Fun times!

Board review lectures - 9 hrs each day for 5 days. Don't be jealous!

Moving, Stage 2

I guess Stage 1 was moving Kim and the Kids to Tulsa.  I came over 3 weeks later, but that doesn't really count. We put the RX350 and the van pack crate on a boat a few weeks ago, and last week it all arrived in LA. Stage 2 was bringing all that stuff to Oklahoma.

I woke up at 4:30 (central), Kim got me to the airport by 5:20. Flew to LAX, with a 1 hour layover in DFW. Once in Los Angeles (9am, Pacific Time), I took a taxi to Matson near the port of Long Beach and picked up the Lexus. Then I went to U-Haul of Long Beach and had a trailer hitch and harness installed. After the 5x8 enclosed trailer was attached, I drove to pick up the van pack where I had to unload everything, and re-load it into the trailer. Then I was able to start driving (4pm).

I did the packing change-out in the middle of a shipping container warehouse parking lot. Fortunately the guy was nice and gave me plenty of space where there were no tractor-trailers around.

The first hour was just getting out of LA and getting up to Barstow, CA and on to I-40. The next stop was in Kingman, AZ where I had to get a phone changer because my phone died and forgot a car charger. Flagstaff, AZ is pretty, but it was starting to get dark. By the time I got to Gallup, New Mexico it was 3:30 (mountain time) in the morning and I had been driving for about 10 hours.  I was starting to doze off a little, so I pulled off into a Pep Boys (dark) parking lot and slept for about 90 minutes in the back of the car with the rear seat folded down. A little after 5am I got some coffee and hit the road again, driving through Albuquerque, Santa Rosa, and Tucumcari. Next was northern Texas where there were TONS of cops, then Amarillo where I should have gotten gas, instead I rolled into Shamrock, TX with 5 miles on the dash indicator. I was cutting it pretty close. After gassing up and some delicious Taco Bell for lunch, I was headed into Oklahoma for the final stretch. In OKC I went up the Kilpatrick Turnpike and though I got into trouble because of stand still traffic from an accident, but fortunately it clear after only a couple minutes. Then the last stretch up the good ol' Turner Turnpike into T-town.

Total driving time: 24 hours
Total sleeping time: 90 minutes
Total distance driven: 1445 miles
I was awake from 4:30am Monday until 10:30pm Tuesday. I was tired.

Moving Day!!

We've spent the last couple days packing up, and today our stuff is going to the movers. Everything we're taking with us is going into a 7' x 4' x 7' crate, called a "van pack". Since we're getting a flat fee to move to Nashville, we're doing everything we can to minimize costs.

1. Getting rid of everything we don't need or can replace cheaply

2. Shipping in a van pack, rather than a metal shipping container

3. I packed it all up, rather than paying them to do it

4. Only shipping Kim's Lexus and the van pack to Los Angeles, then I will drive the car and tow a trailer with the stuff the rest of the way to Tulsa, and later to Nashville. 

 First load: had a friend from church (with his truck) help move the big tool cabinet and majority of the boxes, especially the heavy ones. 

 After trip #2.

 Trip #3 - I initially took the pictures to have proof of what went in, in case anyone tries to steal anything. It helped to keep track of how much space was left when running back and forth to the house. 

Full van pack. I am a Tetris MASTER!!!

Now we are looking forward to Grandma Mary arriving this evening! Woo-Hoo!!

Michael's visit - Part 3/3 Videos!

Day 7 - Woke up late; still recovering from the hike. We drove up north and went to Secret beach and Queen's bath in Princeville. At secret beach we walked over to the lava rock pools and over to the waterfall. Then we walked back to the beach where Michael decided to jump in the (very big) waves. Queens bath was new to me too. It was a great little hike with a small waterfall on the way. Once you get down there were lots of big lava rock with some awesome waves crashing in on the rocks. Michael joined in with the locals and did a gainer! Check out these videos:

Day 8 - Last Day! We got up and went to watch the Koi pond feeding at the Marriott followed by brunch in Kapaa. After dropping off Kim and the kids, Michael and I went back down to the south shore to film turtles again. Apparently there is a HUGE swell coming in. We got out and saw a couple amazing turtles, but we quickly realized the rip tide was too much. We got back in quickly and safely, but had to walk a ways back to the car. But, we got some pretty sweet shots of the turtles, which is what we wanted before having to fly back home.
I think Michael had a pretty good time, I know I did; that was probably the most adventurous I've been since moving out here. We'll definitely miss living on such a beautiful island.

Michael's visit - Part 2/3

Day 3 - no big plans, just took things easy. Kim was being such a great sport while Michael and I had fun, we made sure she got to have some fun too. She went for a massage at the Grand Hyatt in Poipu, while Michael and I took the kids and drove around the south shore. We went to look at turtles, which we would see close up later, drinks at Bubba's Burger, and Spouting Horn. Then we walked around the Hyatt while Kim finished up. Then we all went up the Marriott and snuck into their big pool.

Day 4 - Michael and I drove up to the end of the road at the north shore and hiked the Kalalau trail to Hanakapi'ia beach and Hanakapi'ia waterfall. It was two miles to the beach, another two miles to the falls, and four miles back to our car. The hike was amazing and and the waterfalls were totally worth all the pain. I got a little dehydrated and was pretty miserable for an hour or two after we finished until I got some Gatorade.

Day 5 - had to recover from the hike. Still having lots of cramping and soreness. Drove to a couple quick waterfalls, Wailua falls and Opaka'a falls. Later we went to the Marriott pool again, this time we met some friends, and really appreciated the hot tub!!

Day 6 - Sunday morning we went to our church, Lihue Missionary Church. That morning we had a baby dedication for Anna Lynn and Emily Kamea. We all went up on stage including Michael. I prayed for us into the mic in front of the whole church. I was a little nervous, but it went well. Afterwards we went south again to Poipu. Michael got in the water and saw one turtle but the camera wasn't pointed in the right direction. We went to Poipu beach and walked out on the peninsula and got to see one turtle and one Hawaiian monk seal on the beach. It was a pretty good animal viewing day.

Michael's Visit - Part 1/3

While Michael was out here we used his GoPro camera to document stuff all over this island. The coolest thing about the GoPro is that it records everything in HighDef, like, 1080i highdef! Of course, you can only appreciate the high def if you watch it in that format. I've uploaded some of our videos here, in low definition, easy to upload/download format, just so you can see some of the stuff we saw. 

Day 1 - Michael and I drove up north to Hanalei, Ke'e beach, Hanalei beach and walked out on the pier. We also drove to the lighthouse and Anni beach. 

Day 2 - We surprised Michael and had a day on Oahu planned. We flew over and rented a Jeep Liberty. Michael went to tour Pearl Harbor memorial while I had a meeting with senator Schatz's staff about hepatitis prevention. After that we drove to Hanauma Bay, stopping quickly to jump into a small swimming area surround by rocks just East of Hanauma bay. This was the best video of the snorkeling that day. 

After snorkeling we drove through Waikiki, got stuck in 5:00 traffic (which made me never want to live in a big city again), and finally made it to the airport in time to grab a bite and make it back home to Kauai.

Steering column update!

Obviously I finished the column in time to get out and recklessly roll through a couple stop signs while Michael was out here. Overall it was a pretty successful project, still a couple of problems I need to iron out but it is a steep learning curve with the assembly. I can do it all pretty quickly now, where the first assembly took for-ev-er! Anyways, here's some pics:

 Freshly painted exterior parts, and a box full of new parts. Fun stuff.

 Closer shot of the painted pieces. This is one of the frustrating parts. I like the color, but got the wrong type of paint. I'll have to redo it later. Grr

 Ball joint. I had to disassemble then re-grease and put back together. Messy and fun.

 Starting the re-assembly. Lower portion from one side.

 Same time from the other side.

 Wasn't good about taking pics between the last pic and this one. This is near the final assembly. Getting that little C-clip in was the biggest pain ever. Of course, now I know what I was doing wrong and it's easy.

Here it is with all of the components together. Of course I still had to install it, then I had to take top half off and redo one particular screw, then I broke the horn switch and I'm waiting on parts. While it was fun, I think this project has passed the "barely worth it" stage, and is into "not worth it" territory.

Michael's Here!

Got in last night. First thing today we went for a ride up to the North shore. Steering wheel finally put back together (not without a few problems still). Here's a vid from his new GoPro camera of us taking off.

We finally made it out to hike the Kalalau trail and Hanakapi'ai beach. Emily babysat Will and Anna, and at 6:30 the three of us headed up to the north shore. 2 miles from the trail head to the beach. Emily would stay in the baby holder, as long as one of us (Kim mostly) was holding her, she did great. 

Corvette Steering Column Project

I have been planning on refurbishing the steering column in my corvette for quite a while now. It's finally a perfect time to start this project. The ignition mechanism didn't work correctly, if you didn't turn to "lock" you could crank it without a key (a slight security problem, I know), also there was chipped paint and worn areas from years of use. In addition to new screws, bearings, and new paint on the interior plastic parts, I will be installing some new replacements parts: tilt handle, hazards switch, and the turn-signal/brights/wiper handle. 

I got started yesterday with the tear-down, but was held up when I couldn't remove a pivot pin. Fortunately I worked around it and now have everything out and disassembled. I initially thought that I could do everything with it still bolted in place, but to get all the plastic parts out to sand and paint, I had to take out the whole column.

 Something is missing...

 Parts, part 1

 Parts, part 2

Hole on the left, loose bolts on the right. 

Actually had to jack up the car and get under the hood.

(I'll let you know as things progress)