Over the hump, Stuck in the Mud, Runing from the Man

Turns out our hotel did not have the hot tub or office facilities as advertised and was located in an area where there were no restaurants or stores within walking distance. Although having a hot tub was the primary reason I had booked a room there in the first place and we would have to lug the huge truck and trailer around with us every time we needed something from the store, our options were limited since I had prepaid for the room, so we grudgingly acquiesced and checked in.

I did manage to get a fair amount of work done over the next two days as we holed up at the Quality Suites (Read my review) and we made do or ordered take-out as needed.

When we left Tuesday morning, there was a bit of a hassle as we did not realize that were already in the Mountain Time Zone and thought we had another hour left before checkout when the maid came to the door. I was on the phone with my office as Julie packed us up, but over the course of the next hour no less than six people came to the door asking if/when we were to check out and the phone in the room rang two or three times. When we realized were off by an hour, I had called down to the front desk to let them knwo, but the phone rang on for over 15 minutees and I finally gave up and I had explained the situation to the first person who came to the door, but apparently she did not understand ("no speaky"). By the time the sixth person (the Manager) came to the door I had had enough. I hung up the phone and basically lost it and used words I must have learned from a sailor.

Afterwards, we made a hasty getaway (and as the manager wrote our license plate while speaking on the phone). I can bend only so far -- then I break.

Again driving all day and all night, we managed to make it to TenKiller, Oklahoma by about 7:PM the following day.

We did manage to get stuck in the mud on the side of the road after we crossed over into Oklahoma (I had to go, man!). Anyway, I was able to unhitch the truck and pull around to get a better footing and pulled the trailer up and out of the 2' deep hole in the mud. All of this fun occured around 3am.

Total for this segment: 702 miles.

Making some miles now - we make it to Albuquerque, NM

After a liesurely morning, we finally got around to pulling awas from the curb Saturday around noon. As I pulled away, the trailer rolled very irregularly and we both heard the loud thump-thump of a very flat tire (more like a shredded tire that was rolling off of the rim).

As it happens, the motel was directly across the street from a BigO tire store, so I rolled directly into a repair bay, called AAA to verify that they would reimburse me, and had a brand new tire put on the trailer. Although the circumstances seem a bit suspicious (the tire was fine when we went to bed. How did it get shredded while we slept?), the repair was painless and took up little extra time.

Once we hit the road, we wanted to get as many miles under the wheels as possible, so I basically drove all day and most of the night; finally making Albuquerque, New Mexico around 10AM the following day (Sunday, April 15th).

We will be staying here for the next few days so I can get some coding done for work so we located a suite-style hotel with a hot tub, high-speed Internet access and office facilities for my use.

We made about 473 miles in this run. Starting to get warmed up!

A bitter pill - the kids go to Nana and Grandpas

After much soulsearchng, Julie and I decided that it would be in the best interests of the children if they were to stgay with my parents down in Mission Viejo (southern) California and finish out the school year there. If we were to encounter any more difficulties that further delayed our arrival in Florida - and their re-entrance into school, then there was the distinct possiblity that they would both be held back a year in school.

Therefore, Grandpa drove up early Thursday morning to pick up the kids; meeting us at our hotel in Bakersfield where we were waiting out the high winds.

When he arrived, we all made a beeline for the passport office to renew both kids' passport. To do this, you need both parents plus each kid present - and we realized that this would be the last opportunity for this to happen for us for the next several months.

Realizing that he has a much stronger truck than ours (a Ford F350 vs. a Ford Explorer), and that we were about to be faced with a rather steep grade on the road that lies between Bakersfield and Barstow, grandpa offered to pull the trailer for us up and over the pass into Barstow.

It was amazing how effortlessly his truck pulled our trailer up those mountains.

We made it into Barstow by about 4:48PM. Since the plates on the truck we were driving were technically supposed to have been destroyed (required by the Califoirnia DMV for lien-sale vehicles), I managed to make good use of those twelve minutes by making it to the Barstow DMV and was able to pick up a new set of plates and stickers before we left California for parts unknown.

All in all, a very productive day.

Handing the kids off to Nana and Grandpa was quite a bitter pill - I can't describer how much we'll both miss them; but I think it's best that they get re-enrolled into school as soon as possible.

After we parted ways, Julie and I managed to drive another 321 miles; ending up in Kingman, Arizona around 2AM that morning.

High Winds close Highway 58 - we are blocked again

The road from Bakersfield over to Barstow, which happens to bypass the
Grapevine, is closed to to high winds until further notice (I was told
it should reopen tonight around 8PM).

Therefore, we find ourselves waiting on the side of the road along with
hundreds of 18 wheelers and other folks towing trailers.

We talked it over and decided that the best option is for us to
backtrack a bit, get a room with WIFI so I can get some work done, and
sit it out until the morning.

We could, of course, backtrack back to the 99/Interstate 5 and attempt
to go up and over the Grapevine, but I a) am not sure that it too would
not also be closed (note to self-install that new CB radio) and b) do
not think it prudent to risk blowing up this truck by too great an
incline.

So, its settled. Backtrack, get a room, do some work and continue on
tomorrow.

Julie and I have been discussing whether it might be best for the
children to stay with their grandmother ("Nana") so as to avoid further
delay in getting them re-enrolled in school should any new unforseen
events block our progress to florida. Julie and I would certainly carry
on as planned and continue on to melbourne, where over the next few
months until the school year ends we will be retrofitting the boat in
preparation for the trip.

The reality is that the children would not be able to help much and we
would be having to rent a house so as to provide them with a stable home
environment while the work is done on the boat. You can't exactly say,
"hey savannah, go sleep on that unfinished plank of wood over there."

We'll see. I am putting in a call to my mom to see if she is up for
watching them for the next two months.
--webdood

The Worst Easter Ever!

Both kids bounded out of bed this morning and immediately began
looking under the beds and in the closet for the surprise easter
goodies that (I forgot) appear every year.

"This is the worst Easter Ever!", Said Savannah (age 6) when she
concluded that the Easter Bunny had not visited.

"He must not have known where to find us" said Mackenzie (age 10).
I had looked online and asked around the previous day but could not
find any Easter-oriented activities within walking distance but had
frankly completely forgotten about the traditional visit by the Easter
bunny during the night.

Hoping to ameleriorate the hurt feelings, we set out in an attempt to
buy some last-minute easter goodies. Although our room sits directly
across the street from a mall, all the stores were closed for the
holiday and we were unsuccessful in locating anything.

Julie did manage to bring home a half-dozen eggs from the corner store
and I was able to talk the manager of Denny's into boiling them for me
(there are no kitchen facilities on the property). Although the chef
managed to break three of the eggs, the children are now decorating
the eggs that remain with three crayons I got from Denny's.

We buy another vehicle - An end in sight to our Transportation Travails

Having been in the surplus equipment business in the past, I was able to source a 1992 Ford Explorer in great running condition that had been impounded and in the process of being lien saled.

The cost, $900.

We spent the day transferring buses in the 90 degree heat as we made our way to the tow yard across town. Mackenzie had a small breakdown at one point due to the heat, but we powered on and finally found the place.

The only hitch would be that we will have to stay the weekend in Fresno as the lien sale will not be complete until Monday, April the 9th. We all need some time to decompress, so I gave the guy a $200 deposit and we headed home to the hotel room.

So, unless the owner of the car somehow pays the tow charges and gets the car out of impound before Monday at 9:00am, we are in the clear as to having a vehicle that will get us and our trasiler to Florida.

Bad News - the Engine is Blown

We received a call the following day. The service guiy said ":I have terrible news. Your engine in blown. There is no compression at all on the #8 cylinder and she's leaking oil. Basically you will need to replace the engine - which will cost you about $5000."

I sat down and said I'd have to call him after we looked at our options and that a $5,000 engine replacement was clearly not one of them.

I took the family to lunch and we all had a very rational discussion as to our next plan of action.

There were two basic paths to follow:

a) fix the truck
b) rent a box truck and unload the truck and trailer into it
c) rent a vehicle capable of towing the trailer
d) buy another vehicle capable of towing the trailer

TODO - add details of the analysis here

We are towed to Fresno

There being no repair facilities nearby, the tow truck driver offered to tow us all the way to Fresno (about 60 miles) to a AAA approved auto mechanic. Although we have only the basi membership (which covers only five miles of towing) there is a special program frolm AAA to cover situations where a breakdown occurs on a highway where there is no repair facility nothing within those five miles.

So he hooked up and towed us, the truck and the trailer all the way from Firebaugh to Fresno, directly thorugh the heart of the San Juaquin valley. The fellow was nice and we all enjoyed the drive. He pointed out the different crops as we passed through them - pomegranet, cabbage, cotton, broccoli and grapes and a cool (stocked) fishing hole right in the middle of all of that famland where folks catach fish as large as 34' catfish.

We dropped the truck at the repair shop in Fresno, got a hotel and waited to hear the prognosis the following day.

The truck breaks down

The Ford F150 we bought two weeks ago specifically to make the cross-country trip began to smoke heavily, overheated and eventually died near the town of Firebraugh, CA (approximately 150 miles from Santa Clara) at about 2:00am on Wednesday, April 4th.

I put the truck in neutral and coasted as far as I could. We came to a stop less than a 1/4 mile from an exit that had four gas stations and a hotel. We all looked longingly at the hotel, as none of us had slept in a bed for nearly a week and were all quite exhausted.

Deciding to let the truck cool down some before we tried to make the last stretch , we slept in the cab of the truck until a cop rousted us around 5:30am. When the truck wouldn't turn over, we were all pleasantly surprised when he offered to give us a jump start and started whipping out the cables. Hats off to the Firebraugh Highway Patrol.

We were able to start the engine and limp in to the exit where again the truck died and we were able to coast to a stop right next to a McDonalds and a hotel.

It being now around 7:00am, getting a room was oujt of the question, so we got some breakfast and eventually called AAA as it turns out that none of the four gas stations at the exit have repair facilities!

Some Background - why Sailing?

I have always loved sailing. I grew up in Orange County, California and had the opportunity to learn how to sail at the SeaScout base in Newport Beach. They trained us in Lido 14 sailboats and we once crewed the famous Argus Tallship over to Catalina Island.

When I was about 20 years old, on a visit to the Bahamas with a buddy, we made a promise that we would someday return via sailboat to truly explore the over 2000 islands and atolls that fascinated us.

Our relationship subsequent withered and we lost touch after he got married and moved to Colorado, but the promise remained and somehow lived on.

Later, when I was 26 and had the chance to sell off my half of a mortgage lending and escrow business to my partner, I took it.

As a result, I found myself with a little cash (I think it was about $15,000) and in a position to be able to take some extended time off. I was as yet unmarried so decided that, if ever there were to be time to make a trip such as this, that time was now.

I decided to fullfill the promise

So, I bought an old Ford F150 pickup truck, packed it up with what I thought I'd need and headed out alone, driving from Mission Viejo, California to Miami, Florida. I had no plan, per se; only that I would try to buy a boat once I got to FLorida and sail it over to Florida.

There were many adventures on this trip, and suffice it to say that I did, in factg, fullfill the promise and sailed single-handed around the Bahamian Islands for the better part of a year. Along the way I learned what it meant to be thrown overboard while the boat is on autopilot under power (I swam real fast), what it meant to be dismasted and also that Loran (my sole means of navigation) doesn't function at all in the Bahamas (doh!).

I learned a lot and had tons of fun on that trip and, although I eventually returned to the workaday life, sailing continued to be a part of my life over subsequent years.



Check out this startup I did some front-end work for a few years back. Type in the name of any artist you're into and you will be listening to them in seconds!

And so it begins

Our family decided over a year and a half ago that we would embark on a sailing adventure that would take us around the world.

During that time, I have continued with my work as a Senior Software Engineer in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara), California - mostly working for Microsoft writing Sidebar Gadgets for Windows Vista.

By being extremely frugal, we were able to save up enough money ($30,000) to purchase a 1973 41' Gulfstar Ketch sailboat in Florida. As one can imagine by the price, this is by no means a new boat and, in fact will require several major repairs before we go anywhere.

Although we had long been anticipating the day when we would set off for Florida from California to meet up with the boat, nothing could have prepared us for the harsh reality of actually doing it.