John W - Thanks for the invite to stay at your place. Never been to Tradewinds before. This is my first trip that far south although I've been to Ft. Lauderdale. Does that count? Actually, we are going to pre-position the sailing stuff after staying in Destin all week. We then fly back to Detroit from Miami. That work thing seems to get in the way all the time. We return to Miami on the 10th, sail and will head north after the event. Should be home later on the 16th, weather permitting. We're all set up at Gilbert's and can't wait to thaw out a bit.

John: My favorite road trip is still the trip to Midwinters in 93. We went with Dick and Anne in the Magic Bus. It was its first voyage after Dick picked it up. We travelled with Billy and the DW(Disaster Wagon).I think Matt was there.
We had to carry the boats over about a ten foot snow bank to do the double stack. It was just after the huge 93 snow storm. Have fun, wish we could go.

Well you guys at least are preparing.

Trey and I are packing up Friday AFTERNOON and leaving. We wont get there until very early on Saturday morning.

WOW! now that is pushing it!

Can't help it really.

School for T-dawg and work for Toothpick-PingPongBall :-/

Billy blew out about all his tires when we hit the hot roads down south. One of the blow outs took out the propane line. We had to get all new tires in Georgia and do propane line repairs.

Now THAT'S an accurate representation of RV ownership. They need that picture in the owner's manual.

I remember that snowstorm - was living in Philly at the time. Brr.

I was there in '93 - picked up Suanne Pfeiffer (chain-smoking 105lb figure skater crew) from the DTW airport (boat in tow) and hit I-75 South. 1,237 miles and no stops later, we pulled into DIYC at about 3 AM.

The Syracuse crowd was still partying.

That picture of Billy under the DW is pretty funny - neither one of us had much gray hair then!

Pat - do you have pictures of the DW on fire?
I've seen them, so I know they exist.

I don't have the big fire. On the trip to Tampa in 93 the exhaust pipe didn't make it out past the side of the motor home and heated up the aluminum floor enough to get the carpet smoking. Rob was driving and called back on the CB to say they were filling up with smoke and should pull over.
In true Billy fashion we built a tailpipe extension from soda cans and radiator hose clamps and moved on. It wasn't called the DW for nuthin.

Blowing tires in an RV is NOT FUN. Had the same experience twice (within 150 miles) coming across Texas (from California) on our way to the 1998 H17 Continentals in P'cola. Same tire...left rear inboard...closest to the exhaust. Sounded like grenades going off. Had a spare but no jack. They don't give you jack's with Class A RV's. You gota call for road service. Damn Texas roads are pretty hot in September.

No kidding - I've been there once and our '04 Tybee ground crew was there again changing a tire. I was fortunate in that I moved a propane line at the time I installed airbags on the rear suspension for that very possibility two months before the first blow out. Plenty of sheet metal damage but no propane emergency!

You guys really should downsize to a truck camper, less maintenance & no plates. Lighter weight & better gas milage. But then again you still need to stop every two to three hours for a potty break.

Fond memory Jake.
Rico & I were stuck under ShastaMcNasty, laying in the grass and cochina, covered in tire dirt and grease, cursing every thing we could. You guys were in trouble and calling for support from the Ground crew, wondering where the hell we were.
What a worthless couple of louts, What could they be doing when you make your 1 phone call. "Probably out drinking again" . . .
Hard to find a dime for the coin slot out there with waves rolling up to the spreaders. You almost beat us up the coast.
I never told you how proud I was of you guys. Good job.
CARY

Them Seacats are way cool!

Future's so bright, Gotta wear shades . . .

Been there, done that. Tents, vans, slide-ins and trampolines. I'll take a Class A or Class C RV over a truck camper any day. Hot shower, heat, galley, head, queen size bed, all for not much more cost in gas mileage. I get 10 MPG...uphill, downhill, pulling the boat, doesn't matter. Most pickups/SUV's only get 12-15 MPG when towing. In the big scheme of things I'll go with comfort in my old age and sacrifice a few MPG's. The only drawback is robbing the ATM to fill it up. You only live once.

I like the A's as well. I got rid of the noisy front end 454 chevy that was falling apart anyway and got a 38' Diesel pusher. Wow, what a difference. And it was less money than a van.
It was a pre-slide out era vehicle and lost a lot of value. New price was over $300,000. Got it for around $65,000. Full air ride, with lots of beautiful things, tons of room below.
Once in a while someone will say, "Nice Camper."
I freak out.., it is not a camper. I hate camping.
Rick

Correction Tad.....we are leaving at 11:15 on Friday. Packing will be done completely the day before. Oh what a fun drive...12+ hours with 4 people in my truck! Reminds me of Tybee time.......

SHOTGUN!

Ha, you can drive. I'm gonna sleep. And Jen says that you have to play by the rules: http://www.shotgunguide.com/

Specifically, rule number 4:

Early calls are strictly prohibited. All occupants of the vehicle (including the driver) must be outside of the building and directly on the way to the vehicle before shotgun may be called. Under no circumstances may a person call shotgun inside a building. For sake of simplicity, a garage is considered to be outside. Parking structures and detached garages are always considered as being outdoors, even if they are underground.