And seeing the boat in person.
It's 19 feet long - a bit shorter than I expected but it will serve the purpose.
The people ran the motor for a while when James was there - with a hose hooked to the motor, so that gave me a sigh of relief.
No clue whether the transmission is still good or if the hull has any leaks. But - James went under the boat, all over the thing, looking at the hull and said he couldn't find any places that were cracked.

A live well! built into the floor, very nice.  Couch needs upholstery as well as the captain's chair. 

The canopy needs replaced, I knew that, but getting frustrated at trying to find a replacement. I have the titles and everything. I'm not expert at boat parts, I'll keep looking.  Or call Hurricane tomorrow for some advice.  I'm not necessarily interested in OEM replacement since that will likely be quite expensive. 

I sent pics to an upholstery place, they're going to give me a quote tomorrow. 

The thing is dirty, needs a good cleaning. 

The motor is not the original motor.  No idea what size the old motor was, but the 150 horsies is very good for me.

The trolling motor is gone.  May or may not get another one.  Not a priority.  There is a mount for one on it at least.  Usually, most sellers include the trolling motor - but I didn't pay a fortune for this boat so I'm not going to complain. 

I have no idea how to start the boat.  Probably just as well I don't. But there is a key.  You turn it and nothing happens. Obviously must be a power switch somewhere, but I wasn't that interested in starting it without water anyway.  And besides, I had already heard from James that the motor had been run for a while and was running nicely.

The ladder is also missing.  There is a hanging ladder - you jump off the boat, you can get back in.  So I'm going to have to find something to replace that.  Kind of strange, really, that they took that off of there. 

I'm taking all the paperwork to the DMV tomorrow and see if I can get it all done - or missing something.  That is the first thing on the list.  I will go to the local marine store and see if I can buy my own water adapter so I can run the thing and change it from forward to reverse and see what happens.  That's  a lot cheaper than taking it to a shop since I now know the motor runs strong. 

But, all things considered, it will be a nice boat once I get the issues dealt with. I'm figuring another grand it will be done.  Those canopies aren't cheap but I want it.  I have no desire to spend and entire day baking in the sun when I can have some relief.  And the upholstery looks s***** so that needs done as well. 

The thing only has to run, shift from forward to reverse and into neutral and not sink to make me happy lmao. 

That's that. 

Wasted tired.  It always happen when I have to stay up too late for work.  I got about 6-1/2 hours of sleep, but it didn't do any good.  I'm running on some other energy right now.  There were 12 trucks sitting in the yard when I got back today. I expected that after a plant shut down.  Definitely not going out tomorrow, may or may not be going out the next day.  If they get that plant fired up, they'll line up as many loads as possible to get the product out to needy customers who will be hurting. 

What I do know, is that there weren't any long runs after tomorrow left.  There is only one tomorrow as it stands and I know I'm not getting that, so it's either Brownsville, Oklahoma or Cheniere.  In any of those cases, I don't need to do a bunch of precooking meals, a little but nothing like for the 4 day runs I was blessed to get for a short period of time. This plant shutdown is exactly why I would take as many long runs as I can get without saying anything.  The lean times come and go, but they definitely come. Have to be prepared.  I'd be happy to get an OK run over another Cheniere. 

My house in Phoenix is allegedly worth 50k more than I owe on it.  I would love to sell it off and make that kind of profit.  But - I would be ousting my friends.  It's paying for itself, for now anyway.  They haven't made any statements saying they are leaving anytime soon, but I feel a visit is in order. Nothing elongated, go to the valley, spend a couple of days, leave.  I've learned my lesson.  Leave out of the town next to me rather than driving to Dallas or Fort Worth.  The drive, the hotel stay, the parking fees are the same as just paying extra to fly there from the local town.   I pay nothing to park at the lot at the local airport.  It's 35 miles away. Far less hassle.  Okay, that's not always true. Sometimes the savings is worth the trip to Dallas. 

I just tried my Slimthin waffles. They were quite delicious. Pre-made, a very small amount of it for the price paid - not worth it. $4.99 for a very small baggy of them.  So next, I have ordered a box of Carbquik.  It's the mix to make your own pancakes or waffles. But, the ingenious people have already en massed a large number of other recipes made with it, including pizza dough. 

Ok. Extreme fatigue has finally caught up to me.  11:00 pm. Time to sleep.