The Cruising Adventures of Wild Blue and crew...

Wild Blue is on the trailer and loaded; Big Red's truck bed is bulging... nope, we don't travel light. It will take a while to get the house closed down tomorrow, and we'll hit the road. Looking forward to our summer in the San Juans!

Mapping it out puts the miles around 2,800... and the estimated fuel costs made me gasp! :shock:

See you PNW folks in a couple weeks.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
That's 500 miles further than our Wyoming to Alaska run. I'll bet big O Texas is a sizable amount of those 2800 miles. I gasped some too when I checked fuel prices in Pelican, Alaska & found it $6 a gallon.

Here's wishing you & Joan a great time in the PNW this summer & a safe drive there :beer

Jay
 
Hunkydory":1emhpwdo said:
That's 500 miles further than our Wyoming to Alaska run. I'll bet big O Texas is a sizable amount of those 2800 miles. I gasped some too when I checked fuel prices in Pelican, Alaska & found it $6 a gallon.

Here's wishing you & Joan a great time in the PNW this summer & a safe drive there :beer

Jay
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jay. We're enjoying your Alaska posts. Yesterday was a 3-shirt, 2-shower day; hot and humid... looking forward to some cool... well, not "Alaska cool." :wink:

Travel safe, and keep the posts coming.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
We be rollin'...

http://captnjim.blogspot.com/2012/05/we-be-rollin.html

HOT! Got out of town after noon, watching the outside thermometer in the truck climb... 95º, hot and humid, melting ice cream, and a plug in for the night so we can run our air conditioning!

Barely 10% of the way, but glad to be rolling. :D

RVParkE.jpg

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Jim,
Pat and I are running around the Southwest in our RV. Right now the 4th in Sedona Az. On Sunday we are headed to Page Az. for a couple of days before we head to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Are you going to be around? I'll show you some pictures of my December sailing adventures from Jamaica to Puerto Rico. There was a few pages and pictures posted in the Latitude 38, our west coast sailing publication by the skipper.
:) I hope you have a great summer in the PNW. Maybe you'll see one of the C-Dorys I sold to folks up there.
Anyway, drive carefully.
Steve Grover
 
Steve Grover":3hmvdtnx said:
Jim,
Pat and I are running around the Southwest in our RV. Right now the 4th in Sedona Az. On Sunday we are headed to Page Az. for a couple of days before we head to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Are you going to be around? I'll show you some pictures of my December sailing adventures from Jamaica to Puerto Rico. There was a few pages and pictures posted in the Latitude 38, our west coast sailing publication by the skipper.
:) I hope you have a great summer in the PNW. Maybe you'll see one of the C-Dorys I sold to folks up there.
Anyway, drive carefully.
Steve Grover
Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

Nice to hear from you! We left Arizona just over a month ago, so we're now a few states away from you; sorry we'll miss you. We're out of the RV and back in Wild Blue... but in an RV park again tonight. 95º in southern Oklahoma; took us two long driving days to get out of Texas. 8)

We'll look forward to the next time our paths cross.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Batten down the hatches - storm on the prairie...

http://captnjim.blogspot.com/2012/05/ba ... tches.html

More water in the bilge that we've ever had while on the water! :disgust Wind, horizontal rain, LOTS of lightning, and broken tree branches coming down on us.

Sheesh!
 
Higuys glad you made it ok. Wild weather. Had a big thunderstorm in Klamath Falls last year did a lot of tree branches down. Missed us ok too. Had a line out to windward off the midship cleat. I was worried about getting blown over. The wind was beam on at 55 to 60. Sounds like you had that much at least. Safe trip today. Get a recovery nap in there. George
 
Hi George,

440 miles today - didn't get that "recovery nap." We had a great tailwind as we drove north... until we turned west, and then got the nasty crosswind. Big Red does a fine job of keeping Wild Blue on the straight and narrow. It was an uneventful day, with the exception of me embarrassing Joan by dancing around the fuel pump when we got 14 mpg (thanks to the tailwind).

We passed the time today by studying about Orca whales in the Salish Sea. This is info we need to know for our summer jobs... and very interesting. We would occasionally quiz each other, and Joan read a lot of it outloud; we never felt the need for the satellite radio today.

Before we left this morning, local TV reported 70+ mph straight line winds where we were last night. I believe it. While we were getting ready to roll, a woman drove by and said, "I thought it was kind of unusual to see a boat in an RV park last night. With all that rain, I think you were the smart ones."

:wink:

We did see some damage from the wind as we drove north: billboards bent over, a few road signs down, an RV with the awning torn away, and another lying upside down. :shock:

Sunny and windy today. The day started with an absolutely spectacular morning, reasonably cool and low humidity... first we've seen that in a while. By mid-afternoon, it was back to 90º. We're down for the night in another small RV park; a 30 amp plug-in and cable TV... I think I'll be watching the weather a bit closer tonight (and not believe "In-Accuweather" :roll: ).

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
A couple more days down the road. Things have changed from hot to chilly, but we got a very warm reception with our boat in the RV park we are in for a couple nights...

http://captnjim.blogspot.com/2012/05/livin-large.html

We have our satellite TV set up, pulled in early, and are livin' large.

Site2e.jpg

Over half way to the PNW.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Jim,

Every time we drive across country and get to the point where you can see that view we think of the early settlers who had just struggled across the interminable plains and suddenly they look up and say "Oh $**t".

M
 
Grumpy,

Funny you say that....I have had the same thoughts.

I could just image what the women were mumbling behind their husbands backs---I know what my wife would be saying.
 
There was some mumbling today. OK, some outright grousing. Mother Nature gave us hot yesterday (82 degrees) and just the opposite today...

http://captnjim.blogspot.com/2012/05/ca ... rland.html

Wild Blue was not a happy girl. She has seen snow from a distance before... as in: when we were down where it wasn't and it was up in the mountains. Not today...

Snow2e.jpg

WildBlueSnowE.jpg

Whew! 386 miles to go.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Jim,

Sorry about that Montana storm. Your timing was just a little off. By lunch the sun came out and Bozeman pass was dry and the 4 inches of wet snow in my yard had melted. 25 deg for a low tonight then back into the 60's. As you know we have 3 seasons, July, August and Winter.

Safe Travels,
Kevin
 
Jim,

Seattle weather is forecasting Summer this weekend. As in the best weekend of all summer. I think that is going out on a limb some, and maybe with a chainsaw on the tree side, but who knows. Anywayhow, it is supposed to be mid to high 70's and maybe 80 for Mother's day. Will probably melt all that snow off Wild Blue before you get her into the water. (Sure would not want all that extra weight on now would you?)

Travel safe, and see you at FH CBGT.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Montana Kev":102eq4yz said:
Jim,

Sorry about that Montana storm. Your timing was just a little off. By lunch the sun came out and Bozeman pass was dry and the 4 inches of wet snow in my yard had melted. 25 deg for a low tonight then back into the 60's. As you know we have 3 seasons, July, August and Winter.

Safe Travels,
Kevin
Click to expand...

Ahhh... that old "you shoulda been here yesterday" thing, huh? You don't fool me, Kev - current Bozeman temp: 22 degrees! :xseek

We used to say "Two seasons in the Tetons: July and winter". 24 degrees in the 5th wheel is doable, not so much in the boat. And to this old body: no gracias! 8)

We considered sitting for another day at Reed Point, but considering the temps, glad we didn't. We've experienced all 4 seasons in the past week. 8)

Best wishes,
Jim
 
The construction on I-90 east of Snowqualmie Pass was interesting. The lane (the only lane) got pretty narrow; we had to do a balancing act of: don't hit the barrels, don't let the trailer wheels get off into the rough stuff. Someone had a twisted sense of humor about the construction barrel placement. :crook

Wild Blue is down for her last night on land for a while... made it to Anacortes late this afternoon. We're hoping to get some stuff transferred from the truck to the boat, then get her launched tomorrow. We'll spend a couple nights at a marina here before heading to Friday Harbor. Lots to get done in the meantime.

Mapquest lied... it was just a bit over 3,000 miles getting here, with no side trips. It has been a long time since we made that kind of trek without any fun side trips along the way. We're both anxious to get the boat back in the water and get provisioned. Little Izzy was beginning to think we were living in the truck. This afternoon, she learned how to board the boat by herself from land... she looked pretty proud when she made it to the cockpit.

Thanks for riding along (and the encouragement, and offers for a place to stop for the night from a couple C-Brats... sorry the timing and weather didn't work). See you in the San Juans.

Best wishes,
Jim & Joan (and Izzy)

PS We think we saw David on I-5 this afternoon... he honked, but his lane was moving faster than ours... we waved as he cruised on by.
 
Happy to see you made it safely. We experienced some of those low 20 temperatures on the way here too. Not fun, though I think these wet 40 degree day & nights even worse.

WOW!!!!! 0ver 300,000 comments & with your writing ability, humor & zest for life think its still only the beginning.

Best To You Both,

Jay
 
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