A Mighty Road Trip

[Bigshow 0]

This is a sort of new boat delivery (pickup really) travel log. I’m going to ramble on about how my day went, the new boat, and so on. This is long and if you’re not into stories well that’s the short version, go a head and take look at the pictures and have a nice day:)

 

I recently traded the Mighty Centurion (Lightning) for a Mighty Enzo. Friday March 14th was pickup day. According to Google the distance from Columbus, Ohio to CBK Water Sports in Kingsport, Tennessee is 392 miles and the one way drive time is about six hours and 42 minutes. My day stared at 5:30 AM and ended well after midnight.

 

Since I was buying out of state I called the local license bureau and title office to make sure I had everything I needed. I exchanged a few emails with Nate to also make sure I had all the paperwork in order to complete the transaction. Then I mapped my route with Google.

 

I turned off the blaring alarm clock at 5:30 AM, took a quick military shower. Then I drove down to the Scioto Boat Club and hitched the Mighty Centurion up one last time.

 

The route that Google selected took a route 33 out of Columbus. Route 33 is diagonal to route 77. The other route would have been 70 east and 77 south down to the junction of 77 and 33. Dawn began to break as I reached Nelsonville. I no longer needed to turn the dome light on to read my Google map. Route 33 might be more direct as the crow flies but is also had a lot of twists and turns and too much map work for one driver. Route 33 ran into and out of towns, tons of speed zones, stoplights, and stop signs.

 

I didn’t have breakfast and so I kept looking for an exit with gas station and fast food. The gas needle started plummet so I gave up on looking for the combo stop and just went for gas. I really was looking forward to and Egg McMuffin, who eats healthy on a road trip anyway. I ended up settling for a 20 ounce Mountain Dew and a sleeve of powdered doughnuts, yum.

 

There was a coal barge traveling down the Ohio River as I crossed over it near Ravenswood, West Virginia. The route over the bridge eventually had me at a stop sign over looking the coal barge. I though to myself, hmmmm coal barges, tons of coal – ballast really. I wonder what the surfing wake is like behind one of those. From A distance it looked a little frothy, surfing barge wake is probably a good way to earn a fine, and well I was planning to get to CBK by 2-ish so I had to make tracks.

 

If the two happiest days in a man’s life are the days that he bought a boat and the day that he sold a boat then what kind of day is it when you trade one boat in for another? Yep, it was just me and the Mighty Centurion on one last road trip. Just business, buying a selling boats. Anyway just me and the boat. Though my kids are pretty much grown and weren’t with me anyway there would be no stopping for little ones. I thought ya, a man’s trip, no stopping for the ladies at every exit. That’s about when the Mountain Dew kicked in and I had to make a pit stop at a road side rest.

 

I don’t know if it’s just me or maybe someone else has noticed this before. West Virginia is kind of hilly. I was making good time and there were no traffic problems but it just seems like WV was up hill all the way. My truck dropped out of OD all the time, well that’s to be expected, right? Well, the truck down shifted to second quite a few times too.

 

The southern section if I77 is a toll road. Before the first toll stop I remember seeing the sign that said to check brakes, slow down, and that all lanes took Easy Pass. What I missed was the sign that said one lane was Easy Pass only. That was my lane. I pulled up, rolled down my window and noticed no one was in the booth. I heard the gal with a thick southern drawl in the next booth to the left of me yell over to the booth on my right side “Some people can’t readâ€. I have a degree in engineering, an advance degree in engineering, and I spend most of my days writing technical material. I can read - honest. I felt sheepish. So, I put the truck in park, rolled down the right hand window, and leaned way over to hand the booth attendant my $1.50 toll. I did much better on the remaining toll stops.

 

I reached Bristol around 1:00 PM. I was a little hungry and I happened across the golden arches so I stopped for a burger. At the entrance was a sign that said “Welcome Race Fansâ€. The parking lot was packed and there wasn’t any place for a truck and trailer. So I parked up the street and walked over. Many of the counter staff wore NASCAR T-shirts. I asked if there was a race track in the area. The gal looked at me like I was from outer space and said “Ya, Bristolâ€. “Ohâ€, I said, after hearing Bristol it did register that Bristol was a big NASCAR track.

 

There wasn’t much more driving before I reached CBK. I met Nate, Pat, Nick, and Josh (Josh – right?). The previous owner of my boat was there too, John I think. I really wasn’t expecting to see the previous owner. We walked over to the Mighty Enzo, rolled the cover back and gave the boat a look over. She’s a great looking boat. I turned over the engine, opened the hatches, kicked tires, and so on. The boat looks practically new. The guys at CBK had cleaned up out some boat bumper rash and other dock rash as well as a few trailer paint dings. I couldn’t find any marks, nice job guys. One of the Centurion trailer stickers had to be removed to clean up the paint on the trailer. Nate has a replacement on order for me. That’s cool. So, big thanks to the guys at CBK. The boat looks great and I can’t wait to get her on the water.

 

I didn’t want to spend the night in a hotel so we went in to wrap up the paper work. There’s a lot less paper work for boats than for cars. After a few signatures and photo copies we were done. Nate ran around the shop and handed me a CBK T-shirt, Centurion T-shirt for my daughter, and some stickers. He didn’t have a Centurion T-shirt in my size but said that he’d send me a few. With the paperwork and swag out of the way it was time to hit the road.

 

Everyone says that you shouldn’t trailer with the cover on. I’ve had the Mighty Centurion Lighting rigged so I can trailer with the cover on. I’ve got a rope and bungee cord system that I like to use. I haven’t seen trailer issues with my system. The cover on the Enzo is similar but the boat doesn’t sit on the trailer like the Lightning does. I wasn’t going to have time to fix up bungee rigging for the Enzo. I don’t know why covers don’t match trailers very well. I had read about masking the boat hull with tape where the cover might come in contact. So I taped off the hull at the fabric straps. I stopped at the CBK gate to snap a few pictures of the boat and then hit the road.

 

As I got rolling I thought maybe there’s something wrong with my truck. It seems like she’s spending a lot more time in 3rd than OD than she was on the way down. That’s definitely a bigger boat:) As I headed down the road I saw one of the cover straps vibrating madly. Hmmm… that’s not good. I finally found a road side rest stop. I took a look and saw that the protective tape had worn away at one strap. I put more tape over the hull, I taped paired strap bands together and I made sticky on the outside tape loops and put the loops between the hull and straps. That worked very well. The tape on the strapped stopped them from vibrating.

 

I thought that West Virginia was up hill north to south. It seems like no mater what direction you driving through West Virginia, it’s up hill. It started to get dark and the rain picked up. Taking snow and ice out of the picture, some of the worst driving conditions are at night in the rain. No let’s make that, at night, in the rain, and on unfamiliar roads, that’s it, right? Wait, how about towing a new trailer, at night, in the rain, on unfamiliar roads, and after a long day.

 

I just took it easy, stayed mostly in the right lane, and motored along. I recalled seeing an exit for 33 east and that I was on the junction of 77 and 33. I missed 33W dang it. Well 33W wasn’t that great of a route, I was getting tired, and I77 and I70 are both excellent highways, so I just continued on my way to Cambridge and then to Columbus. Funny thing, over Ohio roadways it was hard to notice the difference between pulling the Mighty Centurion and the Mighty Enzo. I was at Cambridge around 10:00 PM and so I figured I’d be at the boat club by 11:30 and home by midnight. A long day to be sure.

 

To make up for junk food breakfast and lunch I stopped at a BP-Subways for dinner and gas. Man I stopped at a lot of gas stations to pick up the Mighty Enzo.

 

I made the tight corner in to the boat club and stopped in front of the club awning. I pulled out the camera again and took a shot of the Mighty Enzo in front of her new home. As I was walking around to take a picture I heard a hissing sound. Steam maybe. Had the Mighty Enzo been too much for my Chevy Avalanche? No the sound was coming from the boat. Did one of the axels over heat, no they were cool. Over on the right side of the boat I heard the hiss and I started to get that old tire smell. I had a rip in the side wall of one trailer tire. There’s an old rusted, bent and cut off stub of a fence pipe at the boat club entrance. The trailer must have snagged that pipe when I made the turn in to the club. That’s a bummer but at least I got home ok and I didn’t snag both tires. I’ll have to get a sledge or something to take care of the old post.

 

Well I’m sure that’s more than most of you wanted to read. The tire has been repaired and the Mighty Enzo is in her new home. I need a matching spare tire rim. Does anyone know what the brand and model are and where to get one?

 

Lots of stops at gas stations

My bungee trailer straps

Breakfast

The rig

The Mighty Enzo

Yes I was at CBK

Masking tape

Worn masking tape

The rig with a better back drop

The Mighty Enzo with a better back drop

There goes $100

The Mighty Enzo at the SBC

[Kevin Baugh 78]

Great story!

 

Can't wait to hear how the surf wake is on the MIGHTY ENZO!

[BCanuck 1]

Congratulations, she's a beauty. Great story by the way.

[Hangar Pilot 0]

BigShow,

 

What size wheel and tire do you need for the spare?

 

Joe

[tgaugh 2]

Good stuff Show - I really got the story, I felt like I was on the road trip too! Quick question that the answer I may have already missed. Was this just the perfect Deal? Perfect boat? Did Nate just hook it up? Or was/is there really no Centurion dealer closer? Man that's a lot of driving with no co-pilot!

 

Sorry to hear about the tire but stoked you made it back, can't wait to see the new pics of her out on the water!

[Bigshow 0]

Loc,

 

Finding the boat is kind of another long story.

 

During the winter of ’06-’07 Kayce Brewer offered me a factory boat at an amazing price. She had a list of boats to choose from including one that pulled Boardstock. I was ready to pull the trigger but my wife wasn’t. Our son was a year away from his college and we were uncertain of the costs. We heard college expenses were somewhere between $20K an $30K per year. So to maintain domestic tranquility I backed out of the deal. With my son’s freshman year nearly complete we have found that the expenses were more like $15K and though it will be tight the new boat is possible.

 

I kept working on tweaking the wake on my Lightning through ’07. At times I had as much as 2800 pounds of ballast in her. The surfwake was I think fairly good but the set up was less than responsible. We chili-dipped the bow filling the front foot well more than once. At the end of my season we were running about 2,000 pounds for both regular and goofy wakes. That’s still too much for that boat.

 

After the 2007 Scioto Wakefest my local dealer looked into hooking me up with a NASCAR boat. The price was more than I could manage and NASCAR really doesn’t do anything for me.

 

At the end of the 2007 season I committed to selling the Lightning. I was prepared to buy an older 2002 Avalanche or maybe a 2004 Enzo. I could have easily gone boatless in ’08. After two years of running competitions in the Midwest I’ve developed a pretty good crew list. I email over 30 riders on a weekly basis. Some rides are on my boat other rides are on friends boats.

 

I asked my local dealer to sell the Lightning and I asked him to speak with the area Centurion rep to see if a promo boat might be possible. I heard through my dealer that a promo deal would be offered. However, I couldn’t pull the trigger until my boat sold. I sat patiently through most of the winter. Occasionally I saw my boat show up on eBay. I didn’t know how much a promo boat was going to cost so in January I asked my dealer to price one out. I also happed to speak with Kayce again and she mentioned that she again had factory boats that I might consider. I told Kayce that I would ask my dealer to inquire about those boats. I never got an answer from my dealer.

 

I did get an email from the area rep putting me in touch with a new Centurion dealer and informing me that my current dealer was no longer a Centurion dealer. I wasn’t too surprised to hear this news. My dealer is a really nice guy but he hasn’t had much business volume. That’s kind of an awkward situation for me. My dealer had my boat under his roof all winter, he listed my boat, answered the phone and emails, and paid listing fees to sell my boat. Now if I were to buy a new boat it wouldn’t be through him. Further, trading a boat in for a new one reduces the tax bite. I’d loose that advantage if he sold my boat and I bought another from the new dealer. I’ve never met the new dealer before. We spoke a few times and he gave me very ROM prices. Those prices were on par with prices for dealer demos that I’ve seen advertised.

 

Not counting the new dealership I have been contacted by three Centurion dealers this winter. Each time I politely declined since I was working with my dealer. Nate was one of the three. But since my dealer was no longer in the Centurion fold I decided to broaden my search.

 

The first thing I did was call my dealer. We spoke about his dealership status and that I was going to look elsewhere. I gave him something for his effort and asked him to write it up as indoor boat storage. When I left his dealership with my boat we were on good terms.

 

I asked two of the dealers that contacted me if they still had the boats that they had offered. Two other boats that I found were nearly identical and came with full warranties. However, after taking my trade those boats were considerably more expensive than the deal that Nate offered. The problem with a promo deal was my trade. Nate made it happen. I didn’t negotiate the deal that Nate offered; it was exactly what I wanted.

 

The other thing that I liked about CBK is that I’ve seen Nate on WW frequently, online here as well. He’s involved in the same online community that I am and we have exchanged several emails over the last few years. Nate and the guys a CBK are really in to wake sports, they are involved locally and online, and they offered me what I think is a very good deal. The road trip was well worth it.

 

Lastly, let me say that I really appreciate the support that Centurion has provided for wake sports events that I have organized. I further appreciate that a promo deals that were offered not once but two or three times, depending on how you count. However, the deal that Nate offered more closely fits my needs.

 

Someone contacted me with a deal on a spare. Now I need to talk to an Outlaw about a dBot double wakesurf board rack.

[VaBeachBum 0]

Those are some big stories!! Congrats on the new pickup. I can't believe you made that entire road trip with relatively few problems. And if the worst to come out of it is a flat tire, then I'd say it's a success!!

[WakeVB 0]

Congrats Bigshow! I like to hear these kinds of stories for sure. I know you have a lot of love for your Centurions, so I wouldnt expect anything less from you. Can't wait to see some great shots of her throwin a great wave for you!