House Showing & Inflatable Kayaks

The showing went well yesterday.  It was an older man (not too old) and his son that came by to look.  The son lives here in town and the father has a house and 40 acres in Virginia.  The father and his wife are the ones interested in the property.

Our Realtor said they like the house, but are not ready to make a decision, and  they have a house to sell first.  He sent pictures of our place  to his wife in Virginia.  It sounds promising, except for the house in Virginia that needs to be sold.  Oh well.

For the past year or so, Al and I have been trying to figure out an easier way to carry and haul our kayaks.  We love our Wilderness Tarpon kayaks, but they weigh about 70 pounds each.  We carry them in the back of the pick up truck.  We looked at some of the newer and lighter weight kayaks and found a few that we really liked, however there is still the issue of transporting in the back of the truck.  We have a Nissan Frontier truck and a Honda CRv.  We much prefer riding in the CRv.  It's a lot .more comfy, but can't carry the kayaks unless we get a roof rack.  We don't want to carry the kayaks on a roof rack because they weigh 70 pounds and you have to put them up there.  Even the lighter weight kayaks would have to be a bit of a problem putting them onto the roof. They do have gadgets that help you with that, but we feel putting them in the back of the truck is easier.

This morning I read Nick's Blog where he tested one of these Sea Eagle inflatable boats.  Nick currently uses a kayak similar to ours,  so I was anxious to hear his opinion.  Although the boat he tested wan't exactly the kayak we would order, it gave me a good idea of the comparison.  You don't want a boat that veers left or right whenever you paddle and you want one that glides easily in the water.  That was my concern.  He seems pretty happy with the one he tested.

Howard and Linda of Rv-Dreams have a couple of these Sea Eagle kaysks  that they really love. I've been reading their reviews and stories about their kayaking trip for a couple of years, but we always felt those boats were not for us.  We usually paddle upriver, or into the current, so we need a hard bottomed boat that tracks well and paddles with minimal effort.  Howard and Linda frequently paddle downstream and use their 2nd car to ferry them back to where they started.  That won't work for us.    These boats are expensive enough that we didn't want to buy one without trying them out, so we've waited.

Our kayaks serve the purpose well, but are a little heavy.   Now that we're getting closer to our new fulltiming life, we are reconsidering what will work best for our new life. The inflatable boats can be deflated and then stored either in the truck bed (covered) or the back of the Honda.  We're trying to find a place that sells them so that we can test paddle one. 

This is the one we think would be best for us.  Of course we need two because we like each other currently and want to keep it that way :)   Most of the people I know that kayak in a tandem kayak ended up fighting.  We had the same result in a canoe so we like our own boats!

Well today is a good day to hang around the house.  Al is splitting some wood on his DR power splitter before we sell it.  We're getting a good supply of firewood for this winter!

The temperature is supposed to get to 78 so it's a perfect day.  I think I'll mow a bit and clean up some of the sprouts that have popped up.  It's too nice to sit inside.