We survived Hurricane Earl and as near as I can tell, the boat is back together and ready to head south. To celebrate, we're gonna do a mini shakedown cruise leaving Monday and returning back to the Buddy Fred's sometime later in the week. Of course those plans are made assuming that the two hurricanes and one tropical storm now romping through the Atlantic don't come our way, but I like to think optimistically.

In other news, we had a brief two day visit from my mom and dad on their way home from Bristol, Tennessee back to Maryland where they live. And for the second year in a row, their motor home made it all way to the Buddy Fred's before it broke down. Shitty death!

Last year I spent two days laying underneath the motor home replacing an alternator the size of Uranus (huh, huh) and this year we struggled to reattach the exhaust pipe to the back of the turbo charger. Their motor home is almost new (2005) and cost a small fortune, but I'd swear it must have had some gremlins installed in it from the factory. I wonder if they paid extra for those?

Anyway, we found a guy locally who knew his stuff when it came to diagnosing turbos and we were able to get the machine squared away. As an aside, the father unit (Dad) reported no incidents on the way home.

And lastly, our friend Toby called out of the blue yesterday and said he was going to be passing by on his way south with a go fast boat he is delivering from New York to Fort Lauderdale. We made arrangements to meet him in town and he, Amy and I went out for dinner and a few beers in Oriental. We haven't seen Toby in almost a year, so it was good to get to catch up.

Tomorrow we finish packing and Monday we're outta here. More to follow, end of line.