Pikes Peak or Bust

Well we made it to Pikes Peak or at least close to it in Colorado Springs. We can see the mountain from our campground, the Wrangler RV Ranch in Colorado Springs. Let all visions of horses and cowboys vanish from your mind, we are in a dumpy trailer park at the north end of airport next to Peterson Air Force base. And no, we did not bust, but we sure did break, getting here.

For those of you that like to hear the tales of woe, here it goes. We left last Saturday after loading up the coach. The heat index was well over 100 and we both felt like sweat balls. Our new $2,000 air conditioning repair worked like a champ. If you are ever in the area, there are very few campgrounds between Fort Pierce and Orlando along the Florida Turnpike. Our search took us twenty miles off the turnpike to a place that was closed. We parked the coach in the middle of a big field that had an electric plug. Someone wandered by and said watch out for the alligators with that dog, they have gotten two already this month. That is all that Linda needed to hear. Needless to say she was not very comfortable staying, but it was late and there was no other choice.

We left early the next morning after Jake walked in the middle of the field, but nowhere near the water. It took about three minutes to realize that our $2K A/C repair had failed. That was OK, we started the generator and ran the two roof top house air conditioners and the coach kept cool. Did we mention that now it was close to 100 degrees outside? That night the main house unit started tripping off the circuit breaker. The next day it quit and would not restart. The rear unit alone was not enough to keep us cool, and it was hot. We found a garage near Pensacola that said they could repair the unit the next day, so we stopped and “camped” in their driveway. They did have an electric plug and we could run the rear A/C unit, so it was not too bad.

They were on it first thing in the morning and by noon we were on our way, both the dash air and the house air working. The coach was lighter now that we left $750 with them to clean out a spider web that was shorting out the main A/C unit and to fix a leak and recharge the dash air system that we had fixed at home. We made it to the other side of Baton Rouge before we stopped. We had hoped to have some of that fine Cajun cooking, but there was no place to eat near the place we stopped. The next morning we were on the road again early, but it was already hot. It took about two minutes to realize that the dash air had failed again. But at least both house A/C units were working and we certainly needed it as we sat in 100 degree heat in Dallas rush hour traffic. We stopped that night in the middle of nowhere between Dallas and Amarillo, TX.

Mike shut down the generator and plugged in the power cord and the main A/C unit was dead. We were not too worried about the night as the rear one will cool the bedroom. We tried to make arrangements with a mobile mechanic to repair it, but found that when we started our generator again, the A/C worked. It turned out it was a bad plug at the campground that was our problem. Wednesday we were running northwest through Texas.

After leaving Amarillo and hitting the most desolate stretch that we had seen so far, the truck started to overheat. It was fine going downhill, but every time we started up a hill the temperature climbed to close to 220 degrees. Our motor has an automatic system which shuts it down if it gets a little hotter than that. We slowed down to 45-50 mph and made it into the only town along the route at 5:30 PM. Like an oasis there was a sign that said Peterbuilt truck service. Mike knew what the problem was. The radiator is in back of the engine instead of in front like a car and it gets dirty and plugged up from the road grim. It has to be degreased and steam pressure cleaned. We had a lot bigger hills and mountains to climb, so it had to be done before we could go on. They were still open so Mike went in. We were hoping that they would be able to get to us the next morning, but were not looking forward to “camping” in this dirt and mud lot next to a cattle yard. To our surprise they told Mike to drive around back and they would blow it out now as best as they could before they closed at 6:00 PM.

At six we were back on the road with a clean radiator and drove to New Mexico where we camped at 6200 feet. The coach ran well with no overheating. We got out of the coach and it was 70 degrees, the coolest weather we have felt since last April; and it felt good. That night we slept without any air conditioning and it was actually cool enough to pull on a blanket.

Friday we drove from New Mexico to Colorado Springs and experienced out first full day without any new truck problems. Of course it was only a short drive. To say it was a long and tiring trip would be an understatement. Linda said it felt like we were in the coach for five months, not five days. Needless to say there was some tension. We both were starting to wonder what we were doing traveling in a hot box instead of enjoying our beautiful air conditioned home in the Keys.

Now we do not want to paint too negative of a picture. We had some highlights along the way. Sunday we stopped on St. George Island near Apalachicola, FL and visited with our friends, Rick and Cindy Alexander. They have a house right on the beach and we parked the coach next to it. They knew that we like oysters and had bought a half a bushel for dinner that night. We had oysters on the half shell and on the grill cooked all different and wonderful ways. We had a great time visiting with the Rick and Cindy again. Rick and Mike even got to exchange birthday greetings. Linda and Jake had some wonderful long walks along their beautiful dog friendly beach, some say the prettiest in all of Florida.

Monday we stopped at the Wray Ranch to visit Jennifer Wray. Jennifer is the breeder that we got Jake from five years ago. Jake got to see and play with three of his brothers and one of his sisters. They all had a ball. Linda has been worried that Jake was getting too heavy. As it turns out he was the lightest of them all. One of his brothers weighs 115 pounds and has a head like a small bear.

We spoke earlier of the Peterbuilt truck repair shop in Dalhart, TX. Not only did they get us in and take care of our problem a half hour before they closed, but they also did not charge us to do it. He had the perfect opportunity to put it to a gringo. Needless to say we left him a nice tip. We also met the friendliest family that owned and ran the little in town campground in Capulin, NM. The grounds were spotless and they really made us feel welcomed after a long hard day on the road. We sent a note to the campground in Texas with the bad electrical connection and got a reply from the owner with a very sincere apology and an offer of a free night of camping. This is indeed a great country and it is the people that make it that way.

When we arrived in Colorado Springs, we were met by our friends Frank and Linda Archer. Frank and Linda live in Pittsburgh and spend part of the winter at our house camping in their motorhome. They are now going to join us for part of our summer adventure.

We hope that your week had fewer problems than ours did. We really feel the problems and marathon days of driving are now behind us and the fun times are ready to begin. Until next time, take care.

With Love,

Linda, Jake and the Fat Man

Where are the Kohuts?

We are camped at what we consider one of the prettiest places in the world. It is a little island off the beaten path in the Florida Keys. We are right on the water and have our own private dock and campsite. The name of this magical place is Big Torch Key. Yes, that is the island we live on and yes we are still at home.

We finally got the air conditioning on the motorhome fixed on Wednesday and then had to have some work done to our wiring harness on Thursday. When they finished Thursday and started to take the coach out for a test drive the brakes failed. It failed in their yard and no damage was done. As it turns out a brake line had corroded and leaked out all of the brake fluid. It if it had not happened there, it would probably have happened the first time that we tried to make an emergency stop. If that had happened, we probably would not be sitting here telling you a pleasant story. One of the mechanics at the garage said that the air conditioning problem, probably just saved our lives. Thanks to all of you that have sent good thought and prayers our way. They are working.

Friday evening we picked up the coach with new brake lines. We are happy to report the brakes work well, the air conditioning mediocre. We started to load and make ready the coach for departure. We hope to finish this morning and get on the road this afternoon if all goes well. If all does not go well, Sunday morning. Our first stop will be Apalachicola which will take us a day and half to get to. From there it is on to Colorado, which we expect to make by next Friday.

We hope that you enjoy riding with us this summer as much as we enjoy having you. Write when you can, but please take us off your joke list as we will be picking up e-mails infrequently and do not want to over load our mailbox. And please, minimize the attachments. Our cell phone is in the coach and we normally do not carry it, so you might have to leave a message. We have an AT&T phone, so for those of you with AT&T it is a free call. We also have free nights and weekends for you others.

We hope that you all have a great summer, we think that we will.
Take care, Love


Linda, Jake and the Fat Man

On the Road Again

Well we are pretty excited about this year’s summer adventure. We decided instead of boating this summer we are going to take the motorhome and head towards Alaska. We say head towards, not to Alaska, because we do not know if we are going to get there or not. We are going to tow our Jeep Wrangler this year and plan to do some “off roading” in the Rocky Mountains to start with. You all are probably saying, “we didn’t know you were into 4 wheeling”. Well, we are not. We have never done it before, but we thought that we would give it a shot. If all goes well, we will spend the whole summer out west doing it. If it does not go well, we will then point the coach north and head up the Alaskan Highway. Either way, we should have a wonderful summer and have many stories to tell. We set the departure date for this wonderful adventure as May 30th.

The Jeep is ready and Trail Rated, we don't know if we are.

Each year we start out our summer with a tale of woe of something going wrong on the motorhome; the brakes locking up (4 times), the water leaking out of the coach (3 times), the sewer leaking (3 times) and the air conditioning failing (4 times). This year? Well we did not even get a chance to leave. In fact we still have not left. Our air conditioner failed at the end of last year and we elected to wait until spring to have it repaired. We took it in for service on May 10th and told the mechanic that there was no rush (big mistake). He let it set for over a week before even starting on it. We told him it was just a Freon leak. That turned out not to be the case and he said the compressor was leaking and shot. It took a while to order a new one and to get it replaced. That was all done last week, just in time for our planned departure. Everything tested out perfect, no leaks, perfect pressures, everything. We just had one small problem; it would not cool. After working again all week on it replacing more parts, the mechanic thinks one of the new parts he replaced is wrong. It is too small and he ordered a new one. But, it will not be here until Tuesday. So our new departure date is sometime next week, who knows when. To those of you that we said we were going to meet along the way this or next week, we are sorry, but we are not going to make it.

On the plus side we are home. We have everything ready to go, so there is no work to do. We are just relaxing and waiting. The sunsets have been beautiful and our Royal Poinsettia tree is in full bloom. It is the first time we have seen it like that as it normally blooms after we leave. If we have to be broke down, this is the best place to have it happen.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. We will get back in touch when we get on the road, hopefully this week. Our first planned stop is Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle. We want to eat some oysters before the oil spill spoils them. Speaking of eating; Mike’s goal each summer is to not come back home over 300 pounds. This year his goal is to get down under 300 pounds before he gets back. Jake has also put on some weight, so we do have to ask, if we visit, please do not feed, Jake or the Fat Man.

Take care, Love,

Linda, Jake and the Fat Man

The Boating Season is Over

The boating season is winding down in Northern Michigan and is over for us. Tomorrow the boat will be pulled from the water, winterized and moved to a barn for storage until next year. You know the season is winding down as we were the only boat in the Canadian Soo. On the way down we stopped at Lime Island again and were the only boat there. We then went over to Bob Lo Island and there were four other boats in the marina, but no one was on any of them.

And then on Wednesday we went to Mackinac Island and for the first time ever we were the only boat there. Another cruiser did come in later that afternoon.

We just experienced our best month of weather all summer. It would have been perfect, but for our last day on the water. Thursday we rode over to St. Ignace from Mackinac Island in T-shirts, on the flybridge in flat calm seas. Friday morning we woke up to 20-25 knot winds and a wind chill of 42. The winds were down to 15 for our ride back to Mackinaw City, but it still wasn’t a pleasant ride.

We hope that you all have had a wonderful summer and have enjoyed riding with us. We have certainly enjoyed it and having you along. We will let you know when we get back to the Keys, but that might be a while as we are going to explore a bit on the way back in the motorhome.

Hey what is happening to our Steelers? Loosing two in a row both in the last minute? Everyone needs to get on board and start sending nothing but good vibes our way. Go Steelers!!!

Take care, Love,

Linda, Jake and the Fat Man

The Kohuts in the Canadian Wilds, eh.

Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada

The Canadian Wilds might be a bit of a stretch as we are in the Canadian Soo, one of the largest cities in northern Ontario. We crossed over this Tuesday after our company left. The marina is closed so we are here by ourselves with no power or water. The good thing is the docks are free. That helps to pay for some of the great dinners we are having at the many of the Soo's fantastic restaurants.

Our stretch of good weather continues at almost three weeks of warm sunshine and fair seas. That might end tonight as a cold front moves through. It has already begun to cloud up and the temperatures are dropping into the 30’s tonight. We got a nice bike ride in today in t-shirts, probably our last one of the season.

Karl Lund and Juanita Fanto were guest aboard the boat last week.

We picked them up in Mackinaw City where we watched the Steelers give us all heart failure in their overtime victory over the Tennessee Titans. Friday we started cruising and visited Mackinac Island and a round island bike ride, and Hessel, where we spent the night. Saturday we took a cruise through the Les Cheneaux Islands and up the St. Mary’s river to Lime Island.

Lime Island is unique as it is the first place that we have stayed all summer that didn’t have a restaurant. In fact it doesn’t have much of anything as it is an abandoned fueling station for freighters in days gone by. We were the only boat on at the island and we could let Jake run free and swim. Needless to say, Jake calls it heaven.

Sunday we had to go back down the River to Detour to pump out as our holding tank went full during the night. We decided to take advantage of the restaurants and had breakfast in town. Afterwards it was back to Lime Island and a hike to the lime kilns, from which the island was originally named. Again we were the only boat and Jake got to run free and swim. That afternoon we were off to the American Soo where we celebrated Karl’s 59th birthday at the world famous Antlers Bar. The marina in the Soo is right next to the locks. All of the big freighters going into or coming out of Lake Superior pass within a hundred yards of the boat.

One of the neat things to watch is the supply ship Ojibway pulling along side a freighter and hoisting up the ships stores.

We have another week out on the water before we start to head back to the barn. We hope that you all have had a great week. Go Steelers!!!

Take care, Love,

Linda, Jake and the Fat Man

The Kohuts, Tween in Mackinac City

Greetings to all,

We are now between company in Mackinaw City. Yesterday Dr. Ed left and tomorrow Karl Lund and Juanita Fanto arrive. We also have a new record of ten straight days of wonderful weather. It looks like it is going to stay nice all the way through this weekend.

Steve and Paula’s timing was a little off and they had to endure the worst weather we had all summer. It was cold, raining and blowing a gale. We ended up sitting in Charlevoix until Monday when the weather turned. We were able to get a quick cruise down to Elk Rapids. It was still cold, but sunny and smooth. Tuesday, the day they were leaving it started to warm up into the 70’s.

Steve and Paula enjoy their only warm day aboard the Blue Chip.

Ed Gordon arrived the same day and he says that he brought the good weather. Who can argue? He spent a week on the boat and we had the best week of weather of the whole summer. We crossed over to Beaver Island on Wednesday with flat calm conditions and warm temperatures. Even Jake didn’t mind it too much. On Beaver Island we were able to bike and enjoy our favorite restaurant, The Beaver Island Lodge. After a few days on Beaver we moved back to the Straits for the busy Labor Day weekend and got the last slip open in St. Ignace. Again it was flat calm and warm. We could easily get used to this type of cruising. Sunday, a couple of docks opened on Mackinac Island, so we went over there for the rest of the weekend. Mike was able to get his bike repaired (it wouldn’t shift gears) and we had another delightful ride around the island.

Dr. Ed and Mike biking on Beaver Island.


Ed’s week was up yesterday and we came over to Mack City so he could drive home. We spent today shopping and getting ready for our next adventure, which will be running up the St. Mary’s River to Sault Ste Marie with Karl and Juanita. They will be aboard until Monday. We are hoping the good weather will hold out for another couple of weeks, so that we can do a little cruising in the North Channel of Canada. We are scheduled to pull the boat on September 28th.

We hope that you all have had a great week and you are ready for the big football game tomorrow. Go Steelers!!!

Take care, Love,

Linda, Jake and the Fat Man





While we were in Charlevoix, the Linda Lu arrived. At 198 feet it is the largest boat to ever dock at a Michigan State recreational dock. Mike told Linda he ordered it for her, but it was supposed to be named the Linda Q, so he wasn't going to take it. The Blue Chip is in the center in the foreground.

Shakedown Cruise

Many of you asked about Jake, as he was absent from the last report. That is because Jake has been the perfect dog and has provided little material to write about. This is his fourth summer aboard and we have to report, Jake still hates the boat.

When we left Mackinaw City last Wednesday we thought that maybe summer was over. It was cold, overcast and blowing like stink, normal Great Lakes weather. It was too cold to ride on the flybridge, but that is where Jake wanted to go as soon as he heard the engines cranked, so Mike boosted him up. After leaving the harbor, Linda went up to the bridge to check on Jake and found him under the seat covers cowering. So Linda put on her winter coat and went up to ride with him. It was only an hour over to Mackinac Island, but Jake was one happy dog to get ashore.

The weather stayed cool the rest of the week. Floyd and Maggi Lewis came over in their boat, Bonnie Banks and spent the weekend with us. Jim and Diane Richards came up from the store to finish up an accounting upgrade that we had going on. Sunday we left Mackinac Island and summer had returned. We all got to ride on the flybridge, it was dead flat calm and Jake was as happy as he is ever going to be on the boat. It was a short ride over to St. Ignace, but Jake was glad to get ashore.

After arriving in St. Ignace, we linked up with Larry and Kathy McElroy and had dinner at the Douglas Lake Steakhouse. Larry bought our dive charter business in St. Ignace and it is still going strong. If anyone wants to do any shipwreck diving, the Straits has the most shipwrecks and the clearest water of anywhere in the Great Lakes.

We are happy to report that the boat seems to be running perfectly. We didn’t find any faults on our two short shakedown cruises. We did have one glitch. Our old GPS that plugs into the computer failed last year. Mike had an even older GPS that he used to use, so he brought it up from Florida to use this year. When he plugged it in it worked perfectly and he was feeling pretty good until he realized that the adapter to plug into the computer was still attached to the old GPS which was now in Florida. No problem, just buy a new one. He found the cheapest adapter that he would buy was $43. He found a complete GPS designed for computers for $36. Needless to say he now has a new GPS for his computer. We will see how well it works when we take off this week and start down Lake Michigan.

We hope that you all have had a great week. It does look like summer has finally arrived everywhere.

Take care, Love,

Linda, Jake and the Fat Man

Somebody please help get me off this boat!!