Atlanta,GA

Hello again folks! Whew, what a busy couple of days it has been. I won't go back and bore you with the details, but I will tell you I am extremely happy to be in Atlanta where J is at!

I made my delivery Thursday morning in Birmingham,AL and then made my way over to Atlanta to meet J. He had been staying with s cousin of his, but since I was now there with Smokey, we went ahead and got a hotel. After spending the night we got up and headed down for me to get a first look at the work he had done on the boat.

After trying to figure out the best way to work on the boat, J decided the best course of action was to start from scratch. He started demolishing the lower level of the boat and taking it down to the steel hull. He did an exellent job of getting it tore down and out to the dumpster that he had delivered. From there, he had to clean all the rust and debris out of the bottom of the hull and then sand down all of the metal floor joists. After screwing some wood strips to the metal, he was able to start putting down the plywood subfloor. After he got that done, he started putting the wall studs up.

When I got there to help him on Friday, we finished laying the floor down and were able to get most of the wall studs up. We also made a trip to Home Depot and got some joist hangers for the ceiling rafters. Unfortunately, during the day at some point, probably when he was drilling the holes in the metal for the wall studs, he managed to slip a disc in his back. He has done this before, and it is really painful. That put an end to our work that day and we headed back to the hotel so that he could soak in the tub and try to get his back in place.

The next morning, we got up and headed back up there with one mission. I was to finish the work we got started so that we could get it covered from the elements. I was able to finish screwing the subfloor down, get the rest of the wall studs up and the ceiling rafters up. I did as much as I could but I did have to have J cut five more rafters for me. I felt really bad. He was in pain and already felt bad for having to watch me do the work. But I didn't mind. I love doing this kind of stuff and he had already gotten so much done. He deserved a day off.

We had to make one more trip to Home Depot to get a tarp to cover the boat. You should see two people trying to manage a 30'x50' tarp over a 13'x53' boat that is about 4 foot off the ground up on stands. Too bad no one had a video camera recording of us. I am sure it would have been a youtube sensation.

Yesterday we met the cousin and his wife that J stayed with and treated them to lunch and then went back to their house to return a few of the tools that J had borrowed. After saying goodbye to them we headed over to J's other cousin to return the remaining tools and to have dinner at their house. They have a Great Dane names Pearl and Smokey had a great time playing with her. He was a bit intimidated by her size at first. I told J that now Smokey knows how Chuy and Stuart feel when he is playing with them at Michelle's house!

Today is our last day off and we are chilling at the hotel. I am available tomorrow at 0600 hours and J will be taking off and heading towards Lubbock. He is going to make a stop in Dallas and see Dr. Mike who is our Chiropractor. After he sees him he will finish his trip to Lubbock. I am going to try to get a load that will get me to Lubbock. That way J can drop our Suburban back off at my mom's house and then I will pick him up. That way we will finally be running team again. And THAT makes me really happy!

I am going to try to upload some pictures of the boat. I can't guarantee that they will post since I have been having problems loading them, but I am going to give them a try!