When blogs converge

 

We are parked on Salome Road near where it converges with Interstate 10, in Arizona (map).  This is further than I had planned to get yesterday, having expected to stop along AZ-72 northwest of its intersection with US-60, but even with the time change, it was too early to stop in that section.  Just as well, because we have good 3G coverage here near the Interstate and I had a number of boat-related phone calls to make this morning.

That leaves us just an hour and a half to Chandler today, where we have friends and will stop for the night.  On the way, we will fuel up, and possible swing by the motorcycle shop where we left our Honda Metropolitan scooter on consignment nearly four years ago.  We have not been able to reach them, and fear the scooter (and our money) may be gone forever.

A number of our readers have, apparently, been surfing over to the blog of our new boat's current owner, John.  Not surprising, since you all are a resourceful lot, and when Louise attached a photo of the boat to my blog post a few days ago, she used the unedited version with the boat's name clearly visible on the transom.  She chose the very same photo that I used when I first blogged about this boat back in November, but back then, I carefully erased the name, not wanting to jeopardize negotiations or otherwise jinx the deal.  (That did not stop a number of people on the bus boards from finding it anyway.)   It's really the best overall shot of her we have at the moment.

At any rate, John noticed the spike in hits there and posted a warm welcome to our readers, so those of you who have not already been over there might go check it out.  I read every word of his web site, and many of the posts two or three times, before we decided to make an offer on the boat.  He writes well, with a fairly dry sense of humor, and was very frank about the boat's weaknesses as well as strengths.  It gave us great confidence that we were buying a boat with no intentionally hidden issues, and one where the major issues that had already come to light were addressed in a professional and robust manner.

I think John was somewhat surprised that I spent so much time there, right down to remembering the nicknames of his crew.  The story of his self-delivery from where he bought the boat in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to Dog River Marina in Mobile, Alabama (where we once spent several days repairing Odyssey), in particular, is well worth the read.

And to any of John's readers who clicked through his link to this blog, I also extend a warm welcome.  We will continue to blog our adventures, both bus and boat, right here in these pages, so if you were following the boat you can do so here.  Does anyone want to buy a bus?

Photo by mrlerone, used under a Creative Commons license.