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ROWDY'S Road Trip  
   

May 19, 2013. Jerry Slaughter picked up his 'new' boat, a Marscot/O'Day Dolphin built in 1960, in Patchogue, Long Island, New York, put her on her 'new' trailer, and made the 2000 mile trip to her new home in San Antonio, Texas. It was an exciting trip - and perhaps painful for him to share it with us. Thanks Jerry!

Well Ron, let me tell you, that was quite a trip.

To start out, the boat yard failed to realize that I was going up there so soon. The yard boss (owner) said he read my letter showing my arrival date but it didn't sink in until I was on their door stoop. ROWDY was wedged in behind two boats and squeezed between two more. Their travel lift was 22 feet wide and the space where ROWDY sat was 22'2". after sitting on our hands for 2 days they final got around to moving boats and tried to get to ROWDY.

Well, in jockeying the travel lift back and forth, it literally dug itself into a 2 foot hole in the sand. That problem was ultimately solved with shoveling, raking, and filling and Rowdy was extracted.

So off my helper and I go. Rowdy is strapped to the trailer with three ratchet straps, all the pads are snugged up and all seems secure (Ha!). We are driving through the Queens and the roughest roads in the state when I noticed the front strap has come loose and the next second it was gone. The roads are, like I said, rough as a cob and the boat appears to be pitching, fore and aft so I find a small shoulder to pull on (I use the term "shoulder" here very loosely, it was actually a piece of asphalt that no one was driving on, at the moment.) I jumped from a "jersey barrier" up to the deck and manage to get a rope tied from the bow to the trailer. Cars and cops are whizzing by but no one apparently cares as long as we don't block the highway.

The truck (9.6 mpg), and boat/trailer seem to do ok to Annapolis where my helper lives and we park the rig for the night. Next morning I'm ready to take on fuel and hit the road for the final 1600 mile portion of the trip. My helper had parked the trailer a little close to a storm drain and managed to ding a wheel rim. Thinking nothing of it I managed to drive two blocks when a tire blew. I found out that AAA does not cover boat tire changing and $65 later I'm off again (Ha!). I stopped at a trailer store to get another spare and I asked the store guy to look at the way my wheels were riding close to the fender on one side. He saw a broken leaf spring! I found a repair shop and on inspection all the spring sets had cracks. Parts being available, three hours later and $1200 poorer I'm ready to go.

After this its all pretty mundane, just catching cat naps where I can and pumping gas. One more thing showed up in Houston when I stopped to visit a boating friend, and show off ROWDY. One of the trailer tires was almost bald, apparently an axle got bent some where along the way so I changed tires and went on home.

IT SURE WAS GOOD TO BE HOME!

Jerry

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