Hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve. I thought I would share with you what we have been up to over the past month. It’s funny; it has been so cold here and with all the humidity in the air we had to purchase a few dehumidifiers for the boat. I can’t believe how well they work.

Bryce took the bus home to Michigan to see his mom just before Christmas and brought back the Trail Blazer.  It has helped us out a lot having our own vehicle.   He said the bus trip was nothing like the old Greyhounds.  The 1000 mile Express trip took 24 hours and had only 8 stops every 150 miles or so.  Many stops had 24 restaurants right inside the terminal.  The bus had WIFI, electricity to charge devices, bathroom and comfortable reclining seats that were much better than planes.

With so much spare time on our hands waiting for the engine, we have been doing some maintenance. I have to laugh.. before we left home back in August, we wanted to paint our top deck. But we ran out of time. We forgot to bring the paint with us. Now to make this a short story; Bryce brought the paint back with him and it has done nothing but rain and the temps are 30’s to 40 and in the teens at night. We were able to replace the front hatch and the aft water tank.  They say its been the coldest here since 20 years.

Here, Bryce is putting on the new hose attachments on the new aft water tank. On the old tank, you can see the dark spot where we tried to seal it.  It did not work well.  We have since found that 3M makes 8005 specifically for polyethylene.  Virtually nothing sticks to this plastic.  No sure it would fix this huge crack in the old tank though.

You might be asking yourself why did we replace our hatch.  Not that I like to spend money…LOL The answer to that question is. We had already reseated it once and the darn thing just kept leaking.  Heavy waves and rain washing across the bow would make its way through.  So we replaced it with the much more rigid Ocean series hatch.  The Ocean Series is used on the newer boats. It is so pretty. The funny thing is now I want to replace all my glazed hatches.  But this is the only one that has issues. The top photo is our old hatch and the bottom port (left) is our new hatch, The other two show Bryce working hard cleaning off the old sealant and getting ready to seal in the new.     

One of the advantage of having our Trail Blazer here is the freedom it offers to explore the area.   We took a drive on New Years Day and had lunch at Tacky Jacks in Orange Beach AL. As you walk in to the restaurant can take a piece of duck tape and write your name or a message then stick it anywhere you want to inside outside. On the floor, wall, celling, anywhere you want. It was a fun place with good food.

I received a few Christmas gifts that I would like to share with you. Cynthia & Bryon I can not thank you enough for the Christmas gifts.  Cynthia made me a beautiful Christmas Tree that I hang from my wine rack.  Bryon made me a beautiful bracelet. I will treasure them. Thanks so much for the perfect gift.

Roger and Chris what a great night we shared with you on Christmas and New years Eve. Thanks so much for the shrimp and fantastic margaritas.  Roger; so far I keep flipping the pages. Roger is the Author of Fayal Roads. I just started reading it; but so far I can’t put it down. I love the Julia’s spunkiness.  She was born in London. The oldest daughter of Admiral Jonathan Langston. I remember my grandmother telling me if a women wasn’t married by a certain age she was known as an old maid. But Julia finally decided to marry Mr. Reston Howe and move to Washington State of New York. Not a marriage made in heaven. This is a tale of History in the war of 1812. Roger said the sequel is in the making.  I find it so far a good read.

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