Day 3 June 16 Roebuck to Charleston, SC

It was a short 200 miles to Charleston. Along the way we stopped at a truck stop and had the View weighed. It is exactly 10,000 lb some 900 lb under the maximum. This is good as there is less wear and tear on the tires and transmission. The left side is 360 lb heavier than the right.  How to move 180 lb from the left to the right to balance things up we can’t figure out.  We arrived at the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina at 2:00PM. The marina is at Patriot Point beside the Yorktown aircraft carrier. We crossed the spectacular new Ravenel suspension bridge to get to the marina. Our friends Bart and Elie recently acquired a 49 ft Defever named Dewlap. We spent the afternoon on the boat watching thunderstorms over downtown Charleston and a lot of heavy rain and wind. Dinner was at the resort and tonight we are sleeping on the boat with its air-conditioning as there is no shore power in the resort parking lot.

Day 2 June 15 Nashville to Roebuck, SC.

We were underway at 6:15AM and drove 359 miles to a small campground at Roebuck arriving at 3:00PM EDT. Crossing the Clinch River, the site of the TVA’s massive fly ash storage pond spill, we could see floating dams but overall the water looked pretty clean and there were boats running about. We were going to stop at Asheville, NC but got there so early we decided to keep going and save time tomorrow getting to Charleston.  I-40 is spectacular going through the Smoky Mountains. With relatively few trucks, no landslides, and no rain, it was pretty easy going. Roebuck is a small town near Spartanburg. The campsite is small but well equipped. Most of the campers here are in 5^th wheel trailers which are probably permanent homes. One has two red Chrysler Crossfire sports cars out front in their own tent; one is a convertable the other a hard top.

Day 1 June 14 Kenlake to Nashville

We started the day right with a 20 mile cruise on the Nautica RIB with friends on jet skis to Moors Marina on Kentucky Lake for their buffet breakfast. I have concluded they have the best breakfast on the lake. We got back at 11:00AM and started packing and putting the Katy Leigh away for 6 weeks. At Murray where we keep the View in a storage shed, I checked the tire pressures, and put some distilled water in the house batteries. The View started right up after 4 months in storage and we headed for Nashville via the backroads. That evening we packed everything we would need from the house into the View and slept on the View to get an early start on Monday.

Introduction to Newfoundland Loop 2009

We pick up the View on Sunday June 14 in Murray KY at Papa Smurfs storage. The map shows our route. We?l stay in Nashville at the house Sunday night, then leave early morning for Asheville, NC. Our next stop is Charleston, SC where we will spend a couple of days at a marina with a friend that bought a 49 ft Defever trawler named ?ewlap? Then we follow the Atlantic coastline covering the Outer Banks, Lewes, Cape May and Liberty Landing, NJ across the Hudson from Manhattan. On Friday June 26^th we drive across Manhattan and the length of Long Island to Greenport, NY. I am giving a talk there at TrawlerFest on Cruising the Great Loop. Sunday we take a ferry to Connecticut and head for Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. Another ferry takes us to Nova Scotia, and yet another ferry gets us to Newfoundland. Our trip back will be across Canada via Ottawa to Ste Saint Marie and on to Forest City, Iowa for a week at the Winnebago Grand National Rally. We will head for Murray, KY via Woodbury MN (grandkids) Brainerd MN (friends) and the Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan. We expect to be back to Nashville to resume work on August 3^rd.