Finally...

The news is good.  AURORA has arrived and is resting at a dock in Kentucky Lake.  In the  morning I will bring her over the 4 miles to her permanent slip at Kentucky Dam Marina.  At first check-over, it would appear the only damage is one broken wine glass. And if you had read my earlier post you would know a wine glass is not a big loss in this dry county.  I have much manual labor in the next couple of days so I'll keep the posts to a minimum.  But expect to be inundated as soon as I get the situation under control here.  

NO NO Nanette... or anyone else! 

Culture shock sets in.  While visiting the empty slip yesterday we met Mike who lives on his Tayana at the end of our new dock.  Sadly, he was wearing a Chicago Bears sweatshirt.  When we said we were from Wisconsin (Green Bay Packer country) he winced and hesitantly asked if we wore cheeseheads.  Kristine told him she despised those monstrosities and he sighed in relief.  We may have found a new friend however because he mentioned that we needed to know an important fact.  It is illegal in this Kentucky dry county to sport a wine glass in public... even if you are on AURORA's deck in her slip!  (a healthy $140 fine makes that glass of wine pretty darn expensive)  He said however that a red plastic cup is legal regardless of what is in it. The local Dollar General sells them by the hundreds and now, I am set for at least a decade. One needs to embrace newness, but that doesn't mean I must forego my personal hatred of drinking out of a plastic anything.  I sense a visit to a local pottery person who can make me a personal red cup clone out of a nicely glazed non-plastic material. Or I can spend a great deal of time inside the main salon looking outside the windows while the rest of you lounge on AURORA's decks sporting red plastic cups.  Culture shock... it's not for wimps.

SLIP 327  Kentucky Dam Marina... Empty

Oreo and I are standing in front of AURORA's empty new home.  Ever get that empty feeling? Sure you do,,, we all do.  And for a plethora of reasons. Sometimes that empty feeling is caused by friends moving away, sometimes by our progeny going off to college and sometimes by a treasured memory fading. Personally however, I am a bit more pedantic. When I get that empty feeling regardless of its cause, filling up my belly ameliorates the pain.  Sure you might argue that empty feeling I've just described is mental not visceral, but I could easily counter that argument with the disturbing (only slightly) thought that I have always had an empty space between my ears anyway and have never been able to DO anything about that issue.  However, that empty feeling slightly lower down is something I CAN fix.  So today when that familiar empty feeling was particularly painful, I sought out Broadbents in Kuttawa, a small but renowned family operation engaged in the sole task of making assorted pig parts taste really, really good. The morning sun's heat may have been washed away by an itinerant noon time rain cell, but after I filled up that empty lower region space with a selection of porcine delicacies.. bingo... the sun popped back out brighter and warmer than before.  Obviously there is a life lesson in this afternoon's endeavors. Specifically, the sun shines on those who appreciate the taste sensation that is fatty piggy parts. Ergo, in case that empty feeling comes back tomorrow, I have located a 15 year BBQ pitmaster champion's little stand about 30 miles from this empty slip. Philosophically I believe emptiness to be an abomination and all of us should do our part to fill in empty spaces.  So, I believe today un-equivocally proved the value of bacon.  Hear that David?  Bacon, bacon, bacon... there, now I've said it.  A life without bacon is a life that is EMPTY...  as empty as AURORA's new home in Slip 327.        

Waiting For Godot?  No, Waiting for Da Bo

I am staying a few nights here at the Kentucky Lake State Park which is a couple of hundred yards across a small bay from AURORA's new slip.  I am awaiting Dan and Nancy who are threading their way through Arkansas and Missouri with AURORA.  After yesterday's storm once again forced them to get different route clearances because of road closures, we are hoping they will arrive in the next day or two.  As we all know, waiting is one of the more difficult tasks for our instant gratification society and regardless of how fast and powerful those digital processors get, there will always be something or someone we are waiting for...  if we are lucky.  This morning I am off to explore the area a bit and find a breakfast that includes bacon. 

KDM Also Awaiting AURORA

Any Given Sunday... in Arkansas
(Thank you TWC)

And this Sunday as well.  Tornadoes, the spawn of this waaaaay-too-early-in-the-year weather system are popping up across a bunch of Midwestern states.  If only I were a Republican I could blithely dismiss this as unlucky happenstance instead of one more indication of climate change   Nancy Gooding's call this morning was to warn me they were hunkering down for another day until this and a series of cells just like it pass on eastward. It is a huge spring storm system producing hail, thunderstorms and tornadoes all across the middle of the country directly over the very path the Gooding's must take to get AURORA to her new home.  They intend to slide in behind it this storm system and safely ride the tail through Arkansas and across the Mississippi River into Kentucky.  Only a few hundred miles to go now but it sure seems as if AURORA does NOT want to go to Kentucky based on all the detours and severe weather the past two weeks.  I, on the other hand, had a different task yesterday.  I micro-managed the filling of a small flask (ok... maybe not so small) with Makers Mark Bourbon in anticipation of mixing up a few Mint Juleps for celebrating the Kentucky Derby this coming Saturday.  I do not believe I have ever been in Kentucky for Derby Week and so  I hope to sit and sip from the back deck of AURORA as she rests comfortably in her new slip.  Of course there will be photos and a video or two but do not expect all to be in focus.  Given the delays of the past month, the actual location of my Julep imbibing may well be on a finger pier next to an empty slip.  No matter, after a few of my Mint Juleps, I strongly suspect focus issues will inhibit establishing either location or attendees.  But I really hope AURORA will be in attendance.  I miss her...  madly!  

Visiting Small Town America

Preparing to Visit Smaller Town America

As AURORA's re-routes and detours pile up, the roadways become narrower and the overhead wires droop lower.  Hence the "skidders," (the flexible PVC tubing visible under the lights) to prevent snagging wires that may be lower than reported. I have no idea how this delivery compares with others the Gooding's have made over the years but it cannot be one of the easier ones based just on detours alone.  Their website depicts trucking a boat twice as long as AURORA from San Francisco to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin through the Rockies, Montana and the Great Plains.  Granted it is not as high as AURORA, but over 90 feet?  I believe these folks are magicians.  Everyone of the trucking firms I spoke with during the selection process said the same thing... "We'll take care of the boat as if it were our own."  Nancy, on the other hand, said to me over the phone, "Roger, Dan and I will take care of AURORA as if SHE were our own."   Notice Nancy said "she"?  In my mind, that makes them people who understand the relationship we boat owners have with our boats.  And is further evidenced by taking the time to install those skidders even though the route description says she will slip under the wires of Small Town America detours.  Now I may have to install skidders on my noggin for when I duck through the low bridge door leading out of AURORA's pilot house. After a quarter of a century, I still bang my head occasionally on that damn low bridge.  Just goes to prove you not only can't teach an old dog new tricks, you can't teach him OLD tricks either...  hmmmm!               

Finally... Real Trees, Green Grass!

I spent my formative years amongst the moraines of the Upper Midwest and Wisconsin. Weather that one could sink one's teeth into, trees that filtered down enough shade for our huge family reunions, and green grass yards that produced more knee stains than Tide has ever dreamed possible within one family.  Those years and my youthful days on the small central Wisconsin dairy farm were filled with discovery and wonder that was indelibly imprinted on my psyche but none more lasting than the visage of a dense hardwood forest wearing summer green livery.  In the many succeeding years since, I have spent extended time in the Arctic wilderness, steaming jungles, blistering deserts and barren rockfalls but have always considered towering oaks and grassy meadows my personal home-y comfort zone.  I would wager that many of us feel most comfortable with the topography we experienced as youngsters. Not that we do not acclimate and appreciate where we might be living at the moment, but those formative years leave an imprint that is not easily erased.  AURORA grew up with swaying palm trees, salty sea air and the brown hills of Catalina Island.  I wonder how she feels this morning looking out under that leafy branch at the wide expanse of green grass?  Hey Old Girl, welcome to MY world!     

On the Road Again

As you read this, AURORA has just passed the halfway point on her excruciatingly frustrating tour of the American Southwest's construction detours.  Nancy and Dan were forced to drive the route through Arkansas with the pilot truck alone to confirm the height restrictions before taking AURORA along the selected roadways.  That chore completed, they and AURORA are "on the road again" as Willie Nelson so happily intoned.  I want to credit Nancy for sending along the last few photos since I am waaaay too busy biting my nails here in MKE.  Speaking metaphorically, looking into a rear view mirror is not my favorite pastime, although I do it constantly while driving, of course.  I am convinced that little can be gained by looking backward and feel that looking forward is far more productive. Yes I have often heard the old saw about 'those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it' but remembering history and looking backward are not intrinsically the same activity.  Remembering history is a function of acquiring and keeping knowledge.  'Looking backward' far too often infers a reluctance to embrace today's realities.  Few things in life are as important to me as acquiring knowledge, (maybe eating rates pretty high on the list as well) and thus, I try diligently to remember history without the negative aspect of believing it was better than today.  Thinking yesterday was better than today is a slippery slope down which I have slid in the past and I have little inclination to repeat those downer episodes in the future.  Will I always be successful at avoiding them?  No of course not, and that's why I am reluctant to use the rear view mirror of life.  For me, it facilitates negativity and I do NOT need that in my life.  Negativity personifies "looking into a glass darkly" and I prefer my reflections to be bright and smiling.  So as someone who has long ago passed the halfway point of life, let me offer a trite toast to AURORA wherever she rides at the moment... in my experience, the sun shines ever more brightly during the second half of any journey.  May it do so for AURORA and all the rest of you.  (who should be acquiring knowledge instead of reading this rant)  Happy Hump Day.    

Rider of the Purple Sage

By dawn's early light tomorrow, AURORA says goodbye to cactus and sagebrush, leaving no tangible evidence of her passing.  I am always curious about the times of our lives when we choose to leave evidence or conversely, wish our passing through to go un-noticed and un-marked.  A government mentor once gave me a short course (actually not so short) in how to disappear in a crowd. I'm a six foot three inch Caucasian... in Japan, Zambia or Saudi, just like AURORA rolling through cactus country, un-noticed is unreasonable. What to do?  One takes precautions as best one can and takes ownership of the consequences..  plain and simple.  So Dan and Nancy await the current permits, personally inspect the route ahead, shepherd my baby as if it were their own and I am supremely grateful.  I anxiously (but patiently) await their arrival cognizant of the fact that a schedule is merely an expectation, and as I have mentioned before, expectations are not reality.  Hope you all had a restful and fulfilling holiday whose expectations became reality.  It's a nice change.  

Decisions, Decisions

It's a good Good Friday except I have no clue where AURORA is at the moment... hopefully well beyond this point, but I DID tell Dan & Nancy that I was not in a hurry.  A safe arrival vs a quick arrival would be my first choice.  The time in my life when I needed to go fast has gone.  Thus, AURORA's leisurely road trip, unfortunately complicated by the road construction season, appears about as straight line as a lazily meandering stream.  Which is pretty much the way I run my life... every now and again a burst of straight line efficiency and energy punctuated by substantial periods of not so much.  I have often been used as the poster boy for the "jack of all trades, master of none" crowd but that is not fair to my talent reservoir.  I, in fact, am a master of procrastination.  I am so good at it that when a friend asks me to do something, they consider it as merely planting the seed.  They know germination will take place...  it simply is not clear as to when.  Over a long period of years I have trained my publisher to accept the fact that I am lazy.  Yes it does have a direct effect on my income, but then, the dollar has never been my god.  Probably the penny would be more apropos since that would seem to be the going rate for my thoughts.  Like most of us, I also know the true value of my thoughts would have made me richer than Larry Ellison if only I hadn't given them away for that penny.  Life is all about decisions. Now, if I could only make a good one....

In Their Care...Dan & Nancy Gooding 

3:10 to Yuma... and Beyond

This is NOT a paid ad but I wanted to mention the folks whom I have entrusted with the task of introducing the Southwest and our marvelous Interstate system to AURORA.  Dan and Nancy (and Anchor, her out- vehicle riding companion) transport boats for a living.  As most of you know, I do OK (to say the least) in the "make a short story long" department but I cede my crown to Dan.  Unlike most story-tellers, Dan's stories are actually interesting.  On the other hand, Nancy, who rarely speaks, is fascinating in her own right.  She has a doctorate in structural engineering and designed and oversaw the construction of that flatbed trailer carrying AURORA.  That middle section where AURORA sits can be shortened or lengthened to suit the boat they are carrying.  In AURORA's case, height is a serious impediment to moving cross country.  That middle section of the trailer can also be hydraulically raised or lowered all the way to the roadbed allowing an additional foot or so of height when inching beneath a low bridge.  A real plus if I wanted AURORA to arrive with the pilothouse still attached instead of becoming public art on an overhead in Tuscaloosa. AURORA is only half way through this sightseeing road trip and she looks comfortable.  I wish I were...   boats were never intended for road trips.  I'll worry until she once more floats in her natural element.  In the meantime,  Happy Trails to You, AURORA.  

Gone Girl

Marina del Rey,CA, slip D-1611.  Docking lines...gone.  Electrical umbilical... gone.  Freshwater hose... gone.  Twenty-three years of dock box treasures... gone.  Trusty old AURORA... gone.

I may have an inkling of how the butterfly feels after finally leaving the cocoon. This cocoon was home to AURORA for nearly a quarter of a century, even maintaining it while she was on her six month journeys through Mexican waters in the Sea of Cortez.  The mere thought of sending her on a truck, crossing mountains, traversing deserts, navigating cities cross-country was downright scary. LEAVING was scary, but then, is not ALL change scary? Throughout my 70 odd years I have weathered a goodly number of life-altering changes and all were scary. Even those I chose by own volition because the future in reality is not a bright colorful sunrise... it is a black and often forbidding nothingness.  Of course we harbor bright expectations about the future but expectations are imaginary.  The black nothingness of an unknown future is real.  And that reality should be scary for anyone who can think their way out of a paper bag. Thank the Gods my parents taught me to embrace fear.  My father, a man with many medals from WWII and who routinely ran into burning buildings as a big city fireman, admitted to me more than once that of course he was scared.  An aha moment, an epiphany for a skinny, young boy afraid of the dark. For some, fright is the peak of the mountain and for some it is the valley.  Regardless, comparing this new change in my life with actual life-threatening experiences of previous lives seems frivolous and specious. Get a grip, RK.  Or more succinctly, as so many of you have pointed out to me over the years of putting up with my 'Roger's Rants' letters, "Hey you... RK... get a life,"    OK, I'm trying.               .   

Go East Old Girl, Go East

Boats are not designed to back into weather and thus I taped all the aft door/hatch/ports/window seams with a bright yellow duct tape prior to leaving the California marina.  I have no clue as to whether or not this will work but the amount of water in the bilge when she arrives in Kentucky should give me a pretty good indication of the efficacy of using my friend's entire roll of yellow duct tape. 

Sitting at my computer in MKE, I stare jealously at the photo of AURORA immigrating to Arizona while outside my office window, Mother Nature is gently sifting flakes of snow upon the Service Berry Tree in the yard.  Lake Michigan, a mere couple of hundred yards away from where I sit, is boiling over the breakwaters but at least the ice has disappeared.  Maybe if I squint, my bad eyes will erase the snow showers.  I might be feeling nostalgic about Marina del Rey at the moment, so excuse my tear... oh wait... I think that's a snowflake in my eye.  

AURORA legally immigrating to Arizona. . .  temporarily

Just trying to get the procedure down for posting videos on this new blog so have a chuckle on me while I climb the learning curve. 

MVI_1856.MOV from Roger Kay on Vimeo.

OK OK  I'll get to it soon...