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| Looking out our window at the soft white sand?? |
It snowed. And it got cold. Thankfully it was happening a few days before we had to return to Green Bay for one final round of dentist visits and X-rays etc. I must becoming jaded but it sure looks bleak up there in winter.
We all made a stop to visit my mother on the 31st. Kathy was ill but Dave joined all our kids and grand kids for a nice visit. Dave graciously bestowed upon me his old golf clubs which are miles of quality beyond my set from 20 years ago. Just wish such fine clubs would guarantee a spike in my mediocre golf skills.
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| Visiting my mother. David can juggle? |
Dave and Dana's son Mat had left their kids with them for a few days. Two girls. Sweeties!
We all stayed in on New Years Day.
The next night we met Greg and Laura with their kids, Seany and Sammy at Rosaties. Pizza! Laura and I like veggie pizzas with some heat (jalapenos) so we shared on while the meat eaters had some meat concoction,
We had rescheduled the get together with Dan and Judy, the Downey's and Gene for this Monday and we all finally met at Brisco County in Menominee Falls . Even my old nephew Don showed up! And thanks Gene for picking up the check!
Somewhere along the way I lost my reading glasses leaving me at the mercy of Mary who could read the restaurant menu. Later that afternoon Jack found them in the street in front of the house. These weren't my normal $1 variety either, but exorbitant CVS readers. $28! Evidently they sat on the street all the time we were visiting at Brisco County.
The following day we drove up to Green Bay for my last knee shot. The stuff is wonderful. Just wonder how long it will last.
We once again couldn't stop to see Tim and Jill. Our original plan had rapidly spiraled down the toilet (no pun intended) when the stomach flu hit most everyone including Mary. And we simply had no time to linger in Green Bay this time.
After the doctor we stopped in at Northern Battery to get our batteries. I picked them up and was about to leave when one of the store guys ran out saying they hadn't charged our credit card. Ok, so that took a few more minutes but we were back on the rode quickly and made our assigned time to be home with an hour to spare.
On Sunday we took Jonah on errands to 7 stores! He did better than Mary whose shopping tolerance is 4 stores or less. Jonah, who developed a sudden burning desire to have tacos at Taco Bell ate 6 of the darn things. I sat in amazement as he calmly devoured one taco, then asked for another, and another and another. It took 30 minutes but it was a culinary feat for a 5 year old.
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| Taco Boy wolfing down taco number 6 |
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| What could be finer than doing errands with free popcorn. |
Instead we might spring for a new mattress. The one we have now some mildew now and its pretty old. I had sprayed it with bleach in hopes it may revive itself but we're having doubts. Luckily there is a mattress store close by Huckins so we'll probably end up going in there and test out beds. We have a king in the stateroom now so my first question will be directed at their ability to squeeze mattresses into small spaces.
We took Seany, Jonah and Jack to Chocolate Factory. Alas, no pictures but we do take the kids there quite often. It was the same scene, kids picking at the real food and inhaling ice cream. So we have fulfilled our grandparental duty, sugaring up grandchildren. But we paid the price trying to corral them all before they started chasing around in the dark parking lot.
It hit 20 degrees this evening. Not good for us shivering old folks. And seemingly not good for glasses either. I lost my exquisite $28 readers. Back to my dollar store stash.
We packed the car during a running discussion regarding the idea of leaving more cold weather clothes up here since we will be where it wont be cold. My argument was predicated on climate variability reminding Mary how cold it was in Destin a few years ago. So the end result was she left a bunch of stuff anyway and I'm certain I wont be able to locate any of my comfy and warm old shirts when we unpack aboard the boat.
We were up pretty early with the rest of the gang who all had to head off for school and work. We left shortly after stopping of course for breakfast at the convenient Kwik Trip in Johnson Creek on Hwy 26 across from I-94. I filled up the car, loaded up on cash from the Fee-Free ATM, and then we got some breakfast sandwiches and coffee and hit the road.
Dave Boyd left Wisconsin had an hour and half before we did. He went the Chicago route and then took I-57. We took our usual I-39 to I-57 route and found ourselves about 30 minutes ahead of him. But we have to stop in Murfreesboro to check in with the Enterprise office to renew our rental agreement because they don't do agreements for more than thirty days. He was heading straight down to I-65 into Alabama so we weren't able to connect up.
We did stop for the night in Murfreesboro,Tennessee at a new Holiday Inn. I love Hampton Inns and there was one there but lost out due to a hard-to-refute frugality argument presented by someone else in the car.
The Holiday Inn was a nice place. The exercise machines though. Sheeez. The machines have these pretty little graphic displays showing various fitness zones based on heart rate. It was alarming to note that the age 65 category was the last age listed. I had made it to the bottom of the list.
Another revised estimate arrived tonight. The dinghy tilt bracket and strut holders all have to be replaced. Another large chunk of change. On the bright side I filled up the car at a station in Kentucky for $1.67/gal. Guess we chose a good time to drive. In past years gas was sometimes $2 per gallon more expensive. Its not quite like the old days filling a tank on $4. But close.
So in theory we should be able to leave Jacksonville by next Wednesday. We all know by now that "in theory" rarely ever reflects actual outcome. But one can cling to hope.
We abandon our usual breakneck chase to arrive in two days and instead I got to stay at the Hampton Inn in Valdosta, GA
I'm not sure, but did we, somehow pack up the cold air and drive down here with it? It's been pretty cold as we get further south.
We pulled into Huckins the next day and the boat was in the water, and everything looked really good and working. But its cold! So cold that the dinghy looked like a deflated balloon, all its air compressed in the cold.
Poor Trish, one of the office Managers had agreed to take care of our (well, really Mary's) herb plants. She killed all but two. Of course we, and most of the boat yard guys gave her a hard time. But it was all in fun. She's a great person. And Mary resurrected what was left so we still have growing things even in this frigid air.
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| Plant Rescue! |
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| Sparkling under a new wax job |
Defying common sense I kept my shorts on and we walked to Publix to fetch some staples so we could avoid eating out yet again.
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| Felt like one of those old people I remember pulling their grocery carts through Nubars grocery store when I was a kid. |
We bought a mattress. The next day we did go over the mattress store and yes, they can squeeze a king size mattress into out stateroom. The only caveat was the mattress material. We had to go with a thick, multi-layered foam, not innerspring. We went with the higher end model and they agreed to deliver it and take the old mattress. Done!
Success on a mattress only to be met by a failed refrigerator. Well. it really only failed in a sense. It wont run under AC power but does just fine on DC power. What failed was the rectifier on the fridges circuit board. I'm not about to spend several hundreds of dollars to replace it since its running fine on DC power do at least this isn't a catastrophic equipment failure.
Jonathan, the electrician wandered over and tested the fridge to confirm my diagnosis and then and hefted the 2 nearly dead, old batteries out and wrestled the new ones in after we cleaned up the terminals. Batteries weight 90# apiece. I can no longer lift 90 lbs. straight up. Jonathan can. He's 27. I'm not. Ugh ...
But wait! These new batteries didn't feel like 90 pounds. I could lift them pretty easily. Something wasn't right.
And sure enough the damn battery place shipped the wrong model and I didn't check the actual battery label when we picked them up in Fond du Lac. Instead of GPL 6-CT we had GPL 4-CT. "So what", you may be saying. Well, the 4-CT are only 220 amp hours. The 6-CT batteries are 300 amp hours. That can be significant.
When we picked them up I confirmed the order and the model, checks the tagged invoice but didn't look at the actual label on the battery. Yes, Mary was right (she said check the label. I said no need, I checked the order and the invoice). In case no one heard that, MARY WAS RIGHT. sheez ...
Using these less capable batteries wont be a system problem, just an issue of available power. After spending the weekend talking with the Russ the salesman, he confirmed their purchasing department delivered the wrong batteries to their warehouse where I picked them up. My only recourse was to be refunded the price difference plus a little extra for the mixup. So that's what we did.
Our wif booster had died the day we left Huckins back in December but I have a replacement for it and got it configured and working. So we now have a passable internet connection.
Our media server's wifi adaptor died a well and the replacement I had ordered hadn't arrived so Mary will have to make do with only over the air TV and satellite.
The guys from Huckins got the dingy back in the water and drove it over. We had to wait a few more days for Matt to finish up the fly bridge windows so when it started to warm up to the low 60's I was going to take the dinghy out for a spin fill it with gas.
Alas, the tilt motor wouldn't disengage when I lowered the engine so I could start it. Turns out the shifter tilt switch was shorting out. So we had to order that part and as per our usual situation, it was a Friday which meant we would be spending another weekend in the boat yard. The cats were over joyed since I bring them treats every day.
Matt had most everything competed with the windows and rear screen door by Wednesday so were were all set with that. He made some final adjustment Thursday right before the mattress delivery guys arrived.
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| New screen door thing we had made |
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| All new windows in the front. We can now see! |
The mattress delivery guys drove in around 5pm and came aboard and to discuss the best way to get the old one out, and the new one in. Ultimately it turned out to simply be drag the old one out first. Then, they brought the new one on board and were able to squeeze it in the salon door and line it up with the stateroom door. But it resisted all manner of gentle pulling and pushing.
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| Skeptical supervisor |
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| One more flying body slam and it'll pop through the door. |
We now have a comfy new mattress! Our last remaining delay is the dinghy part which should arrive Monday morning.
It was quiet and cold weekend. We were the only people on a boat. I think all the others had fled to warm cozy hotels (Hampton Inn's I'm betting).
Late Monday afternoon David from Huckins had the dinghy all wired up. The part had arrived late that morning but it took him some additional time. The crud in the shifter was so built up he had sandblast out the housing and then grease it all up so now it moves like butter!
After a last trip to the store, we retired early in preparation for our morning departure. We actually really do like staying at Huckins, but we were getting wanderlust and just wanted to get moving.
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| Ready to leave |
We made a 180 turn and headed back through the Ortega River bridge through the railroad bridge and into Huckins boat yard. We tied up and I talked briefly with Richard the mechanic and we both thought it was the impeller on the sea water pump. PJ, the yard manager said we could stay while I fixed it.
So after letting the engines cool down for an hour, I took the pump off and sure enough the impeller was missing most of its fins. I found a few pieces in the transmission cooler but the rest must have been chewed up and spit out the exhaust. So I pulled the old impeller, put in the new one and reinstalled the pump.
By then it was around 2pm and our only option was to anchor near Blount Island or stay at Huckins again. Remaining at Huckins was the least palatable alternative so we left and ran up the St. Johns River to Blount Island.
It was pretty calm and I could watch all the shipping traffic moving up and down the river. The only burr in our little sock of paradise was the temperatures. 30's.
We slept with 4 big blankets. The stateroom hit a cozy 43 degrees which makes for great sleeping, But not so wonderful waking up. But at least we are on the move!
