Putting the Boat to Bed

June 15, 2008

Saturday, June 15, 2008 - Vero Beach Municipal Marina, Vero Beach, FL
By Tom

Ok, so where have we been?

When we last left you dear reader, I was about to embark on the 1000 mile flight home to see my family and collect one of my motorcycles to return on so that Team Dream Catcher would have wheels of their own and thus be able to fore go any more public transportation experiences.

The flight home was uneventful and my brother Travis and his boys Sean and Jake were waiting for me in the departure lounge. It was great to see my brother again after a full year since my last visit. I was surprised to see his two boys remembered me as they are only four and two years old. He and his wife Jen just brought their third boy home from the hospital last week, so they are now a family of 5. Way to go team.

The next several days passed in a whirl wind as I tried to catch up with all of my immediate family. It sounds like everyone is doing pretty well and surprisingly little has changed in my old home town. It seems they did finally get their second stop light in town and the Napa store I used to work at during high school moved three blocks into the old hardware store. I know, but hey thats life in a small town.

I spent some time getting my big Honda 1800 ready for the trip back to Florida. This included changing the oil, checking the vital fluids and generally just cleaning everything up. I had to dig out my old leather riding jacket and then borrow a pair of closed toe shoes from my Dad as my only footwear consists of a pair of open toed flip flops. By the way, don't you think the world would be a better place if we didn't have to wear shoes?

Anyhow, after four short days, it was time to say my good-byes and head home. Rain extended my stay one more day, but on Tuesday (May 13) I took of at 10 am. I managed to time my passage through Baltimore, Maryland, Washington DC and then Richmond, Virginia so as to avoid rush hour and by 5 pm I was sitting on the North and South Carolina border.

I pulled in to a Super 8 motel right off interstate 95 and called it a day after 477 miles. After checking in, I hit Outback Steakhouse for dinner before returning to my room.

The next morning I was underway by 6 am and slowly progressed through South Carolina, Georgia and finally Florida as the day wore on. By 6 pm I was back at the Vero Beach Marina and Amy came in to the dock and collected me.

It was good to be home.

While I was away, Amy went and secured herself a job for at least the summer if not a little longer. She is going to be writing professionally again for a company in Orlando. I'm not sure exactly what she will be writing, but then I never was before either, so at least I'm used to it.

Anyhow, since Amy's job is almost 90 miles away, we have decided to haul the boat out and procure temporary lodging as close to her office as possible. With the amount of work we have to do, I think it will be much easier to accomplish if we aren't living full time on the boat while it's completely torn apart.

While Amy worked on setting us up in Orlando, I spent several days getting the old engines out and the new engines in. This was a lot harder than expected as the old engines hadn't been out in some time and the screw on mechanisms had rusted completely shut. In the end I had to use a variety of power tools and brute force to evict the old engines.

Once they were out, the new ones went in in a matter of minutes. Unforetunately, the new design of the engines didn't mate up with the old harness and shifter cables. After three days of trying to get the wiring correct, I finally got them both up and running. Wew who!

So that pretty much brings you up to date. Tomorrow I'm taking the boat 40 miles down the river to be hauled out and stored for hurricane season. Stay tuned.....