As you have probably figured out by now, we head north a couple of times a year.  Summertime being one of them.  We know we better show up for the youngest grandson’s birthday or our heads will be on the end of a stake.  But, before we leave, we have to put the Touch of Class to bed.  If you remember, we had a lift installed early this year so we could save the $70 per month bottom cleaning.  Gary assured me we would see the savings in no time once the lift was installed…….hmmmmmm, I think he just wanted the boat to look manlier

Oooooh, Manly!

And you have to admit, it does looks pretty manly .  Anyway, before we leave, we have a rather long list of things we have to do to the boat to get it ready in case there is a hurricane.  Because it is so HOT here during the summer, we don’t take it out too much during the summer months because it IS so hot.

So the first thing we do, as I am I sure you all do with a boat or car that you are planning on storing for a while, is change the oil.  Then we also pump the head, put in more chemical, fill the boat with fuel and fuel additives.  We clean and roll up the bimini cover and put on the cockpit cover, vacuum out the bilge, plug-in a humidifier, bring in all cushions and electronics and we spray the cockpit cover with a solution of 50/50 water and vinegar (this keeps the canvas from molding).  Once this is all done we lower the antenna and outriggers (keeps the boat from being a lightning rod  ).

Less lightening attraction

We attach straps from the lift to the dock (this keeps the boat from swaying in a strong wind) and then, last but not least, we attach some lines from the boat to the dock (this is just in case the tide gets super high during a hurricane and the boat floats off the lift, it won’t go far).  So here it is all done

All ready for bad weather

And of course by “We”, I mean Gary, LOL.

You can also see that we found a cover for our radar.  What kind of cover is that because I want one too you say?  It is a spare wheel cover.  $16.93 at Wal-Mart.  One must be more frugal now that one is retired .

After we got the boat all ready and the condo all ready, we were off.  We had good roads and good weather for our trip.  That always makes it a plus.  When we arrived, first thing on the list was changing the sheets

Smokey, such a helper

Always good to have a little help with that job.  Then of course we had to check out Sunnyside.  We saw this interesting boat at the gas dock

What kind of boat is this? Looks old.

I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it, kinda cool though.  And the water was pretty high

High water

I heard some dike or damn broke.  That will keep the No Wake around for a while 

Then we had the 2^nd Grandson’s birthday to attend

Presents…..for me?

Not quite as outrageous as previous years but still a good haul .

Gary manned the grill

I like mine medium

Then the gifts were open.  Yikes!  This kid has either been drinking too much Gatorade or he is into lipstick

Cute kid????

By the looks of this kid, the cake must be ready

Cake! Cake

And it sure was!

Happy Birthday to You!

And delicious too.  Plus they had a campfire

Watch the flames there guy.

Only one child got burned making s’mores, just glad it wasn’t one of ours .  Then for the adult males that wanted to blow off a little testosterone, there was the game of who could chop the most wood

Swing that ax!

or should I say who could just hit the log with the ax and not cut off their leg?  Kind of like Pin the Tail on the Donkey.  The party lasted well into the night and we even had a few drinks by the campfire after the kids crashed in bed.

Over the 4^th we went up to BearTrax

BearTrax Store

to help them out for the week.  They won’t let me work the till cause I am too slow but when the grocery order comes in I get to help stock the shelves!  I know, stocking shelves?  I’m retired remember?  It doesn’t take much to keep me amused  .

Before we left, Gary decided to ride our son’s Harley Davidson FatBoy up to BearTrax.  He’d get a little ride in and as payment for borrowing the bike, he said he would detail out the Harley.  Well the bike didn’t have a windshield on it and then it started to rain when we were almost there.  If you’ve ever ridden a bike without a windshield in the rain, I can tell you it is not much fun.

Chaps?

You can see Gary put on some chaps for the ride…..no wait…..that’s a wet crotch from riding in the rain.  Poor Gary.  The front of him was entirely wet.  What a Dad!

Gary got right to work on the bike, and I must say, it needed some TLC 

Luckily, my brother, owning a few motorcycles of his own, had a bike lift.  It lifted the bike off the ground and just at the right level so you could sit on a rolling chair and do the cleaning and waxing.  That helped save an old back.  Gary put quite a few hours into cleaning and polishing but once he was finished 

Wowzer!  The bike looked like brand new.  Huh, maybe after all that work he might just KEEP the bike.

While we were up there, someone placed what looked like a brand new tent by the county trash containers.  We called our daughter to see if she’d be interested in it and she was.  We decided to put it up to make sure there was not damage or had any missing parts.

So how many people does it take to put up a tent?  Apparently 4 and we could have used an extra set of hands.  Tents used to be so easy to put up, this one….man!  It literally takes 4 people to put this thing up.  Ok, maybe it’s 4 OLD people and it would probably only take 2 young people but it was pretty complicated with no directions.  But it was a nice big tent and there was only one part that was broken that my brother fixed lickity split.  He just walked into his hardware store and got the parts.  It’s good to have a brother who owns a hardware/tackle/bait/grocery/gas station ;).

After the week of the 4^th was over, we headed back down to the cities and got ready for our Anniversary Alaskan Cruise!