dboat
07-24-2005, 07:06 AM
by Dana Boatman
The wife and I went on a cross country tour via Lightning and plane. We live in Erie, PA, what one would call the Northeast part of the country. I had a 18' Bayliner boat that I owned in Dallas. These are open bow runabouts that one sees all over the Metroplex and by the dozens on the local lakes. Well for Lake Erie or some of the other lakes here, they arent nearly as practical. So I engaged my bro n law to sell my boat for me in San Antonio. We boarded the two cats and the two dogs, locked up the house and started the trek to my out laws, er in-laws :evil on Thursday evening after work. The first stop was my sisters house to spend the night in Owensboro, KY. We rolled in about 1am, parked the truck and boat out front and climbed in bed. We chatted for a few minutes the next morning and then hit the road for the long trek to Granite Shoals, Tx. The trip went well, I drove through all the major cities due to traffic concerns, and arrived at the out-laws at around 1am the next morning. Those were two hard days of driving :hammer: We were pretty much limited to a top speed of 65 mph due to the boat and boat trailers capabilities.
We then spent the next couple of days with the outlaws, then on Monday, we got our act together very late and headed up to Dallas. We drove up I35 and then headed over to Terry's to drop the truck off. Hung around for a short while, then called a limo, and had them take us to Mi Cocina (my wife's favorite place) and was able to have dinner with Doug and Unsane Wayne :beer: . The Unsane one shows up in his latest acquisition, another Viper and later takes Kim for a ride. At least the wife is now convinced we need a Viper :tu: Can we afford one, NO :crying: but if the day comes that we can, then at least I have the go ahead.
Doug is kind enough to take us to the airport so that we can catch our late flight out of DFW to Reno, NV to make the trip to Lake Tahoe. Our flight leaves at around 10p to arrive at Reno at 11p (dont forget about the 2 hour difference), then we get our rental car, queu up the GPS (these things are great, just bought a new portable one) and head on off to Lake Tahoe in the middle of the night. The GPS keeps us on track, we get to the Embassy Suites, check in at around midnight, and get some sleep.
The next few days are great as we drive around the lake, see the sites, dip our toes into the lake (water temp at the top a balmy 68 degrees). With highs in the low 80s and lows in the high 40s knana the weather was almost perfect. Lots of sunshine, food was great, etc. My parents were in the midst of a cross country tour themselves and met us for dinner one night (my treat of course) and spent the next morning with us driving around the lake seeing the sights.
On our last day there, we got out for breakfast and lunch, and checked out late for our trip back to Reno. Our flight back was supposed to leave at 12:30am (yes a red eye) and arrive in Dallas at 5:30 am. Just in time to get our luggage and meet Terry at Waffle House for some breakfast b4 we hit the road for a two day trip back to Erie. Well, we stopped for dinner in Reno, went to the mall to kill some time, and then we went to the airport. At checkin, we find out, due to weather, that our flight was delayed at least an hour, which became two hours. All the while Terry is working on the truck and we are chatting on the cell phone.
We finally get going (remember no sleep due to being in the airport) and fly back to DFW, get our luggage and grab a taxi to meet Terry. He is so great for getting the truck to us so close by and saving us at least a couple of hours of driving time, plus the truck was filled with gas. :bows
We head off out of town, taking 75 north into Ok then I40 east to Ark and heading north on I540 to stop in Springdale to see an ole buddy of mine that I hadnt seen in a while. We didnt look too good since we had been up all night and day. But we had a couple of burgers, chatted, said our good byes and headed up to St Louis. We call Hilton, get the last room at a Hampton Inn on the SW side, and drive right there with the help of the GPS. We were supposed to get up at 6a the next morning, the wake up call comes, but the wife wasnt budging, so we slept a little longer and got going at 10a. It was just straight driving after that, well after the stop at Starbucks, we arrived at home at 10:30p that night. I had a 7a meeting the next morning and I was pooped. But all was good.
I will say that one should do the cross country drive on occassion because you get to see things up close that you just dont see from a plane seat. It gives you a real appreciation for this land of ours and it lets you really see what the locals really think about what is going on in this country as well as the world. It has taken me about a week to recoup from all of this, but it was well worth it.
Dana
The wife and I went on a cross country tour via Lightning and plane. We live in Erie, PA, what one would call the Northeast part of the country. I had a 18' Bayliner boat that I owned in Dallas. These are open bow runabouts that one sees all over the Metroplex and by the dozens on the local lakes. Well for Lake Erie or some of the other lakes here, they arent nearly as practical. So I engaged my bro n law to sell my boat for me in San Antonio. We boarded the two cats and the two dogs, locked up the house and started the trek to my out laws, er in-laws :evil on Thursday evening after work. The first stop was my sisters house to spend the night in Owensboro, KY. We rolled in about 1am, parked the truck and boat out front and climbed in bed. We chatted for a few minutes the next morning and then hit the road for the long trek to Granite Shoals, Tx. The trip went well, I drove through all the major cities due to traffic concerns, and arrived at the out-laws at around 1am the next morning. Those were two hard days of driving :hammer: We were pretty much limited to a top speed of 65 mph due to the boat and boat trailers capabilities.
We then spent the next couple of days with the outlaws, then on Monday, we got our act together very late and headed up to Dallas. We drove up I35 and then headed over to Terry's to drop the truck off. Hung around for a short while, then called a limo, and had them take us to Mi Cocina (my wife's favorite place) and was able to have dinner with Doug and Unsane Wayne :beer: . The Unsane one shows up in his latest acquisition, another Viper and later takes Kim for a ride. At least the wife is now convinced we need a Viper :tu: Can we afford one, NO :crying: but if the day comes that we can, then at least I have the go ahead.
Doug is kind enough to take us to the airport so that we can catch our late flight out of DFW to Reno, NV to make the trip to Lake Tahoe. Our flight leaves at around 10p to arrive at Reno at 11p (dont forget about the 2 hour difference), then we get our rental car, queu up the GPS (these things are great, just bought a new portable one) and head on off to Lake Tahoe in the middle of the night. The GPS keeps us on track, we get to the Embassy Suites, check in at around midnight, and get some sleep.
The next few days are great as we drive around the lake, see the sites, dip our toes into the lake (water temp at the top a balmy 68 degrees). With highs in the low 80s and lows in the high 40s knana the weather was almost perfect. Lots of sunshine, food was great, etc. My parents were in the midst of a cross country tour themselves and met us for dinner one night (my treat of course) and spent the next morning with us driving around the lake seeing the sights.
On our last day there, we got out for breakfast and lunch, and checked out late for our trip back to Reno. Our flight back was supposed to leave at 12:30am (yes a red eye) and arrive in Dallas at 5:30 am. Just in time to get our luggage and meet Terry at Waffle House for some breakfast b4 we hit the road for a two day trip back to Erie. Well, we stopped for dinner in Reno, went to the mall to kill some time, and then we went to the airport. At checkin, we find out, due to weather, that our flight was delayed at least an hour, which became two hours. All the while Terry is working on the truck and we are chatting on the cell phone.
We finally get going (remember no sleep due to being in the airport) and fly back to DFW, get our luggage and grab a taxi to meet Terry. He is so great for getting the truck to us so close by and saving us at least a couple of hours of driving time, plus the truck was filled with gas. :bows
We head off out of town, taking 75 north into Ok then I40 east to Ark and heading north on I540 to stop in Springdale to see an ole buddy of mine that I hadnt seen in a while. We didnt look too good since we had been up all night and day. But we had a couple of burgers, chatted, said our good byes and headed up to St Louis. We call Hilton, get the last room at a Hampton Inn on the SW side, and drive right there with the help of the GPS. We were supposed to get up at 6a the next morning, the wake up call comes, but the wife wasnt budging, so we slept a little longer and got going at 10a. It was just straight driving after that, well after the stop at Starbucks, we arrived at home at 10:30p that night. I had a 7a meeting the next morning and I was pooped. But all was good.
I will say that one should do the cross country drive on occassion because you get to see things up close that you just dont see from a plane seat. It gives you a real appreciation for this land of ours and it lets you really see what the locals really think about what is going on in this country as well as the world. It has taken me about a week to recoup from all of this, but it was well worth it.
Dana