Gator Bowl 2012

Friday, Nov 30...Travel day
Left home a little later than scheduled, due to more work at the hospital for Kim. We did make it on the road by 10:45, though, only to discover the book we had started on the last road trip was still at home. Crap! Tragedy strikes as we will not be able to keep up with Serge's new adventures as he blog his way through Florida in Tim Dorsey's book, Nuclear Jellyfish. Fortuately, have some backups to chose from, we read halfway through Janet Evanovich's Notorious 19.

3:30 At the Rudder Club, and it's sunny with some nice breeze but sadly, we arrived too late to join in on some tuning up. The forecast looks good for tomorrow, 10-12 mph and partly sunny.

Dec. 1, Saturday
Early morning, warm, sun breaking through the clouds, Kim enjoyed a little pre-race run and things were going smoothly as we set up the boat.

As boats were being launched, the wind and chop was increasing and a boat decided not to behave on the dock. It broke free and was headed precariously toward the bridge as the wind and current pushed it in that direction. Todd sped into action, starting a mark boat and rescuing the Scot.

The wind decreased as we approached the racing area, and ultimately died as the starting time approached. This was not at all what we expected from the predictions from all weather websites. Did I mention we were rained on several times, too? Mostly, a thick mist, but enough to make everything wet.

Dinner was fantastic and we watched the SEC Championship Game, so all was not lost.
We'll see if the weather websites are on target for tomorrow. So far, at 10:00 am, the wind is supposed to be E at 8 mph, and by 1:00, 10mph, and party sunny. Hope so!

Sunday, at least it was sunny and warm. We started a race in what might have been two knots of breeze. Not too surprising since we had been skunked on Saturday sop we make the best of it. It was a slow torturous affair and the 90 minute time limit looked to be in play. As the leaders began to close in the weather mark a powerboat raced to the scene and quickly dropped a hook and signaled shorten course, three legs. I think there were three minutes or so remaining when the Lintons crossed the line in first.

The next race, UGH!!! was started in about 5 or 6 knots which appeared quickly and disappeared as quickly. Soon it was back to 2 knots and torture. I guess it was good that the current was helping on the runs downwind. The Lintons prevailed again for a sweep of the 2 race regatta. The cream rises to the top as they say. Ryan Malmgren had 2 seconds for a fine showing as well.

Wally will be staying in Florida again this year.

The next district race will be January 12 and 13 in Port Charlotte. Out.

Jeff Penfield Memorial Regatta

The Jeff Penfield Memorial Regatta had a very promising weather forecast, lots of sun and highs near 80. We arrived Friday night to find our Tampa friends enjoying dinner at the Squadron. Most of the gang was camping on site in either an RV or tent. We took the primo spot out on the point (water on three sides) and parked the RV for the weekend.

Saturday am was nice but calm so we had a leisurely morning and slightly delayed start. Once the breeze filled in, we had perfect conditions which allowed for three nice W/L races. The Lintons ended the day with a 1 point advantage over the Morgans. The rest of us were grouped in a fairly small pack for places 3 through 7.

A nice dinner was followed by some good socializing under another really nice 3/4 moon.
Later in the evening the fog rolled in which became thick enough to get the trees raining on the tents and RVs.

Sunday morning was calm and with fog burning off we were waiting ashore for the sea breeze to arrive. Eventually it did, kind of, but never really became solid. We got one race in that was a frustrating slow affair. The RC was kind enough to call off the 5th race and we headed back to the club. The Morgans won the last race while the Lintons were 2nd which produced a tie. Congrats to the Morgans who took the tiebreaker! Awards were given to the top five; 2- Lintons, 3- Taylors, 4- Strammers and 5- Silvernail/Fisher.

We had the honor of awarding the Jeff Penfield Leadership award to Ron Pletsch. The award was presented by the Penfield family last year and is awarded to the person best promoting the district, new sailors, fleet growth and actively sailing in the District Championship. Ron has been leading the way for many years and was truly deserving of the award.

Results are posted on fssa.com. The next race is in Jacksonville, Dec. 1 and 2.

2012 Flying Scot Wife/Husband Champ. Part 2

Sunday, October 7

Day 2 of Racing
Cold, dreary, cloudy, gray, colder than yesterday. The boats were pretty damp from a bit of rain last night, as well. Two extra shirt layers recommended, and since we noticed there was some breeze this morning, we continued with the old main and spin, new jib sailplan. Two races scheduled for today, hope it doesn't blow much more!

Our results were better today, third in both races, or so we thought...the second place boat in the second race was OCS, which gave us a two! This helped our cause substantially, although we didn't medal in the event, fourth place will motivate you to continue training for four more years(!!!)
Wilson and Bonnie Jenkins (with help from their girls) put on an excellent event with an Olympic themed awards ceremony. The symphony played (over the sound system), the music from the Olympics and gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded accompanied by a bouquet of colorful flowers. Great job, Muscle Shoals!!

Gold: Jeff and Amy Linton
Silver: Chris and Monica Morgan
Bronze: Sue and Tim Stombaugh

Overall, a strong performance by Team Florida. Way to go, you traveling fools!

We thought we might stop in Dothan, AL, lots of hotels to choose from...I was imagining chips, salsa, margaritas...the hotel/restaurant pairings featured Mexican restaurants prominently. As we drove past Dothan, we discussed how tired our eyes were (stinging, actually) and how nice it will be to close them, suddenly, the road was dark. Ahhhh, the emptiness of LA (lower AL) and north FL (above I-10). Thank goodness Marianna has grown to 5hotels. We were able to find an acceptable Microtel for the night and caught the end of the SD/NO game. Showered and in bed by 10:30CT/11:30ET

One positive, more driving tonight, less driving tomorrow...and closer to the pups!

Safe travels to all our driving friends who may be going till late into the night.

2012 Flying Scot Wife/Husband Champ. Part 1

Wife Husband Weekend, October 6,7 2012
Joe Wheeler State Park, Muscle Shoals, AL

We were able to take Thursday off work, and we hit the road just before 11:00am. The plan was to drive as far as comfortable, and arrive in Muscle Shoals on Friday early enough to set up and sail. For the ride, we recently borrowed Randy Wayne Wright's Black Widow from the always reliable and fantastic, favorite dog-watching family. Silly bridesmaids.

3:30 pm. Driving past Tallahassee, and the rest of Team Tampa are meeting at the rest stop at I-4 and 75, when Lisa checks in. Good to hear from the Haywards, we'll be checking in with them along the way, maybe you've seen the Linton-Hayward-Silvernail convoy pics on fb. Mark is also in attendance as support crew/bartender, the gang is all together, and Team FL will be complete when John and Sue Domagala meet us at the Lodge.

Crossed the time zone line around 4:00, turning north after Marianna, FL and heading toward Dothan. A quick stop at the AL Visitor's Center scored us some hotel coupons and info for the night. Attempted a stop at exit 179 which seemed to have a good selection of hotels and restaurants, but a surly counter girl and some full hotels had us back on the road a bit to Clanton, exit 205, where a Best Western was our home for the night.

Friday, October 5
After a leisurely wake-up, the second half of the trip went more quickly than we expected. The rest of Team Tampa ended up with our surly friend at exit 179, and we arrived at the beautiful entrance to Joe Wheeler State Park around 10:30 local time. Harry and Karen were already in the parking lot setting up, and we joined them. Sailors needed to ramp launch and sail or be towed to the docks at the Lodge. By noon, we're in the water, and by 1:40 pm, we're checked in. The Lodge has a restaurant and we had some tasty lunch before tuning up out on the lake.

Saturday, October 6
First day of racing!!!!
Tune up wardrobe consisted of T-shirts and shorts, this morning it was gray, and 52 deg. Ugh!
We brought and wore most of the clothes we owned and after the skipper's meeting, an enterprising soul golf carted some hats to the docks and scored a bundle from the chilly, unprepared southern folks. Capitalism at work!
As we sailed to the course, "Smoke on the Water" came to mind. The water was warmer than the air for a very cool effect. As lakes will be, the shiftiness abounded. We did well in the first race and the wind shifted left and right and up and down. RC made a few adjustments and the sun started to make an appearance. We haven't auto tacked in a long time, was the observation of the day. In the third race, it seemed like we couldn't do anything right, and poor planning at the start snowballed into a big mess.

Back at the room, warm, showered and dry, dinner is outside at Shelter #3 in a little bit. Thoughtful RC left some time to catch up on some football and blogging before dinner. Anticipating similar conditions tomorrow.
Gators just beat LSU!

NAC 2012 Wrap Up

So we are home and back to the norm (sweating a lot) while doing the usual stuff. We usually do a wrap, final thoughts, or whatever you call it after a regatta. So here goes...

Heat is a relative thing, then there's that old humidity discussion that you have to have when discussing extreme heat or cold. The majority of time we spent in Carlyle was pretty nice with temps in the 90's and pleasant evenings. We were running the RV A/C and I was perplexed about why there was so little or no water running of the roof. Yep, it is that humidity thing. When we run it here in FL there is a heavy drip or slight stream that runs off the roof and down the side wall. So at one point I went online and discovered the humidity was only 30 something percent that day in Carlyle. That would be a new record in Florida. So today it is a typical 93 degrees and I was outside for a few minutes at lunch and I was drenched in sweat. Welcome home and Happy Humidity!

You may recall that we were unable to post pics while on the trip. Wait, let me begin with, we got a new Ipad which is awesome except for the part where I could not figure out how to add pics to this blog. This may be related to some Java script thing, I really don't know. Not even slightly aware of what java does inside a computer, familiar with how it works in a coffee mug but that may not be the same thing. Anyway, since we are able to post pics from home i am dropping a few in this post.

The Carlyle Sailing Ass. sits within the Eldon Hazlet State Park. This park is pretty nice with lots of sites, trees, bugs, cabins, deer, etc. If you are ever in this area and happen to have your RV with you it would be worth a visit. I cannot recommend tent camping for a variety of reasons but many people do it.

Here we have a view of the lake from our campsite, the sites were heavily shaded and perfect for the hot sunny weather we had all week.

Tuesday was the second day of qualifying and only one raced was needed so we had some free time to kill. We hit the Walmart for some supplies and once again could not find any Walmartians. Must be something in the water... Then we went "downtown" to have some lunch at Lubars, which was really good.

A view down Main Street in the town of Carlyle which, according to the sign has a population of 3500.   

Kim, Susie and John Damagala in front of Lubar's where we enjoyed a good lunch Tuesday afternoon.

Train tracks, Silos and silly tourists, what can you do?

Back to sailing for a moment, the club did a good job hosting the event. I will say that it appeared that a relative few volunteers were all doing a lot of volunteering. I guess this would be a good time to urge you all to help pitch in when your club is hosting a regatta. There is nothing like a good number of friendly volunteers to make a regatta a really good time. That's enough about that.

Threw this one in in the event anyone was curious about the scenery in this part of the world.  It all pretty much looks something like this.

We were really glad to make this trip with Missy and Lexi, our two black labs with us. They travel really well and are good for entertainment along the way.

Lexi assuming her position in the Dinette of the RV. Her main hobby is collecting shoes.

Missy is not shown here but if you use your imagination you can picture another black dog that looks a lot like Lexi. Sort of. The main difference between the two is Missy is in almost constant motion, so a pic of her is likely to be blurry.

Ok, more about sailing. We ended up 13 which seems about right to us though we would enjoy winning way more. The problem with winning is you have to be much better than we are and that would take practice, and lots of it. Honestly, I am not all that interested in the practice part so it is what it is.

The other thing is that we are talking about lake sailing. It seems that the best strategy was to pick a side, commit to it and hope like hell you picked the right one. In this way, it reminded me of sailing at Davis island, stay away from the middle and hope.

We were really mediocre on the windward legs but had some steller runs where we passed many boats. I think the racing would be a lot more fun if we could start with the chutes up and drag race to the bottom of the lake. Just sayin.

Arrived home to discover a slightly worn trailer tire. 

Apparently there were a lot of tire issues with the other racers. Not sure why but my bet is that most trailer tires seem to be real crap, lots of chinese manufacturing these days. The bright side is car/truck tires seem much better.

Another theory is that some of the interstates are in such bad shape these small tires get the shit beat out of them. So much for all those "shovel ready jobs" we here about all the time. More like shoveling BS.

Only a small amount of damage was done to the fender, an easy fix. Just in case you are wondering the tire still has 75 psi, so it was NOT operator error!

Another nice thing about towing a Scot with an RV is you can and do completely forget its there. If you look closely at the following picture and check the rear view mirror you will see the view of the boat. See it? That's because you can't. Unlike towing with the van or car you can't hear it either. Talk about denial. I am guessing that we would have no idea if the tire had blown or not. As a responsible driver I do click on the rear camera about every hour to see if it is still back there. It's seems good to narrow down the search area if it should go missing.

We noticed several areas where a tornado had recently cleared a path in the  brush/woods along the interstate in Georgia. Bad pic though... 

What next... Oh Yeah the Lintons ROCK!!! This is the second time they have won the NAC, the first was in 2007 at Fishing Bay. Amy and Jeff celebrated by selling their boat! can you believe that?!! They also were wearing bow number 13 which is just flat wrong!
Anyway they traded the boat on a new one Harry was sailing all week. It is number 59 hundred something or other and is white on white on white on white like Jeff wanted, so they are happy campers. Congrats Again!!!

Passing the Flamingo with John and Susie so I had to get a pic, we did not actually go there but since I shot it out the sunroof of the "Clifford" I felt compelled to add it here.

Thanks to all who followed this blog all week. Out

NAC 2012, Leaving Lake Carlyle, Friday 6/29

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RC made wise decision and had 2 races Thursday, although the wind didn't cooperate exactly as planned. The original schedule was for one race Thursday, and one race Friday. Forecasted temperatures were for 104-107 deg or, at least over 100 deg for both Thurs and Fri, and they wanted to try to get us in and out early Thursday, and off the parking lot before the heat of the day. They rescheduled racing to start at 0900 on Thursday, hoping their plan would work. Unfortunately, the wind died during the first beat, the Challenger division couldn't even get off the line, and the RC abandoned the race in swift fashion. We floated around for a bit, then they sent us in for an on shore postponement. The predicted wind was out of the West / Southwest, and we weren't seeing any of that early in the day. They rescheduled us for a 1:00 start. So much for getting out of the parking lot in the heat of the day.
Fortunately, the wind came up, and after a trip back to the campsite to see the girls (who are really doing great, by the way, this camping thing seems to agree with them), they got 2 races off in the afternoon. Did we mention it was a dry heat? Like a convection oven left on long after the Thanksgiving turkey was finished and dessert was served. The weathermark was near the most southern part of the lake and the puffs that came down from the dam were quite something. Weird to have such a hot breeze near the cool water, but smart hydration kept Team FL in the game!
Yummy pig roast and awards dinner, much nicer to have the racing done, and have all the awards presented at this evening event instead of after racing on Friday when we're all hot and trying to get ready to leave. As stated on previous post, Jeff and Amy won the belt buckle for the 2nd time, Davis Island won the Fleet Award, and Team Hobbs takes home the Father/Son award. There were some other awards, too...
It was really nice to have so many boats from FL represented!
Next big things: Wife/Husband Regatta in October, Muscle Shoals, AL We have our lodge reservation, do you??!!!
Sarasota Midwinters in March, Team FL- get your volunteer hats on!
Next NAC, Lake Norman, NC Only 10 hours from Tampa area! Team FL- let's do it again!

Friday, we left the campsite around 8:30 am. Crossed bridge into KY around 1040, or so, we started thinking about where we would stop for the night, and had anticipated we would stop before Atlanta if it looked like we would be in the midst of rush hour on Friday evening, so Adairsville it is! We contacted Amy and Jeff who left after us from IL, when they said they might not be meeting us at the campground (and pool) because of a breakdown. ugh. They were by the side of the road in Paducah, and at the time of this post, it looks like that's where they'll be spending the night.

The new boat is ok, though...there was a wicked 3-way with boats at the end of the regatta. (A wild transport crew shuffle started the regatta...John Kreidler and Tom Lawton rode together to the regatta, Adam Keene flew into Indy and rode with Carrie Carpenter, and Ryan Malmgren and Harry Carpenter rode alone from what I know. Adam ended up crewing with JK, TL crewed for Ryan, and Carrie was with Dad, but back to the boat story...) Jeff bought the new boat Harry brought to the regatta, Mark Taylor bought Jeff and Amy's 4925, and Harry went home with Blastoff - Mark's 4321. Neato!!

We arrived into GA around 4:50 pm ET and one more hour to Adairsville. Harvest Moon RVPark. Good reviews on the site. Has pool, 'nuff said.

6:00 pm ET 105 deg. Forecast is a low of 68 deg. tonight, how can that happen? Unlike Lake Carlyle, we are sweating like "Piggies." The RV did well in the heat, we worked it hard today. By 8:30 pm, we had been in the pool twice. Slight negative, no bevvies allowed in the pool area...we'll get around that somehow, no worries : )

NAC 2012 Races 4-5

The Lintons rallied to overcome a pretty big deficit to win the NAC for the second time.

We rallied a little as well to get 13th.

Davis Island won the best fleet award using Jeff's, our's and Greiner Hobb's scores.

It was way HOT, reported by many to be 107 at the high. The puffs down by the dam were like opening the oven door and getting the heat blast.

Scores are up at fssa.com. Will write more tomorrow, we are zapped.

NAC 2012 Race 1 -3

The RC decided to change the schedule so we did 3 races today. The forecast for Thursday and Friday is for highs around 103 to 105. Today was only 90 something and breeze was nice.

So after a relatively short postponement to address some scoring issues in the Qualifying series we got out on the water. With nice wind and no general recalls it didn't take long to knock out 2 races. Sadly, they favor returning to the club for lunch so around 12:30 thats what we did. The next harbor gun would be at 2:30 for a 3:00pm warning, this was widely unpopular with most racers but....

It worked out and we got the 3rd race done and were back in the club by 5 or a little before. All the races were tricky but the third had less wind and seemed trickiest, at least to us. We never had much going and ended up with all three scores in the teens. What can you do, make a little mistake and lose 5 boats.

The Red boat is kicking butt, Kelly is second and The Lintons are third!!

So back to the weather, the start on Thursday has been bumped to 9 am to try to get us off the water before it gets really hot. If it works out there will be 2 races sailed and that will be a series so no sailing Friday. Works for us, we can head south to Florida and cool down.

Results= fssa.com.

NAC Qualifying Day 2

Schedule-wise this was the lightest day of the week since we only needed to get one more qualifier race in. There was a nice breeze left over from Monday, so we had no delays. Most crews were prepping for heavy air but by the time the signal sounded it had dropped to under 10. The first group started clean and the second did the same with only a slight delay between signals. The two fleets became one which made the RC's job of scoring everyone a little tricky. There were big packs of boats finishing at nearly the same time. UGH!

The gang from Florida seems to make the cut for the Championship Division which is a releif to all. You never know about these things. As of now we have not actually seen the results but we think we know...

The best place to get results is fssa.com.

The rest of the day was pretty much filled with beer drinking with a little diversion in to the town of Carlyle. An interesting little place.

A bunch of the sailers rented lakeside cabins and they got together to host a party. What a sweet arrangement, a nice elevated bluff with a great view out over the lake.

So tomorrow starts the real racing and rumor has it they may attempt to get 3 races in instead of just 2. The weather forecast for Thursday and Friday is HOT, depending on the source they are calling for highs between 102 and 106. Yike! So the idea is to avoid some of that heat.

Out.

NAC 2012 Qualifying Day 1

Finally, the day we've been waiting for! Racing!! There are 3 Qualifying races scheduled for today and tomorrow, and we were able to sail 2 of them today. Wind was good, another knot or two higher and it would have been uncomfortable. It came from the Northeast and was able to fetch down the 15 mi long lake and that made for some nice swells to surf downwind.

The first race was 4 legs, downwind finish, and the second race, to our disbelief, was a 5 legger. sheesh. More upwind practice in breeze, though, I guess. Seems like finishing downwind would have been preferred since that end of the course was near the marina cove, but maybe they had difficulty seeing boat numbers downwind. 

Team Florida is doing well so far, and Team Mad Sails had some good finishes, too. Tomorrow looks to be a little less windy, so that will be nice.

The pups seem to be taking this all in stride. Presently, sleeping on the floor of the RV. Missy found the front seat this morning and she thought she looked pretty cute riding shotgun!

Looking at the weather at home, though....tornado watches, floods, craziness!! Everybody- hunker down!!

The weather here has been nice so far, hopefully they are wrong about the forecast high temps for the end of the week (102-104 deg. yikes!) The campsite area has been really comfortable with nice breeze and shade. (We'd love to post some pics, but technical difficulties prevent it at this time - isn't that always the case. Thought we had it worked out since the change to Apple-ness. Come back to the site after we get home, we'll see if we can figure it out!) The marina parking lot, on the other hand, where the boats are is quite a bit like Africa-hot. After racing we were happy to get back to the coolness of AC and shade.  Dinner plans include some chicken on the barbee, yum.

Still no pics.

NAC 2012 Pre Regatta Prep

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Measurement Day 1, arrived early, received our assignment, and discovered that yellow is bad. There were 3 randomly assigned colors to organize measurement, and yellow includes weighing the hull and measuring the centerboard. We were yellow... and bummed.
3rd to the hoist to be weighed, CB didn't quite make it, but Dave had the forethought to ask Harry to bring a new board and we made quick work of switching out and we were done. Other competitors began to arrive and it was a neat reunion time.

The club offered brat night for dinner and the beer trailer opened early. Nice beer trailer ... 4 selections to choose from! Dog walking and biking to the bath houses for showers  in the dark, and all asleep at a reasonable hour. We seem to be settling  in to a pattern of early to bed and early to rise, guess it is an RV thing. 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

We still needed to measure our sails to complete registration, soooo, after a morning walk with the beasts, and a run for Wake and Kim, it was on the bikes for the ride to the club. We are very appreciative for the bikes, the location here, requires them if there are no 4 wheeled vehicles for transport. The campground is large and it even doesn't make sense to shower at the bath houses because you work up a sweat riding back to camp!  sheesh!

Finished measurement, adjusted a few things on the boat, and returned to let the dogs out and grab some lunch at the RV. The wind came up this afternoon, and we decided to do some practice and tuning, unfortunately, the wind died. Team Hobbs from Tampa won the Junior Championship and friends Melanie Dunham and Carrie Carpenter won the Women's Championship. We all came in,  and got ready for dinner back at the club including awards. Back to camp walk with the animals, and sleep. Gotta be ready for tomorrow!!! First day of racing, Qualifying rounds. 
Skippers meeting 9:30 with first start at 10:30. Out.

P.S. We are unable to upload pictures, hope to figure that out.

NAC 2012 - Getting There

10:00 Wednesday, July 30, 2012

Take off!  So many things to prepare! Kim was able to get out of work, thanks to her fine coworkers, and we were able to get on the road earlier than expected. Puppies have known for a while that something was in the works, and today, their excitement level peaked.

Our goal today was to drive north of the FL state line to avoid high traffic times in Atlanta and Nashville tomorrow. We figured if we got within 2 hours of Atlanta we could try to start the next morning and be just after the morning rush. That would also allow us to hit Nashville around 3:00pm and beat the afternoon rush. So that was the plan.

The dogs surprised us upon entering the RV. Lexi, the less outgoing one, usually seeks refuge under the dinette table, and Missy, the navigator, likes to sit between us and is on the alert watching the action through the front window. Today, Lexi scooted to Missy's spot in the front, and Missy established herself under the table. Missy quickly figured out something was off, stepped over Lexi, sat on her, and encouraged her to take a back seat. Lexi caught the drift and all was well.

We occupied our time with the third installment of the Hunger Games series, The Mockingjay, Almost done! They go quickly, interesting stuff, not exactly cheery but interesting.

4:00 Arrival! first stop, Twin Oaks Campground in Elko, GA. Only 1/10 mi off the highway, EZ on, EZ off! More than just convenient, Dave did some research pre-trip, and this came highly recommended on the RV and camping sites. Even better, Dave joined a camping club called Passport America (and we highly recommend this to all the RVers) and we get 1/2 price on the site! this place has a pool, hot tub, dog walk and a fenced in run. Missy says, "Tennis ball!"

After experiencing the pool and dog walk area, we found very few Mosquitos, but a whole lot of gnats. No biggie. A lovely evening with a nice breeze, and way better than overnighting in a Walmart of Truck stop where we would need to run the generator to power the AC.

Day 2 of travel, 6/21/12

The girls were very good last night (much better than on a "trial" sleepover in the RV last week), only woke up a couple of times, ready for the next adventure. When we finally did wake up, they were calm, patiently waiting for Kim to tie up her shoes.

The park has a 1/4mi loop, just like a track! the girls took Kim for a 3/4mi training run--wheeee! With frequent sniffing stops, so many new scents since many campers seem to travel with their dogs.

Can't believe while writing all this, Kim forgot to feed the girls this am. 
She remembered around 10:00 while fixing herself a snack. Very wrong!!

Oops! The license plate is coming loose from the trailer as we are passing through Atlanta. It's really one of the only parts of the trailer we can see in the rear view mirror from the RV. It is dangling down a bit and possibly dragging a corner but the traffic is thick but moving so we are not stopping. The idea of effecting a roadside repair with a million trucks passing seems really stupid, plus how much could a new plate cost? We consult the map and find the next rest stop is 20 miles northwest of town and decide we will stop there, the plate will be there, or it won't. Finished Mockingjay, phew! got a little emotional toward the end. (Read; Kim is crying alot and I hate it when that happens) Now, on to something a little more lighthearted and fun...Tim Dorsey? Carl Hiaasen?

Seen on a license plate : BLESSD, like.

Around 10:40, we're past Atlanta- unscathed.
Rest stop just past exit 306, the plate is still there so we replace a bolt do a little dog walk and were off.

12:45 Into and out of TN/GA. Hwy 24 is a little schizophrenic near Chattanooga. Had us concerned for a moment that we were going the wrong way. Ah, there we go, back into TN and the Central time zone. Fun! An extra hour we weren't counting on this would help our plan for getting through Nashville. It had been a while since I passed through here and I forgot how mant times you have to exit right or exit left to continue on I-24. We were going good and almost through when we spot the sign stay left for I-24 while we are in the extreme right lane. Ugh. So we try to tuck in behing 18 wheeler guy but little car guy won't let us in. With RV and trailer were are about 55 feet so a bit of room is needed. With time running out Dave decides to gun it and we pass 18 wheeler guy and another car and cross 3 lanes of traffic to just make our left exit. You don't see too many RV'ers trying moves like that and for good reason.

2:45 Central time
crossing state line into KY. Puppies are sleeping, even over the rough roads.
After a little research, we decided on a campground just to the NW of the Land Between the Lakes National Rec. area in KY. It's a little east of Paducah which probably means absolutely nothing to you but we thought that was a fun name so had to work it in.Still a lot of daylight left to set up, catch a swim in the pool, take care of the pups. That leaves only a few hours left for tomorrow.

So the Nashville Atlanta plan worked like a charm, gotta love that.

4:00pm Central time
Fill up with gas and stop for the night at Cypress Lakes RV park in Calvert City, KY. We are in the pool and the cocktails by 5:00pm and thinking that this is a fine way to travel.

Day 3, Friday 6/22/12
Short drive to Carlyle. Departing Cypress Lake Campground. Some thoughts...bathrooms: seen better, pool bath reminds us of the beach baths on Dunedin causeway en route to Honeymoon Island. Kim has noticed she appreciates hand soap and paper towels at the bathroom sinks.
Met some nice folks, lots of full-timers there. Interesting  site. Gary Yamamoto's custom bait was adventurous and impressive. Huge advertisement wrap (will have to go to baits.com when we have a chance) on a trailer towing a double decker boat/car trailer. Watched him load up this am, a one man show with a power boat and a 4-Runner below. Hooked everything up and was out in less than an hour. He had done this before!

Decided on Janet Evanovitch, we're up to Explosive 18...amazing how many books can be written about a bumbling bounty hunter. Nice brain candy after the seriousness of Hunger Games.

Missy couldn't be any closer to Dave. Wish I could take a picture, but it would be too dark. She's practically in the footwell. Guess she didn't mind being in the hottest place in the cab, she decided to lie on the floor right above the transmission which gets pretty hot.

Seen on the back of a car being towed.. "Be patient, I'm pushing this big RV!" Think this would be fun on the back of the Flying Scot.

Road to CarlyleRte 127 from south-all kinds of farmland around. Apparently these folks specialize in corn, dabble in soybeans and try their hand at something that resembles corn but not quite. May have to stop and ask...

Walmart stop before campground, Carlyle is a small town with a crowded, but clean and fairly new Walmart. 1/2 hr in the store, and no "Walmartians" were spotted this must be a world record. We notice a white truck towing a Scot leaving the store parking lot. After a few minutes, we caught up at the sailing center, and said hey to Henry Picco!

Dropped the boat off with help from the lovely Harbormaster, Mary. Team Taylor right behind us, with Team Hobbs not too far behind. 

Notice another boat across from ours in the parking lot with a Masthead Enterprises top cover. Could it be? Team 4925? Jeff and Amy had been dealing with some deferred maintainence on their RV which delayed the departure. They got everything straightened out, and drove straight through. Hard Core.

We're in campsite spot Lucky #7, hope that works out for us! Sho'nuff, the Chalet and her inhabitants look settled in. By 2:00, we're getting settled in our spot.

NAC 2012 Preview

So the NAC is about 6 weeks away but the early registration discount ends next week, May 20. Looks like we may have a fairly good sized group from Florida but so far only 3 are signed up. Back in the day the discount would have been good for a tank of gas but nowadays... well, never-mind. It'll get ya some beer though!!


The organizers have put together a very nice event website with all kinds of detailed info. We will be staying at the State Park Campground which is also where the sailing facility is located.

For the first time, we will be traveling by RV this year and are looking forward to hanging out with the Lintons and John & John who will also be RV'ing it. We all have spots reserved at the the campgrounds southern end which is close to the sailing center.

Here we have the RV trio, as seen at the Rudder Club in Jacksonville

Our dogs will be attending again this year so that is a highlight, for sure. Missy (the oldest) has been to 2 NAC's already so she is a veteran.

On the way to Ephraim WI for the 2009 NAC we stopped at Flying Scot Inc. for the Sandy Douglass  where Missy got to meet Buffet (like Jimmy), the Carpenter's golden retriever

Missy and Lexi both went to the 2010 NAC at Bay Waveland but like us they may have successfully blocked that one from the memory banks.

Missy and Lexi crashed out in the van on the way home from Bay Waveland,  watching the weather channel all week wiped them out

We think scheduling the regatta in June was a good plan. With some luck it will be before the big heat of summer and after the spring storms die down. Fingers are crossed!

Get your entry in and we will see you there!

In case you won't make it,

we will do updates, maybe even with a new Ipad.

Midwinters 2012, Wrap-up

All in all we had a really good time even with the lousy weather. The RC decided early on both Tuesday and Wednesday, that there would be no racing, so we were free to go play for the day. New Orleans is one of the better places to be if sailing is cancelled and other fun activities are needed.

Of course by the Friday afternoon BBQ and awards ceremony the weather had cleared and it was a little on the warm side. They gave away a million or so door prizes during the week so nearly everyone went home with some loot. Larry Taggert also presented the Allen Douglass Sportsmanship Award to Mark and Maria Benner. You may recall our story in the Day 2 post about the crash on the interstate on the way to NOLA. Well they persevered, sailed well, and won the sportsmanship trophy so things are looking up for them!

Would you like to see race results?

The photos below are from the trip home, from west to east.

Pulling out of SYC on a beautiful Saturday morning, it figures.

The boat houses look a little better with out the gloom.

Rolling along Canal Blvd. before reaching I-10

NOLA looking south from the Interstate

I-10 crossing the eastern end of Lake Ponchatrain

Just after emerging from the Mobile Bay tunnel you have the old warships

Back in Florida and crossing Pensacola Bay

The trip home was smooth and un-eventful and took 10 hours and 10 minutes. This is really not a bad trip at all for those of us in the Tampa Bay area, or nearby. We will plan to return the next time the midwinters is in New Orleans!