Wild Horses

Hello OSO World

Firstly, I have been “off the air” for a couple of months. Remember I was planning my 3 weeks in Florida back in February. Well the day before I left I was told my IT contract would not be renewed due to project issues. So we decided a month away was in order and to worry about work when we returned. The following is a ‘brief” review of our adventures.

The wife and I left Toronto at 4:30 on March 7th and arrived at Marine Land of Florida at 4:30 the next day pulling Wild Horses (’89 Formula F311 – 12,000# loaded with fuel) with a 2001 Chevy D/A dually ext. cab LT, gear for a month and the kiddies in the back seat. We drove straight through except for a meal a Denny’s…. 1355 miles and only $180 in fuel!!! Try finding a hotel in the middle of Bike Week! We spent the week at the sister-in-laws at West Palm Beach and ditched the boat in a couple of times in the intercostal. We did a run down to Fort Lauderdale and spent the afternoon at Shooters Bar. Followed by a return trip up the ocean in the dark.

At the end of the March break we put the kiddies back on a plane to Ontario (school you know….. someone has to work) and headed south for the Keys. We were passing through south Miami on US 1 …Homestead I believe…. barbed wire fences everywhere, one of the worst places to be most likely when we lost an axle. Smoked the hub … full bearing failure. Errf. Many thanks to Camp-Out Inc. for getting us on our way and guarding the boat, although it took three days. So we met up with friends and partied in South Beach.

By Thursday morning we were hooking up with Intolerant 1 and his wife in Key Largo and splashing the boat. We must confess that you never know what type of weirdo’s you may meet on the internet but the hospitality that Chris and Kathi laid out was most impressive. We spent three days with them and Kathi’s parents and had a blast. Will most definitely do it again. At some point we ended up at Islamorada at the Tiki Bar for four days… what a blast, and then headed down to Marathon for a couple of days.

We snorkeled and scuba dived the USS Dwane, saw sharks, topless coeds, and ate more seafood than ever in my life. A good time all around.

Then back to Key Largo and off to South Beach Marina across from the Port of Miami for another four days. We must say that everywhere we went we were offered hospitality and friendly service. The folks in south Florida are excellent hosts. Special thanks to Quincy Beneche of the Denver Nuggets for his tour of South Beach until the early hours of a couple of mornings )

We then headed back to West Palm Beach for a few days of relaxing in the backyard of the sister-in-laws and then had to make the hard choice of heading home. Another straight 28 hours and we went from sunny 90 degrees to 42 degrees and five days of solid rain, gray sky and snow. Splashed the boat in the water (35 degrees) ……. Why do we live up here?

Of special note… with all the AT (Pat and Steve) bashing that has been going on recently I would like to comment on our trip to Active Thunder. Many thanks to both of these gentlemen as our tour of the facility on March 11th was most impressive. Nice ride Thunder Dan and we witnessed the top deck (have pictures) being removed from the mold for Jassman’s vessel. This appears to be a clean and well-run facility. The work is top notch and the hardware they are using nothing but the best. Remember, I am a Formula loyal. However, our subsequent visit to the facility on April 5th has us wondering what to own next. Pat and Steve took a couple hours out of their day to launch 37AVH and take us for a demo ride. This vessel is most impressive, no bow rise on plan off, 70mph in 4-5’ choppy conditions was nothing even when cornering left or right at extremely tight radiuses. It always rode level and true. This is one solid boat. We were most impressed and will definitely be giving this craft consideration on our next trade up. Many thanks to the AT crew.

Well, that is about it. I lived the life for a month, have come back and found a new contract and am back in the rat race all over again. However, this will be a trip that will occur again in the not too distant future. We’ll be back!

Milord

Thanks for sharing, it sounds like you guys had a blast. You have to love contract work sometimes!

Tbonepmp

Wild Horses,
YOU ARE DA MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Sounds like you had a blast; post some pics....)

Jassman

That is exactly the vacation I need right now, up to my head in houses and am getting burned out, I envy you, take care.

thunderdan

sounds like a great trip. And thanks for the compliement on the boat.

Airpacker

sounds like you had a great time.welcome back to cold town we put our docks in on couch on saturday and you're right....the water is FRIGGIN FREEZING.its tuesday and i am still shivering.I hope you flushed all that yucky salty crap outta your engines while you were down there,don't want to contaminate simcoe ya know. See you on the lake some time.

cuda

Now, THAT'S what I call a vacation. (except for driving straigh through )

Steve 1

Cool post Wild Horses !








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Have a Manatee Burger with Falafel Beans and a nice Red Chardonnay

Intolerant1

I gotta pipe in here and thank the Wildhorses for making a good vacation a great vacation. We had a dock at our townhouse and they had a boat...who hell cares if we got along or not! As it turns out, I think we have done well to promote peace between our two countries. The Keys are a great place but without access to the water, we would not have had nearly as much fun. I hope we can get together this summer. I have a ton a digital photos but still trying to figure out how to shrink them down.

Thanx again,
Chris & Kathi

PS, we had shrimp tonight!