first trip planned for this weekend!

[jim454]

It's officially booked!!

Our goal is to hit Lake Pepin in Lake City, Mn. for saturday night. We'll stay on the water.

We'll start out by putting the toon in at Boom Island (Minneapolis) on saturday morning. We'll go through, I think, 6 locks and dams. Hopefully making it to Lake Pepin by sunset. It 'll be me and the two boys, jack 8 and Levi 6. We're pumped!!

Probably want to bring the heater, it could be cold. Hope to have some pics for you guys of the trip!

[dockholiday]

Sounds like it will be a good trip, got the total distance figured out, and fuel. Looking forward to the photos.
doc

[mike]

man that sounds fun! What kind of heater do you have? I bought a mr buddy propane for just this purpose! Someday my kids will be old enough to go on cool multi day camping trips on the boat... Take lots of pics!!

[jim454]

Doc,

We made the trip last summer, I can't quite remember how many miles it was, atleast 100 though, and if I remember right we almost got there on one tank (12gallons) of gas. We cruise at about 10mph.

I'll have that info when we get back.

[jim454]

Mike, we have the Big Buddy heater. Yeah, she cranks out the heat. Last fall we spent the night on the river and it got down to 38F, we had it 70F on the boat. They work great and I trust them, although, we do open a vent just to play it safe.

Get the kids started early! Again, the cool thing about the enclosure is that the kids don't need to be bound up by a lifejacket if they stay inside. That's Minnesota law anyway, not sure if other states are different.

The guys are pumped, they started their packing list as soon as they got the word. We'll be sure to take plenty of pics

[dockholiday]

Make sure you carry a good first aid kit for any nicks scratches. Know this will be a big outing for everyone especially they boys. Bet they will remember this trip for years to come.
doc

[jim454]

[jim454]

Well we got er done.
Got a late start though, had trailer light problems.

We put in at Watergate Marina in St.Paul, bypassed 2 locks that way to make up time. Man, was it windy! but not as bad on the water as I thought it would be. We pushed hard to get to Lake City, went through 2 locks and fortunately didn't have to wait for barges. Got to our destination a little late but we made it thanks to a clear night and bright moon . It was a little hard to sleep on the water with the waves but things calmed through the night. Woke up to frost, BRRRRRR. Man it was cold! thanks to the big buddy heater though, it was actually hot when we woke at 6:30. We made a strong push to get back home to see Mom and lil' sis.

Took 7.5 gallons to get there, about 80 miles. ran hard most of the ,(full throttle)
12 gallons to get back home, in fact, we ran out right at the marina.

Took about 7 hrs. each way.

The enclosure was nice but she bucks a lot of wind especially heading upstream.

The new marine radio worked well, the new gps was also a great addition. The boys both brought their Nintendo DS's. We also brought the lap top, and watched movies. Food was a little tough to plan for but we made do. If I had it to do over I wouldn't have pushed so hard, boys need to get out and run at times and we just didn't have time for that. Also, when in a confined space for a number of hours, it PAYS to be organized! It's easy to trip over toys, cords, coats, life jackets, children....

We're trying to figure out better portable storage. I'm sure we'll come up with something.

All in all it was a good trip and we are planning for another soon.

Pics to follow.

[jim454]

here we go!

[jim454]

The boys doing some movie time on the lap top.

[jim454]

having trouble posting pics, be right back

[jim454]

coast guard setting bouys

[mike]

very cool, I cant wait till my little rugrats are old enough to do this...

Never thought of using a fold up plastic pick nick bench but it looks like a great idea! I am going to have to keep an eye out on craigslist...

[jim454]

yeah, that suckers kinda heavy though and takes up more space on my little toon than I would like so I'm looking to do something different.

I'll try a some more pics....

[jim454]

skipper Levi