Lake Havasu City London Bridge

The Crossroads For Perpetua's Crew

When we got to Vancouver we hit the "Deck Running" as they say. Early Monday morning we got up and delivered the RV to the service center. We had been experiencing issues with our brakes and it was time for an engine tune up and to service the generator. As it turned out they needed to keep the RV over night. Fortunately we able to stay in our friends RV at the Stose's RV resort. We very much appreciate their kindness and friendship to no end!

We delayed our departure until we celebrated Susan's son Bill's birthday. We spent the time visiting Pat's son, Patrick's new digs and also, fishing and letter boxing with the grand kids (yes we're getting them hooked too). The time went by fast and all to soon it was time to depart.

We made a fast (for us) 5 day passage south with no extra stops a long the way to see attractions. We spent a night in Phoenix and visited Pat's daughter Lydia and her family.

Once in Green Valley we had to get the RV stowed and prepare ourselves to drive to Texas.

While on the way to Texas we got a phone call from our boat broker in Mexico. An offer had been made on the boat and were we interested in it. Bear in mind that at this point the boat had been for sale for 4.5 years. We'd been paying moorage fees and upkeep expenses all that time. Also, we had made several reductions in the asking price each time removing some of the gear that was portable and of some value. As in the past offers we'd received were lower than our asking price or for a ridiculous trade (ie a plane in Switzerland). This time it was no exception again less than of our asking price. So as we were whizzing along at 80 miles an hour across Texas, we looked at each other and said, let's do it! We accepted the offer then and there. In hind sight it now seems like a big decision had been made, but we were too busy driving and trying to get to McKinney and Pat's daughter's place to worry about it. Besides sometimes these things fall thru.

Our time in Texas was spent with the grand kids, visitng friends and family and getting new tires on the car. The kids were at school during the days, so we had some quality time with Pat's daughter, Jenica. Originally we were all supposed to go off to Florida for her wedding but that soon became too expensive, so we were tapped to ... babysit the grand kid's, while Jenica flew off to get married. Chris her fiance' was already there, as he was racing. (he's a race car owner/driver) When the jubilant couple returned after a slow drive home, they had scheduled a wedding celebration party a week later. We decided to stay for that event before heading back to Green Valley.

Once again, while traveling at 80 mph, on the way we got a call from the boat broker. This call reassured us that the deal was going to go through. The buyer, a Mexican, was "getting" the money together, his sister was fronting the money because the boat was to be used commercially in the tourist trade of Mazatlan. This proved to be an elongated process but eventually it did happen. So during this time we were still nervous about it going through and talked to the boat broker several times. He also told us that the a boat title transfer company in Seattle would be contacting us for the final transaction paperwork. This seemed all good, with one problem on our part. Remember all that stuff that had been removed from the sale price over the last few years. Well most of it was still being stored on the boat.

When we get back to Green Valley Pat tried in vain to get help from the folks he knew in Mazatlan to remove the gear and to store it. No one had time or resources to help him out. To the rescue came some friends that still had a boat in Mazatlan and who traveled to Tucson regularly for medical checkups at the VA. They were returning to Maz November 1st and I could catch a ride with them and since they usually stay in a rented condo near the marina, Pat could stay with them and store the boat gear there until spring, when we could get back to pick it up. In the mean time it was time for Susan to fly off and visit her mom for a week and this would over lap Pat's trip to Maz. We worked out the logistics of leaving the car in a storage lot at the airport when Pat left and Susan picking it up when she returned. The only thing left was how would Pat get back to the USA. That ended up being a Mexican bus.

Susan made her trip and Pat made his trip. All went well for both of us. Pat got everything off the boat in 2 days and stored at the condo. He meet the new owner and showed him around the boat, and ate at few of his favorite eateries. Pat was nervous about the bus ride, but his friends John and Marilyn assured him all would be OK and actually walked him through the ticket purchase and stood by until the bus left. The ride was a 19 hour overnight run to Tucson. The bus turned out to be a nice ride, it even had wifi for some legs so Pat talked on Skype to Susan and surfed the net. It stopped 5 times for various "checks", crossed the US boarder where we all had to exit the bus with all our stuff and walk across the boarder, showing our passports to the agents and have our stuff xrayed, before reentering the bus for Tuscon. Pat got off the bus in the south Tuscon bus station walked out the door and was meet by Susan, just like magic!

We barely had time to to catch our collective breaths because the very next weekend, we were off to a Letter Boxing event. First we drove to Mesa near Phoenix to our friends Brent & Molly's home. Then the next morning we were all off to Lake Havasu for the letter boxing event. Our friend Brent always manages to compile a list of Letterboxes along any route he travels. This was no exception. We stopped in Bouse and Parker to hunt down some finds (letter boxes). In Parker we stopped at a restaurant for lunch that Brent and & Molly knew about. Great food!

Once again while in route to some place, we received a call not from the boat broker but from the boat title transfer company. They wanted us to verify our banking information we supplied earlier. When we ask why, they said that the money was being transferred that day, this also meant that the boat title was also being transferred. We delayed leaving our lunch spot at the Crossroads Cafe in Parker, Az to make sure we gave them the correct account info for the transfer. Then we continued on to Lake Havasu City and our hotel. By the time we got to the hotel and checked our email and bank accounts the deal was done. The boat had been on the market so long we'd even talked about walking away from it and letting the moorage take her for the back rent. It all worked out in the end, Pat and Susan were now boatless after 41 years of owning Perpetua. We were in shock but not bad enough not to celebrate. Besides we had a Letter boxing meet-and-greet dinner to go to. Wah-Hoo !!

We spent the remainder of the weekend searching high and low around lake Havasu City for the many letter boxes that had been planted for the event and others that had been previously planted. We ran into several letter boxers that we knew and we all were having great fun comparing our clues and finds.

On Sunday we headed back to Green Valley. We stopped in Phoenix to visit with Pat's daughter Lydia and her family. Otherwise our trip back was uneventful and we had time to digest that fact that the boat had been finally sold.

Long Live Perpetua

Pictured Here Anchored in Bahia Tenacatita 2009

In a little over a week it was time for Thanksgiving. We held the event at our place this year. Brent & Molly came down and stayed with us for the weekend. Herman and Nancy came for Thanksgiving dinner. We all had enough to eat and then some. We spent the rest of the weekend Letterbox hunting around our area.

We resumed our club activities whenever we could. We manged to get up to Phoenix again to celebrate Pat's grandson, Tyrique's birthday and spend time with the family.

Earlier in the year we had decided to travel to New Holland PA to spend Christmas with Susan's mother who was 99 at that time. We also decided to travel by train. This was our first time traveling this way for any amount of distance and time. The trip was going to take three and a half days and we'd have to change trains three times and we still had to rent a car to complete trip. So we had an adventure to plan for and get ourselves ready. First off where is the train station in Tucson and on from there it went.

We manged to get ourselves organized and on the train on time. We'd made our reservations to late to get a "sleeping car" so we were going to be setting and sleeping in our chairs. Fortunately they reclined (some) and had foot rests, even so, parts of our bodies were uncomfortable most of the time. There is an observation car with different types of seating and beautiful viewing of the scenery available. Also in that car is what is called a Cafe', this store has snacks, breakfast and lunch foods, soft drinks, coffee, beer and wine. There is also a dinning car which as the name implies is where you have your meals. However we soon learned that if you were going to eat all your meals in the dinning car you'd need DEEP pockets. So we ended up mostly using the Cafe' services and reserved the dinning car for our dinners.

Now in order to move around on the train while it's moving and jostling along, back and forth, up and down all at the same time, is an acquired skill. Fortunately Susan and I had our boating on the river and ocean experience to give us a leg up on learning the skill. This worked out to be two hands for the train somehow and any gear had to be slung over the shoulders and secured to prevent it from bashing the heads of folks still seated along the way. Don't get me wrong we had a grand time and is an experience one should have at least once. The scenery was fantastic including all the little towns and cities we pass through, you really get a sense of how large and vast the US is and all the varied types of terrain and farming that goes on across the country.

We had a very nice Christmas with Susan's mother and family. We visited her sister Alice and had a nice lunch together. We'd only planned on staying a week before returning on the train. That was long enough for our body parts to readjust and prepare for the return trip. We were traveling near the new year and we'd arrive on New years eve.

As usual there are folks in every crowd that like to party and some go at it from dawn to dust. We had one obvious person that fell into this category. Roaming up and down the train inserting herself into other peoples conversions and generally making a nuisance of herself. Her down fall happened when she missed a train stop at a designated smoke stop, because of being involved in one of these conversions. (no smoking on the train, it is a federal law and isn't tolerated) She put up quite a fuss and ended up opening a window in the exit area to have a smoke. Of course she was caught and she was removed from the train at an unscheduled stop and handed over to the local police. We arrived back in Tuscon with no further events. Happy new year!

Thanks for visiting our blog. More to follow for sure!

Created on Deecember 9, 2016