Who is that elegant dame?

“What are you going to call your boat”? “Does she have a name yet”? These were questions I was asked long before I even started construction and she hadn’t a name yet. I felt a little embarrassed to have to say “no” but I wanted a suitable name and one that I was proud of. Some folks offered suggestions like “Huck II” or “Muddy Mississippi” one man even asked me if the boat’s name was for sale. The boat’s name however was not for sale nor did any of the suggested names really grab me. So, just like a virgin tattoo wearer searching for the most meaningful design, I waited. In fact I thought the chances were good that I would be miles downstream before a befitting name would take hold.
One afternoon about a month ago, I heard my Grandpa Marvin say, “Well, like my Grandma Alexander always said: The worst thing of all is to go through life with a great big wanter and a little bitty getter. So keep your getter bigger than your wanter”. This was an anecdote that I had heard all my life but I still chuckled because it’s such a funny saying and because it’s so simply true. Then my chuckle grew silent and was replaced by a smile that could have been seen by the people sitting behind me. I finally had a name that was as obvious as the perm-a-grin it gave me, “Big Getter.”

Proposed Itinerary

This Itinerary will change, not drastically but before you make travel plans we should talk. You can reach me by email at: justusmclarty@yahoo.com or by phone at: 646-671-6167.

Click on images to enlarge.

Rock hard and baby blue

It’s true that the pontoons are used but at least they weren’t put up wet, or else I would have had even more maintenance to do. Over the last couple months I’ve put in a few weeks of work and love getting the tubes beautiful and up to par. The first phase was to sand all of the old paint off. One of the pontoons used to be silver and the other one was white. The paint on both was cracking and in need of a new coat. I did most of the sanding in my grandfathers driveway with a belt sander and a palm sander for those hard-to-reach-places. The two large objects attracted a lot of rubber necking and more than once curious onlookers stopped to inquire. One fellow asked, “are them silos or missiles”? After about a week of straining my forearms and sneezing neoprene paint I had both pontoons smooth as silk and stripped down to their natural grey skin. Next I started patching. The first step was to locate the leaks. I did this by spraying a light coat of soapy water on the tubes, and then marking where bubbles formed with a red magic marker. Once the suds had gone I was left with a daunting number of patches (I wont tell you how many) but I persistently went to work cutting out patches and mixing glue. Most of the leaks were just pinholes that I knew weren’t top priority but I wanted to patch as much as possible before I painted the tubes. I also put on some preventative patches for extra protection against rubbing. Well, the work has paid off because now the tubes don’t leak which equates to less pumping once we are afloat. By the time you see the pontoons they will be rock hard and baby blue.

Running Shuttle. How do I get back to where I started?

Well, here are some suggestions:

1) Buy a round trip ticket to a city near your starting point or ending point. Look into bus service (Greyhound covers many of the small towns that I will pass through www.greyhound.com/locations/locations.asp) to get you from your arrival city to the put-in or from the take-out back to your arrival city.
2) Buy a round trip ticket to a city near your starting point or ending point. Explore the possibility of renting a car and do one of two things; either leave it where you meet me and then hitch or bus back to your car, OR arrange with another party who might be taking off where you are putting in to take the rental car back. This of course would take some coordinating.
3) Buy 2 one-way tickets arriving and departing from 2 different cities.
4) The easiest way is to have a friend or family member pick you up and/or drop you off. I’ve offered beer, massages and money in the past and they all seemed to work well.

5) If you are traveling with someone else you could rent 2 cars and run your own shuttle by leaving one car at the take-out and then both of you taking the second car to the put-in. The convenience could be worth the extra cost.

I will assist in any way I can.

Is there a fee?

No there is not a charge. I just want as much company as possible. I will however ask that you bring food for yourself or maybe enough for a group meal.