clock in the room against the cell phone. Oh well at least we went to bed an hour earlier. Someone had a good joke on us. Did our swimming, and sat in sauna and hot tub. Got to the breakfast that was supposed to start at 06:00, and the lady said she was running behind. We hung around and got some stuff to eat as she toted it out. She reported that for the second day in a row, the waffle makers were not working. All in all this very pricey Comfort Inn was not worth the money. I’ll have to write to Comfort Inn’s and post something on Trip Advisor.com. In any event, we will be on the road as the sun is coming up, hopefully to make it to the Maine coast tonight . More later.

Wes

New England #3

Hello, it’s Saturday morning, and we’re in Rutland VT. Had a good day yesterday, rode with the roof down most of the day. We stayed late at the Red River Inn utilizing the good Internet connection and cell service to secure reservations for Friday and Saturday night. We don’t normally worry about reservations, but we’ve found Friday and Saturday nights in popular areas can be difficult with out a reservation. We found this to be true as many of the few motels available in New England were down to their last rooms. Last night, Friday, we ended up in Rutland Vt., which worked out perfectly. We didn’t set too aggressive a distance target for yesterday cause we got a late start, and we were driving the Rt. 7 trip we came up here to see. The trip up Rt. 7 lived up to its expectations. The scenery was beautiful and the drive was entertaining. The further North we get, the more the leaves are beginning to show color. I can’t imagine what it must be like at the height of the season. Alm ost every road here is like driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Also, often you are driving through long valleys with mountains on both sides of you. Many of the small New England towns resembled tourist traps, but I guess that’s what they do here. Along the way, we stopped at Kent Falls, a couple of covered bridges, and various other points of interest. The navigator had an easy day, as the route followed 7 the whole way. Last night we easily found the Comfort Inn in Rutland, and landed with no problems. It was interesting though because the whole place was full of older folks on bus trips. They were all wearing tags around their neck, and loaded up on the busses about 6:00 PM headed for somewhere. (dinner probably) We hung around for a while, and I wrote a review of the Red River Inn from last night for Trip Advisor. If you’ve never used it, Trip Advisor.com is a very useful web site. My friend Jerry hooked me up with it, and I now use it a lot and am starting to contribute review s. It is a community of over 17 million travelers that write independent reviews of various places they visit. It can be very useful when considering a visit to a resort, hotel or other establishment. Reading reviews yesterday morning saved us from booking an over priced room at a 3^rd rate rundown motel. After hanging for a while, we went to dinner at the Sirloin Saloon just down the road. It was an interesting place with a creative menu. They had something called "Bison Bread" that if you could eat 2 slices of I’d buy you dinner. It was baked in huge loaves about 2 feet in diameter, and weighed about a pound per slice. It was very tasty, but way filling—texture like eating crushed grain. They had a nice salad bar with the dinners, and on it we found an interesting new treat. They are called Wasabi Peas. They look like little yogurt covered mints, but don’t taste that way. They are sort of like way hot little crunchy poppers you can sprinkle on top of salads. They really go good with salad or just by themselves. We looked them up on the Internet, and they are available for purchase from various on-line places. After the cool salad discovery, I had a nice piece of broiled Cod probably my first of many seafood dishes in the next week.

Today we are also going to stay in Vermont. We were headed into Maine, but in order to make it to anywhere we could find a place to stay, we would have had to drive way farther than was comfortable with the speed we can manage on these New England back roads. I commented to Vickie yesterday, the speed limits here are like musical chairs. 30-40-45-30-25-45-50-55-40-55-40-25-etc.etc. and that is all in about 5 miles. Then you never know when there is a local law waiting to get you for 35 in a 25. (have seen many speed traps in little towns) Needless to say our average speed is nothing to write home about. (pardon the pun). So tonight we’ll land in St. Johnsbury VT at another Comfort Inn. Oh and by the way one of the attractions at St. Johnsbury is a 1916 portrait of Abe Lincoln made out of 6,399 dried insects--we'll be looking for that one. Got to get going, we better get to the "Deluxe Continental Breakfast" ahead of the bus crowd or it will probably be like following a heard of locusts. Oops went to get Vickie some coffee and the breakfast room was overflowing with "bus people". The lady who took care of the breakfast was harried beyond belief. She was pouring OJ concentrate into the machine on a stool while the lady in front of me whined at her because there was no decaf coffee. She said, somewhat sharply, "I didn’t know 2 bus loads would all be coming at the same time". I grabbed Vickie a coffee, me a yogurt and we’ll hang in the room a while till the locusts are done. More Later

Wes

New England #2

Well it’s Friday morning, and I didn’t get to write last night. We ended up driving late again and by the time we got back from dinner it was time to watch a little tube and crash. First thing I wanted to relate was a great story Vickie told me yesterday. It was about when we were checking into the Country Inn and Suites day before. It took quite a while to check in, but I never asked cause I was sitting on the porch in a rocking chair, contented. Seems as though when Vickie went in to check in, there was an alarm going off, and the girl was on the phone trying to handle it. She told Vickie she was the only one there so she would have to wait. During the lengthy process, a woman happened to walk down the stairs from the second floor (of three). The girl turned to the lady and nonchalantly said, "There’s not a fire up there is there?" The woman replied she hadn’t seen one, and the girl turned to Vickie and said, "Good that saves me from having to check." Safety first of course but then what about the 3^rd floor? If I’m the one trapped in my room on the 3^rd floor while this girl asks any old passer buy the status of the fire, I hope the passer buy has at least been on the top floor. (Unlikely since the stairs came from the middle of the 2^nd floor and most folks from the 3^rd use the elevator or the stairs on the end of the building.) Oh well you get the picture, I was feeling very safe knowing this girl was on the job. Vickie said later when she went to get some change, she could hardly tear the slug away from the TV long enough to accommodate. Back to the trip.

Yesterday morning we utilized the great pool and hot tub at the Inn, and partook of their advertised "Hot Breakfast". Turned out to be quite a spread. We went from Best Western the day before with nothing, to $25 less with indoor pool and breakfast at the Inn. The breakfast was the standard "Continental" fare, but added the ubiquitous make it your self waffles plus some scrambled eggs and sausage patties in a steam pan. The eggs were a little rubbery and the sausage had a curious texture. However, both tasted pretty good, and if you are a big breakfast eater sort of rounded out the all carb fare that the normal "Continental" presents. We departed uneventfully, and traveled across Rt. 209 toward Stroudsburg PA and the Delaware Water Gap. Along the way we stopped in Jim Thorpe PA. This is an interesting little town that changed it’s name from Maul Chunk to Jim Thorpe after collecting nickels weekly from the residents to build a shrine to entomb the remains of the great athlete. Turns out Old Jim never even visited Maul Chunk alive. Very enterprising of the civic leaders to buy a dead athlete and rename the city after him. Leaving Jim Thorpe, we drove over the mountain (literally) and came down into Packerton PA. I saw a sign that said Flagstaff view which looked interesting, so I turned UP. We went straight up for about 3 miles and ended up back on top of the mountain overlooking Jim Thorpe we had just left. As we explored, a very nice lady said "Do you want to see the ballroom and deck?" She led us inside, and began explaining this mountain top, all wood ballroom was built in 1914 and that Jimmie Dorsey and His Orchestra were the house band for many years. She said Frank Sinatra and Teresa Brewer had performed there. The Flagstaff Ballroom was a beautiful old relic with an incredible view of the Lehigh Valley. What a find, glad I turned at the Flagstaff view sign. Later we stopped at a palatial PA visitor’s center near where I-80 and Rt. 209 cross in Strou dsburg. We got the lowdown on all that was to do in the area and headed out. We drove down to see the famous bridge that connects PA to NJ across the Deleware river. We then strolled across the pedestrian bridge to view the river. It was beautiful and the fish were frolicking everywhere. We rode a lot with the roof down, and headed up through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We stopped for a short hike to see Dunwoddie Falls which turned out to be worth the walk. After the park, we looked at our time and decided we could push on a little further, so we set our sights on New Paltz NY. The GPS listed several motels there and it seemed like a reasonable distance. Vickie said something about four colleges being there, but I didn’t think much about that. (1^st mistake) Turned out when we got to New Paltz, it was bumper to bumper traffic, and a lot of congestion. I decided the place was too congested for our liking so we pushed on to Poughkeepsie, which listed n umerous motels. Unbeknownst to us (but probably knownst to many), when coming into Poughkeepsie across the FDR Hudson Bridge, you have to take the first right as soon as you cross the bridge cause that’s where every motel in the city is. I’m sure you can see what’s coming---it was the middle of rush hour—a million cars---we didn’t turn---found ourselves on the far side of Poughkeepsie with no motel. Rather than go back through the city, we broke out the laptop, and searched for the next possibility. It looked pretty bleak, but New Milford CT. listed some motels and was on route 7 the route we came to drive. So even though it would put us late, we headed out to there. The drive was very interesting and as we came into town we passed a couple of old motels. We rode on looking for the motel district—well it never came. New Milford has all the normal stuff, Wally Mart, Home Depot, McDonalds, Auto Zone, etc. etc. but surprisingly no motels. I finally stopped and asked a nice Pakistani s hopkeeper if there were any motels anywhere. We sort of did charades and I ascertained there were some back 3 miles past the powerhouse and big flag. Turns out these were the old ones we passed coming into town. We stopped at the first one the Red River Inn and Vickie inquired for a room. She said they had 2 for 2 different prices and she was going to look at them. One was in the "old building" and one was in the "new building". She ended up taking the one in the new building and we proceeded to unload. We are not motel snobs, and have stayed in many a little old strip motels, especially out West. Turns out the reason she took the new building was cause it was the most amazing motel room you’ve ever seen. It made up for all the travails we had been through during the day. It was brand new, and a sort of mini suite with a huge bathroom, main room, and little office with desk for yours truly. It was decorated in sort of "Pakistani Modern" which has to bee seen to be believed. We took a lot of pictures. But what was amazing was the amenities. On the wall was a 45" plasma TV, and there was a stainless ice bucket and a stainless tray with real glass glasses and coasters. We had a refrigerator, microwave, and huge closet. In the bathroom were a selection of herbal soaps and ointments and the bed king size and comfortable beyond belief. We relaxed a while in our suite at the Pakistani Ritz, then headed out for dinner. We ended up at The Cook House that was recommended to me by the owners son. The menu offered up all manner of stuff, but the specialty appeared to be barbecue. In fact according to them it was voted the best barbecue in Connecticut by the NY Times. Somehow when I think barbecue, Connecticut and the NY Times don’t jump readily to mind. Vickie decided to try though, and ordered up ½ a rack of baby backs. I went for the meatloaf which looked interesting. While we were waiting on dinner I had a PERFECT Bloody Mary. I say this because I have sampled house Bloody Marys all over the US and many other places, often to be very disappointed. (especially Applebee’s which I consider to be the all time worst) Also while waiting on dinner we sampled their "Sauces" They had Mild, Hot, Scary, and North Carolina Style. They all tasted pretty good, but I’ve had hotter than their "Scary", labeled Mild in our part of the country. Dinner came, and the food was good—not great, but good. The ribs were nothing to write home about---Pigs Are Us in Martinsville could run them out of business in a month. The meatloaf was interesting---they brought me a piece about the size of a Volkswagen topped with a large wad of horseradish mashed potatoes, with some brown gravy drooled around. The vegetable of the day was a corn-red pepper-onion sauté that was excellent. The service was poor and I left the dolt a $2 tip. (big enough so he would know I didn’t forget, but also small enough to let him know I wasn’t impressed) We went back to the room and plasma screened ourselves to sleep. More Later.

Wes

New England #1

Well here we are on the road again. How this happened is sort of crazy. Monday morning I was reading my new Auto Week and read an article about an interesting "drive" that followed Route 7 up through Connecticut and Vermont. I walked in the dining room and asked Vickie if she wanted to go to Connecticut. She said, when, and I said tomorrow. Well, we were scheduled to go to my doctor that afternoon, (in Winston-Salem an hour away) to get the stitches out of my knee after my surgery last week. (Arthroscopic, to fix problems that developed after my last hip replacement) I said my knee felt good and if the doctor agreed, I was ready for a road trip cause I was tired of sitting on the couch reading Clive Cussler under the influence of strong drugs. She said ok with trepidation, and we set off for the doctor’s office. Got to the doctor (oh and by the way he’s a car guy) and he agreed that a road trip would be just the medicine I needed. So on the way home we started planning. It seeme d like a million things to do, but we took them one at a time and to make a long story short—ended up on the road late Tuesday afternoon. We drove to South Boston and took Rt. 360 North to Rt. 15 to Farmville, VA. Our GPS told us there was a Comfort Inn on the other side of Farmville exactly the way we were going. We rode past several motels when passing through Farmville and on to the other side where the GPS said we should stop but there was no sign of a motel. I’m not one to back track unless it’s necessary---so we pressed forward. I said "I’m sure there will be something down the road", but there was nothing. Looking at the map Rt. 522 (which we were on at this point) crossed I-64 down the road and I was sure there would be some motels there. Wrong again! Bottom line we ended up driving late (after dark, which is way unusual for us). Finally found probably the last room in Culpepper, VA at a Best Western for way too much money and no continental breakfast. (Us being the experts of the "Continental Breakfast") But I was tired, and several motels in the same area were already full. (What gives with this on a Tuesday in September in Culpepper, VA?) We landed, did our usual unloading routine, and checked out the bar, which also served food. Turned out the bar had really great food. We ordered "She Crab Soup" and 2 spoons along with a steak salad for me and a Caesar salad for Vickie. We also partook of some fine Yungling beverages and some great cheese spread with assorted breadsticks and crackers. The "She Crab Soup" arrived, and it was to die for. Creamy with tender crabmeat, a tomatoey cream sauce, with a hint of sherry. We shared that and soon the salads arrived. Mine was huge with beautiful strip steak slices medium rare, tomatoes, onions, hardboiled eggs, and great dressing. Vickie’s Caesar was exactly to her liking as well. Turned out to be a wonderful surprise at the end of a pretty hectic day. We went back to the room and crashed. In the morning we d id our normal up-coffee-shower-pack-load and vamoose routine. (Oh and by the way for those of you keeping track, this Best Western got the curved shower rod right) We were wondering tonight if the guy who invented the curved shower rod patented it. I hope he did cause every motel chain is copying the idea that started at Holiday Inn Express. We elected to pass up the over priced breakfast at the Best Western and headed down the road a little and found the Culpepper Diner. Had a great breakfast with all the attending local color, gassed up the Vette, and were on our way. We followed Rt. 522 up through the dairy country across West VA, MD, and into PA. At the PA Welcome Center we stopped and picked up an assortment of the ubiquitous motel coupon books and a detailed PA map. Along the way we decided to go topless. Temp was 76° and the day was beautiful. Since we were on the back roads rolling along about 55 ish it was like convertible heaven. Turned out to be a beautiful trip with many picturesque small towns and about a million miles of cows and corn. We ended up landing in Frackville, PA (or so we thought). We did our usual cruise around to find a motel with WiFi so we could get on the Internet in their parking lot and check out places to stay. Couldn’t find an accessible network, so we ended up in the McDonalds parking lot and paid a couple of bucks to get on their network for a 2-hr. hunk. (We decided we needed to join the McDonalds network later, cause they are everywhere, and we can get on from their parking lot). We did some research and finally headed to the Country Inn and Suites one exit down I-81 toward Harrisburg. We had a coupon from "the books" that gave us a good rate and they advertised a heated indoor pool, hot tub, and hot breakfast. We got off on exit 119 from I-81 and could see the inn up on the hill. Turned out to be quite a circuitous route to get to the place, but we are quite happy with the accommodations. While waiting in the parking lot for Vickie to register us I noted a great front plate on a Mercedes in the lot. It said "Latitude and Longitude-----To Boldly Relax Where No Man Has Relaxed Before" (a cross between Jimmy Buffet and Star Trek) We moved in, mixed one up, changed into swimsuits, and headed for the pool. We had a nice session soaking my knee in the hot tub and then doing some water aerobics in the pool that we had all to ourselves. After swimming, we found that there was an Italian restaurant (Di Maggio’s) that delivered to this motel, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. We ordered up some Tortellini Alfredo, Veal Parmigiana with angel hair pasta, bread, 2 salads, and 2 stuffed Cannoli for dessert (a first for Vickie). I waded into my writing, and the food arrived fairly soon—piping hot and delicious. We enjoyed our "room service" and now are planning our route for tomorrow. We plan to head from here through the Delaware Water Gap to Port Jervis, NY and on to somewh ere in Connecticut where we will land for the evening. Now full of great Italian food, and a couple of adult beverages, it’s looking like time to read a little and drift off to road trip dreamland. More later.

Wes

Kitty Hawk #3

Wednesday we got up, and hung around a while. I took advantage of the time to put a good hurting on a Tom Clancy novel I was reading. After everyone had breakfast, we paid a visit to the Wright Bros. Memorial. We had a nice visit there, and then decided to take a ride south to see the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Turned out to be a little farther than we had planned (about 120 miles round trip), but it was a beautiful day, and the scenery was great. We were amazed at how everything here had developed. There were huge cottages everywhere you looked. What used to be barren sand dunes is now cottage development. We visited the lighthouse but decided to forego the climb to the top, which costs $7.00 and involves stairs numbering in the hundreds. After returning to the condo, we spent a little time at the pool, and grilled some hot dogs. My dad and I had already decided we would go fishing again on Thursday.

Thursday morning, we got up early and hit the pier again. The "blues" were running, and the pier looked like a fish factory. However, we sort of brought a knife to a gunfight. Everyone was fishing on the windward side of the pier, and they were pulling in "blues" as fast as they could throw the lines. We were excited, and baited our hooks for the blues catching. Well we couldn’t buy a bite. Turned out everyone else was using something called a "Gotch Ya" lure. This particular lure must have been like cocaine to fish, cause they were pulling them in like there would never be fish again. We spent several hours trying to catch a fish. Oh and during this time the game warden came by looking in coolers making sure no one exceeded the 10 bluefish per person rule. He looked in our cooler and all we had was some very smelly squid. (I think he laughed, but he disguised it as a cough.) I finally caught one fish, but it was a retarded fish and looked like it had been caught several times b efore. I caught it on a Bass rig that looked like a minnow. I figured he didn’t know his minnows from his "Got Ya(s)". As lunchtime approached, I made the decision that we had to find some "Gotch Ya(s)". We loaded everything in the Tahoe and headed down the road for the bait store. We found the very same "Gotch Yas" at the bait store for $1.99. Two of them joined our fishing armada. After lunch we returned to the fishing pier to try our luck with the newly purchased "Gotch Ya(s)". As it turned out the blue fish had decided to vacate the premises while we were gone. I did manage to catch three using my new found lure technology but Dad caught none. While trying to catch the blue fish, Dad managed to throw half his pole overboard due to the pole joint not being fastened tight enough. However, we were able to retrieve the errant hunk of fiberglass and get him back to full fishing strength. We spent the remainder of the afternoon till about 3pm casting our "Gotch Ya(s)" into a 35-mph w ind. (the fish of course were never on the leeward side—how they know that under water I’ll never know) Finally the wind got too annoying to bear. Having nailed our limit of three fish (which we gave away) I decided that we would call it a day. We returned home, packed everything away, and headed out for a seafood dinner because of our inability to catch anything edible. Once again it was the old Master Card commercial. Who could have known the impact on Americana some advertising weenie could have. Fishing lures $1.99 each etc. etc. etc., fishing with your 86 year old father (and 50 year old tackle box) priceless.

Happy day,

Wes

Kitty Hawk #2

Today is Thursday, and it has been and interesting couple days. Tuesday morning, I picked up my dad to go fishing on the Avalon Pier. We loaded the stuff in the Tahoe, and off we went. We checked in at the pier, and paid our fee ($10.00 for 24 hrs) to an old Jewish guy that looked like he came with the pier. The pier itself was a trip back in time. The entrance building was crammed with a mixture of old fortune telling and strength testing machines, right beside the latest video console stuff. On the entrance was a sign "If you didn’t buy it here you can’t drink it here" but to my observation, it wasn’t exactly enforced. Murray (that’s what I decided to call him) stamped our hands with a red Tuesday, we bought a nice box of frozen calamari (or squid as fishermen call it), and headed out onto the pier. We decided to "rig up" our poles at the table shortly down the pier, to stay out of everyone else’s way. My dad opened a tackle box, that probably rode in our 56 Chevy, and we put on the customary pier bottom fishing rigs. It was at this time the fun started. Somewhere between his car and the pier, the tip grommet had fallen off dad’s pole. Well this wasn’t a tragedy, it still seemed like it would work. So we found a spot, baited up our hooks and "started fishing". It was at this point, I discovered the brand new pole and reel I had brought were totally unsuited to the task at hand. I couldn’t cast it six inches without the line turning into this horrible bird’s nest on the reel. Meanwhile, folks all around us are pulling in little Croakers two at a time. Oh yea, and dad’s pole with the missing grommet, wouldn’t reel up correctly. This is when the old Master Card commercial came into my head. "Pier fishing $10.00, squid $4.50, fishing with dad on the pier, priceless. For everything else there’s MasterCard". (or in my case American Express) I said the heck with this, and we made a 30-minute round trip to Kitty Hawk’s finest Wally Mart for some new poles. Trus t old Sam to think of the fishermen at the Beach. There was a fine assortment of complete fishing outfits for under $20.00. We picked out matching Shakespeare Tiger poles (one red and one black), and headed back to the pier. Things went smoothly from there, with the exception of the fish quit biting and now all we could catch were Skates (small stingrays). I caught eight and dad caught two. They are very heavy and difficult to get off the hook. Interspersed with those, we caught a couple little Croakers. However, something about sitting on the pier and watching the beach world go by grabbed me and didn’t let go. We had fun, and then left to come back later. In the evening, we came back and tried our luck. Again it was wonderful sitting on the pier fishing and watching the sun go down. We caught numerous little croakers, and finally called it a night about 11:30. Turns out, you can show up any time after 11:00 and get on the pier for free till 05:00 when Murray shows up and starts c ollecting the money again. More later.

Wes