Waiting for our Ship to Come in.....

 Martha and I are in Fort Lauderdale, FL since Wednesday this week.

We're waiting to board the cruise ship we'll be taking over to Dover, England, UK on Saturday.  

From Dover, we'll take a puddle jumper to Bilbao, Spain.  More on that in a couple of weeks.  It's going to take just about that to cross the North Atlantic onboard the Holland America Nieuw Statendam:

In the meantime though, we're killing time in the city of Fort Lauderdale.  The area we're in is close to the cruise ship port for obvious reasons.  

We called for a Lyft and we tried the Stranahan Museum near the city's downtown area on Thursday.  Located in the home of Frank and Ivy Stranahan.  Considered the founding father of Fort Lauderdale, he originally came down to run a ferry crossing across the New River in 1901.

Here's a pic of the family home a few years later:

Things have gotten a bit more "built up" since 1906:

Typical museum of someone's home, I'll not bore you with pics of the rooms' furnishings and such.  In the office section, though, there was a display  of items traded by the native Seminole tribe.  I found the small baby gator interesting....

We didn't spend a lot of time in the museum.  There's really not much to it after all and we decided to walk a portion of the Riverwalk.  Basically, a path along both sides of the New River.  

Here's one of the neighborhood yachts making its way under one of the several bridges crossing the river:

This part of the city was definitely designed and oriented towards boat owners as you can see.  Pricey too.

Lunch was at one the main tourist drag, a place called Voodoo Bayou.  Pricey but tasty lunch specials were had by us.

The bar sported the following theme....I'm guessing they were emulating the quasi-religious aspects of Voodoo?

After lunch the crowds had thickened on the streets and the heat and humidity had gotten to us.  After a quick stop for snacks at a nearby Publix grocery store, we called a Lyft ride and returned to the hotel.

There's a dearth of "attractions" which are of interest to both of us, so we'll hang out here at the hotel today.  We board ship tomorrow afternoon.

Lunch with Uralisti Friends

It truly has been a long time since I got together with fellow Uralisti to shoot the shit over lunch and exchange tales.  Some blame was cast in my direction as I've been camping a lot over the last few years!

Still, I met up with three longtime Uralisti friends, all Ural riders of course, whom I've ridden more than a few miles over the years.

The organizer was John S.  Aka Spat.  He's one of the originals of the core group of Ural riders in the Denver area.  Then there was Tim L., photographer par excellence and architect.  Rounding out the foursome was Dan K., a fellow Class C camping enthusiast as well as a motorcycle rider.

Lunch was at a small restaurant in Littleton, the Platte River Bar and Grill.  The food was good but the conversation was best!  We got all caught up on each other's lives, future travel plans and family.  A great time for someone who is as anti-social as I am.

We said our goodbyes in the parking lot, the street in front of the restaurant was the scene of a three car accident so traffic was a bit chaotic.

Dan, Tim, John and I

We'll be trying to meet up again in June after I return from my overseas trip.  Tim will also be away with his family as well.

Weather was sunny but cool, and very windy.  Still, it made for some nice riding with Scarlett.  This ride also proved out recent repairs on Scarlett, I had to replace a leaking oil seal on the final drive where the pusher axle pushes out the right side of the drive.

I'm happy to report a $2 seal did the trick.

Leaving the laptop at home

I presently use a HP Omen laptop that I got from Thing 2 when she moved onto the Apple ecosystem.  It's quite a capable laptop but also quite heavy, especially since I use it mainly to process pictures while on the road.  Weight: 5.56 lbs!

Martha and I are leaving in a couple of weeks for a long trip overseas, more on that next month.  Logistics dictate of course that the less weight one has to schlep around, the better!

At first, I was going to share the use of Martha's IPad Air tablet.  Nice hardware but the Apple ecosystem's UI and I do not get along and trials proved it to be still true.  Very frustrating for me to use their "intuitive" interface!  

So, I thought I'd get my own tablet, a Samsung Tab perhaps.  Nice reviews but slightly pricey, not horrendous but being the cheap bastard that I am....it gave me pause.

Then, I thought, why not just an external monitor and keyboard?  After all, that's all I was trying for, a larger display than the one on my Samsung S24+ phone to process pictures on.

A little research, some shopping on Amazon and I got these for the trip and possibly for future camping trips as well.

First, a 15.6" external monitor which can be powered via a USB C cable from the phone or its own USB power cube.  It's not a touchscreen since I didn't have that functionality with the laptop and yes, I'm cheap.

I believe I can connect to it wirelessly as well but haven't explored that function yet, it would save the power drain on the smartphone I suppose.  Update: no, I can't connect wirelessly, however, you can use the power USB-C port for the power cube, connect the smartphone to the other USB-C port and it'll charge the phone at same time.  Good deal.

It proved larger than I thought but still fits in the laptop bag, and comes with its own cover to protect the screen while traveling; and serve as a stand when being used.  It weighs 1.36 lbs, a saving of 4.2 lbs.  Not bad.

The second thing was a foldable external keyboard with a track pad so I don't have to worry about using a mouse.  Note: it appears I could have used the smart phone's trackpad function somehow as well but that's for future exploration. (This turns out less useful than previously thought, in my case)

The keyboard connects via Bluetooth and so far, seems to be working fine.  I'm typing this post on it as you might be assuming.  It's something new to me to use the trackpad on the right side but I'm sure I'll get used to it.  It weighs 7.3 oz.

So both items come to just over 2 lbs.  Cost was almost $95 but using credit card points got it all for about $31.  Not bad and it warms the cockles of a cheap bastard's heart.

There's a learning curve here as well with these devices and the Android ecosystem but nothing frustrating so far.  The cat is playing with all the cables and packing materials so I'll end this post here.

Sold the Aluma Trailer

My Aluma 638 Aluminum Utility Trailer has been a steadfast aid since October of 2016.  Her purpose was to carry the Ural Sidecar Rig on camping trips primarily, though she'd end up fulfilling other roles as well over the years.

The beginning: Extending our Range

However, all that subsequent boondocking and dispersed camping caused much wear and tear on the poor trailer.  Aluminum just isn't the material to use for trailering heavy motorcycles such as the Ural Patrol over rough terrain.  All that bouncing and rough trails took its tool and there's been several patching/reinforcement repairs done.

Here's a listing of all trailer related posts, usually involving repairs:  Trailer 

This last camping trip, I'd started thinking about replacing it with a steel trailer for future trailering of the Ural Patrol.  Nearly lost the wheel fenders a couple of times, and ended up screwing on support brackets/panels when I got home.

So, at the start of this week, I put the trailer up for sale on Facebook Marketplace.  A flurry of pings ensued from several people, most of whom expressed interest but then I didn't hear back from.  

This morning, as I contemplated taking the trailer back to the storage yard; I got a ping from a buyer.  Celestino was very communicative and we met up at a nearby park for him to look at it shortly after he first reached out to me.

After a brief inspection, he and I agreed on a price and the deal was done.  I signed away the title to him and he Zell'ed the funds to Martha's account.  Easy Peasy.

I hope he gets years of use out of that trailer, he's going to use it to haul stuff for his auto body repair /restoration company.