We returned from Frank and Vivian’s boat about midnight after a mega-delicious tri-tip dinner. After a pretty good night’s sleep punctuated with only two “get-up’s”, one to pee and the other for a leg cramp, Gizmo and I got up and set out on his morning romp, returning to watch his favorite TV show, “Predator Quest”. We then headed down to see the boss and deliver paperwork and photos of the last trip. We then headed for the lodge to pick up email and see what the world had done while we were away. I spent the first 15 minutes deleting all the store offers, political emails and forwarded “must read’s” to get to the meat of my email. There were some legal documents for Claudia to be saved and (later) printed, Happy Birthday messages and attached information and other necessary reading. I then uploaded my latest blog and sent it out and uninstalled the not-asked-for-thing-that-suddenly-appeared-on-my-computer (Yahoo! toolbar). I hate it when some company bribes another to put unwanted items on my computer without asking. How do I set “DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!” as my default answer?
After cleaning up the computers (Claudia’s got the same install), we returned to HR (Human Resources – I still can’t get used to that PC phrase) for our last bit of mail (I even got a free drink card from Starbuck’s for my birthday) and to let them know we were leaving for Bullfrog tomorrow morning. We then returned to the rig and printed up all the legalese for Claudia’s signature and set off to the Post Office to mail the forms back. We then went to the local vet hospital in Page to make arrangements for one night’s boarding. Our company plane has a “No pet’s” policy…not even an extremely cute, friendly, warm, fuzzy, freshly groomed with no fleas long-hair Chihuahua. So, we will drop the Giz at the vet’s in the morning as we leave for Bullfrog and pick him up the next morning when we fly down from Bullfrog to bring the boats back uplake for the duration. We will then head for either WalMart or Safeway, or both, to get supplies for Bullfrog. Included will be two nice juicy steaks, three ears of fresh white corn to go on the barbecue and the fixin’s for a delicious Caesar salad. The trip to Bullfrog is a two-day affair so we need a good meal for our halfway stop Thursday night. That’s it! Now you’re caught up as to what we’re doing/did/going to do this week.
We managed to get everything done on Wednesday but it took until 11:00 pm to do it. We were up at 6:30 on Thursday to get ready. After getting the motorhome ready for the jaunt, Claudia and I split up. She took the Giz to the vet’s for boarding and I went to the gas station, fueled the motorhome and met her in Page to hook up the car.
We headed out on Highways 98, 160 and 163 through Kayenta, Mexican Hat and Monument Valley. The directions I got said to turn left onto 261. I turned left…and stopped! There, right in front of me was a BIG yellow sign proclaiming there was a gravel road ahead with 5 mph hairpin turns with road grades of just slightly less than vertical. There was also a nice big turn-around for rigs such as ours who’s occupants didn’t know that 261 was the infamous Moki Grade. The turn-around appeared to be well used! We added one more rig to the total that have turned around there. We continued on, taking the longer, but easier, route. We climbed to over 7,000 feet with the temperature alarm sounding off occasionally but finally made it to Bullfrog about 4:30. We fueled up at the company gas station and met with the Housing Manager who led us to our assigned RV site. A car pulled in behind us and informed me that we had been spilling fuel as we made our turns. I checked the fuel fill tube and found that the air relief tube had broken off. Rats! Oh well, I have until September to fix it.
We finished setting up and set out in the Explorer to do some reconnoitering. We drove to the marina to see what we could see, which was not much. Things appear to be really spread out here, as in “Go here for fuel, go there for water, go somewhere else to pump the tanks, etc.” I think I’m going to get a lot of docking practice up here. We eventually wound up at the lodge where we had dinner and then returned to the rig to watch a movie and get some sleep. We take off at 7:30 tomorrow morning.
Oh yeah, speaking of time, we are now in the Mountain Time Zone. So, if you were thinking of calling me some night because you know I stay up to watch the 10:00 pm San Diego news…don’t. The 10:00 pm news there is at 11:00 pm here and I will, most assuredly be in bed and fast asleep. However, if I need to call you before you go to work at 8:00, I’ll call at 7:00 which is actually 6:00 (your time), unless I remember that 8:00 is actually 7:00 in which case I’ll have another cup of coffee and probably forget why I wanted to call in the first place. OK?
OK, now…”The Move”. We were picked up by the employee shuttle at 7:30 and driven to the “airport”, a paved landing strip and small paved area for cars. That’s it! Nothing else…unless you count a lonely wind sock on a pole at the side of the runway. The plane soon landed. It was a Cessna 170 turbo (6 passenger capacity). Our pilot, “Gene, Gene, the Flying Machine”, got a few passengers unloaded and then got us loaded. Let me rephrase that…we got into the plane. I got to sit shotgun in the R/F seat. Yahoo! We took off and flew down the lake, taking in many sights. It was a GREAT flight! Here are a few random shots of the trip.
We landed at Page and Cody picked us up. We went to the vets to pick up the Giz and headed for the boat. We fired up the engines and took off about 9:00 am, heading uplake. We stopped for the night at the San Juan Arm. The dinner was great and the weather was great…at first! Later the wind came up and the temperature came up. We woke up at 1:30 from the heat and the wind. Claudia made up some beds in the galley and we settled back into bed with all the doors and windows opened up. It was either put up with the wind or the heat. We chose the wind.
After a fitful night, we reluctantly arose at 6:00, fired up the engines, pulled the anchors and, again, headed uplake. Next stop, Bullfrog. Hold it! Just a minute. It seems that we were minding our own business, putting uplake at 3400 rpm’s. I was driving, Gizmo was navigating
and Claudia was doing chores.
At some point around Mile 77, we were overtaken by another houseboat. It was to our left and was about 125 feet away. OK so far? Now…picture about a 40’ power boat coming towards us at warp nine full tilt boogie and throwing an extra-large, double-huge wake, something like the surfers wait for on Hawaii’s North Shore every year. Both houseboats were sort of towards the left side of the channel. There was a HUGE amount of room to my right for him to pass. He keeps coming. I look! He still keeps coming. No, he couldn’t be thinking of “that”. He keeps coming. Aw crap, he’s going to go between us! And he did! I grabbed the camera at the last second to get a picture of his boat but had to drop it and grab the wheel and go hard left, right into the wake. Claudia held on. Gizmo ran for cover. There was nothing we could do but take it. We went over the first wave but under the second one. The wave was higher than the (solid) front gate and solid front aluminum plating and we ate it! We had water running into the boat clear to the galley, some 6 to 8 feet past the sliding door . I grabbed the N.P.S. radio and told them what happened and gave a description of the boat. They dispatched a boat from Dangling Rope to head uplake to possibly intercept the idiot. We continued on. I was HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, no, I don’t know if they caught him or not. I’ll let you know if I find out. I just want to “talk” to him…alone, and in some dark alley!
We got to Bullfrog without further incident and were directed to the “Ghetto Dock” to park the boat. It was a ghetto all right. They store all the derelict boats there. I pulled into an open “slip” and tied the boat to a winch and another boat that sort of seemed secure. That would do until we get things sorted out. We went to Boat Rentals. “Trash Tracker”…what’s that? No one knew we were coming or what to do with us. To be fair, the person in charge wasn’t there but the second-in-charge knew nothing. After a while, we worked it out and got the boat parked at the guest dock for our volunteers to board tomorrow morning.
Then we went for ice. Our “Component number” is a number that identifies the TT as a Lake Powell Overhead expense. I ordered 16 blocks of ice to be charged to our Component number. The gal entered the number into the computer, did it again and then told me there is no such number. After 45 minutes and two 9-1-1 calls to Cody, they just gave us the ice and said they would figure it out later. Work’s for me! The end result is that the boat got fueled and loaded with ice. We also got a bunch of questions answered about the Bullfrog operations, called for a shuttle and retired to the motorhome for dinner, a shower, this blog and eventually, email. We leave tomorrow on Trip #8.
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