The thought was, and I say "was" because these things have a way of changing as they evolve. So "the thought was" to put an old boat, probably a houseboat, into the water at Knoxville and cruise down the Tennessee River to the Mississippi River, all the way to New Orleans.
A distance of? Well, we didn't even know. In a time frame of? We didn't know that either. So we threw a time frame at it of thirty days. I do like a plan, but this was "lets get this trip off the ground" kind of planning. I've always been one of those people that believes that ninety percent of doing anything is starting.
The other day Chuck and I were sipping cocktails at the tiki bar, while Wayne was wiring a plug for the beer refrigerator behind the bar. Chuck announces; "Boys, if we're going to take that trip down to New Orleans, we had better kick it in the ass cus' we're not getting any younger, and time is a wastin' ". Or words to that effect.Wayne, the only one doing anything constructive, yells from the liquor room that: He's ready, whenever we spin the prop.
You all know of course why a bunch of old guys would think about doing a trip like this. If not, let your eyes wander to the left and it will become crystal.
Chuck says he knows a guy on a nearby lake that has a house boat for sale for nine thousand but we might be able to get him to come down. We all agree that nine thousand is out of our budget. I reflect on some of our earlier talks about the boat.
We had talked about finding a junker and fixing it up enough to make the trip. This would give the three of us some creature comforts and hopefully be "sea worthy" enough not to get us killed. A note worthy of consideration, even at our ages. For those folks that might stumble on this drivel and don't know us, we three are "Baby Boomers" all in our early to mid sixties. We're all retired or on the lam in some form or another, and most of the time not wanted by the law, but there have been occasions, however those are stories for another time. Now back to the plan... We intended that this boat, probably of the house boat design, would be of such poor condition that we would float, cruise, paddle to New Orleans and abandon it.
However, all three of us have worked for government in some capacity over the years and had the thought that if we abandon a boat, they are going to come after us for salvage costs. So we decided to register it to a dead guy that we know, I mean knew. (But we all loved him and thought about naming the boat after "Paul"). In that way we would be able to strip the boat of the electronics, navigation and radio equipment, and walk.
So a few days pass and Wayne has discovered another boat. He kept referring to to it as a house boat, but when we went to look at it, it's a cruiser, 26 ft, long powered by a 308. (I think that was made by GM for Pontiac, might be wrong). The craft itself is one of the cruisers that the "Brown Water Navy" used in Viet Nam, but without the twin monsters that they used. At this point the other nicest thing I can say about this boat is that it doesn't leak.
Well, the guy that owns this boat is a hoarder. He and his cat lived on it and he and the cat are moving into his newly purchased boat two slips down. And I see why he's moving... so he can move around. That's where we're at. It also occurs to me when we look at his newly purchased boat, he has a nice amount of room on this old "Chris" and wouldn't that be nice!
The boat owner is supposed to be cleaning it out. We are starting to read up on river cruising and navigation. Laying in charts and looking up satellite navigation systems (looks cool and could save our butts). And still looking for other boats in case this one just doesn't work. Of course there are the naysayers, that say plan, save, wait....But what would I do if Chuck died and never had a chance to log a river trip?
We returned several times over several weeks, and none of the empty beer boxes had exited the boat. A side note is that the cat had decided to live in both places, while his cat box has moved to the new abode. The thought occurred to me where is the cat doing his duty? Well, probably in the empty beer boxes.Things aren't looking good for this boat. And I'm having issues with it anyway.
Things fell silent for awhile and the early fall departure date ceased to exist, and the late fall sortie date also came and went.
Meanwhile, I had begun to read extensively about this river trip idea and found that there have been several people (hundreds) that have done it. I also found that there is a group called American Great Loop Cruisers Association,(AGLCA), "Loopers". I found through this organization that there is a water loop which makes it possible to visit a great deal of the Eastern United States. And not surprisingly, these people are light years ahead of us. Remember us? Mississippi River, don't know how far? Don't know how long?
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