Summer plans and what, a new endeavor?

We've been working on our summer travel plans and have pretty much firmed things up.  We kicked around another New England trip, but in the end decided to concentrate on fly fishing and the West with a few detours along the way.  I reread a favorite book and Jan read it for the first time, "On the Spine of Time" by Harry Middleton who had a marvelous way of describing the Smokey Mountains and fly fishing for trout in a  vivid and very alluring way.  Which got the juices flowing to do a bit of fishing and hiking in the Smokies as soon as we leave the Atlanta area on our way north, you thought I said West, right?  Well our first detour will be all the way up to Elkhart, IN to hopefully finally get our electrical problem with our rear running lights fixed.  There is an ex-Monaco electrical guru there who is confident he can fix our problem.  After that we will be westbound, and basically our circle this year will take us out to Lubbock, grandkids you know, then Albuquerque, up through Taos to Pagosa Springs, and then farther north through CO to include Colorado Springs over the 4th of July, then up through WY and into Montana, west into Idaho, and back down through WY again eventually to Durango, CO for 5 weeks in the fall, and then work our way back here to Florida for the winter.  We hope to do lots of fly fishing along the way and enjoy our new endeavor??

Jan and I have been talking about it for some time and the best way to do it, and also to make it somewhat convenient so we wouldn't get tired of it, so we came up with what we think is a way to do it.

And half of the puzzle has been accomplished.  We have been working on that half much of this week, and we had a very pleasant interruption from dear friends, John and Diane, who flew down to visit for a few days in their own plane.  We were able to show them the area we love for the winter and enjoy some good food, wine, and some bourbon, and of course, visit and enjoy their company.  The weather cooperated so they had a very enjoyable flight down and back.

John and Diane

John checking the fuel while Diane and I look on

So our little endeavor took us to St Petersburg, and while there we discovered an absolutely delicious place to eat, Casita Taqueria.  It is a little Mexican place with fresh bright food that was so, so good.

My shrimp, carne asada, and chicken tacos

Jan's spicy Beef Barbacoa torta

We picked up half of our project which came in a box, which I wanted to make into a more permanent box that the item could live in, in the bed of the truck.  Well, enjoyably it turned into quite the project which enlisted the help of neighbor Harold and fiberglass.  Harold has a beautiful wooden boat and has done lots of fiberglassing, so was able to help me along. It was fun and I learned that fiberglassing is probably not going to be a career choice for me :-)

Beginnings of the box

Adding the sides

Coming together

Glassing the bottom

Cutting the foam

Getting it to fit

Complete!

For what you ask?  

Hmmmmm