Team Jefe
09-28-2007, 01:11 PM
2007 was the weirdest year yet, so I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time. Weird for lots of reasons, most of which kept us out of Jefe’s Revenge and off the water much more than we would have liked. We left Dickinson Thursday around 1730 headed north and played in Houston traffic for the next two hours. We finally cleared north of Conroe and settled in for a nice run to Waxahachie, then Ft. Worth, Weatherford, Mineral Well, Graham and Bass Hollow. We made a quick stop for Diesel and people fuel in Richland where Renee took over driving to give me some rest. After another fuel stop in Weatherford I took the back the wheel for the hilly two lane roads. Once past Mineral Wells the traffic really died out and we had the road to ourselves. The last 15 miles from Graham to PK were the longest…as usual, but we finally made it to Bass Hollow around 1245. To my surprise we had a full welcoming committee. I first saw Miss Polly while I was still parking the truck. Then as we started to unload, FarmerTX, Roadtrip, the Truesdale Boys and “Arizona” Rick were all up to help and greet us. I was beat, so the festivities were short lived; Angel and I hit the sack and slept like babies.
Friday Morning I was up early and had breakfast going around 0830. Again, I was surprised to see Mark up and moving before anyone else. For those that don’t know, Mark is not a typical Texas Farmer. Usually, only wearing COTTON shorts, he does not hang out at the coffee shop from 0600-1000 shooting the bull. So, early mornings ain’t his bag baby. I had brought a new grill Renee got for free with some office supplies. Yeah, that gives you an idea of what this thing really is. I brought it for a specific dish to be cooked Saturday night, but decided to try it out as a “burner” for other stuff. I must say it worked GREAT…especially for a freebie with Office Supplies. Breakfast was some kicked up tacos with Bacon and Bold Country Sausage, fried up with onions and peppers. Then I scrambled some eggs to go with the meat. Mark and I both brought fresh made tortillas and used a foil pan as a griddle to heat them up. Trip magically showed up about that time and seemed to like the half-dozen or so tacos he consumed. Miss Jill….or Mrs Roadtrip to you, was a site for sore eyes and enjoyed some breakfast as well. By then most everyone was stirring, eating and getting ready for a beautiful day on the Lake. Even Andre and Molly were up and going after having traveled all night; now that is dedication.
Renee helped me launch Jefe’s Revenge as everyone else was getting ready. We had the usual mixed bag of boats. First was the Chaparral crew on Eagle One. David, aka K5Guy, and his crew had come in right behind us last night. Nice looking boat for NOT being a Donzi, but these guys were Donzi at heart. The Farmer had brought both boats and actually broke the Red 22 on Thursday. So, he was relegated to his back up boat….A Criterion….Oh, Damn the bad luck. Plus with Mark in the “Critter” Polly asked if she could ride with Renee and me. Of Course I said yes….how could I deny an original member of the Red Bikini Crew. Speaking of the RBC, Jill, another Original member had her new 18 Scorpion down for the festivities. And in fine Diva fashion, her hired help trucked in the boat, prepped it and had it ready for her arrival as she flew in from Michigan. That’s my girl. Mike and Matt had brought Mike’s 1986 22, which looked practically new. It was a sharp boat and much maligned with a small block. Andre had his 28ZX as the only other Zboat in the crew. It too was a fine piece of work. Rick had his 2005 22 Classic HP500 machine with him. This was a beautiful ride both eternally and under the hatch. Plus VERY fast even with Patti, their two kids and his MOM onboard. There were a whole lot of no-shows, you know who you are so we won’t go into it.
We finally got going and had some great runs around the lake. For some reason I seemed to be leading the pack and just had a ball cruising around that gorgeous lake. The canyon walls, clear water and beautiful scenery, both inside and outside of the Revenge, was nice and relaxing. We peeled off at Hell’s Gate, dropped the hook and went swimming. Mike & Matt, Rick & Family, and David & Crew came with us. Mark had Todd on the “Critter” and went on to the dam with Jill in the Scorpion to give her some more helm time. Andre and Molly stayed with them as well. I guess that ZX just likes to go fast! The water of Hell’s Gate was cool and refreshing…not ice cold as we have had in previous years. We swam and caught up for a few hours, then started wondering where the wayward boats had gone. Eventually, we weighed the anchor and went to look for them. As we made the turn coming out of Hell’s Gate they were zooming up the lake headed towards us. We had some fun making speed runs past each other, and then I headed for the dam with a few others in tow. Finally, all the boats came back to the dam and we headed back up the lake. Again, I was out front, but Trueser and Rick were sticking close. Mike got some great pictures of Jefe’s Revenge and we had a blast blasting up the lake. Just past Hell’s Gate we turned around to buzz the boats behind us, then followed them back towards Broadway. About half way there, I lost about 700 RPM’s in the starboard motor and started bleeding speed fast. Shortly after that, the motor just stopped, so I shut it down to investigate. It seemed like a spark/electrical issue and I went to looking at the problem while Polly took the helm and Angel worked on her Vitamin D intake. The short version is, I could fine nothing wrong, so we idled the 10 miles back to Bass Hollow. In that time, no one of our fine brethren came looking for us. I found out later that my reputation had everyone thinking I was off is some cove somewhere with the girls naked. Hell, that is even more incentive to come looking. Still my crew was solid as expected and dealt with the slow cruise like champs.
We made it back to the Hollow around 1430 and nobody else was there. We had not seen them on the lake so we figured they were zooming up around Sandy Creek or elsewhere. We had a quick lunch then Angel and I went to investigate the motor issue. Eagle One had shown back up with Dave and Ryan doing some mechanical investigation of their own. Quickly I determined that a spark plug was broken on the number 5 cylinder…not a good sign. Dave and Ryan both came over to lend a hand when I also noticed the starter was not disengaging when we tried to turn over the motor. We had it off in a few minutes, and Renee went up to try and find a new one…No dice, it was a special order part, so Dave and I took the thing apart and got the jammed bendix to unstuck. Unfortunately that did not fix the problem and we still could not get the motor to turn over. I started figuring the problem was much bigger than expected and it was time to trailer the boat and not let it ruin the rest of the rally for me. About that time the rest of the pack started showing up and we had lots of help getting trailered and buttoned up.
Around 1800 we started cooking super. To digress a moment, as I was prepping for the trip, I figured we would have a nice large pit on wheels for the major cooking like we have had in the past. Unfortunately, that pit was not available so Mark and Todd had found a dilapidated pit around Bass Hollow. To give you an analogy, this thing was a sweet X-18 that someone let sit out uncover beneath an oak tree for twenty years. It was rusted out, and missing part of one leg. An absolute shame, but it was pretty much all we had…well that and the 12-inch office supply mini-grill I had brought. So, we got to it. The meal that night consisted of Cajun marinated pork loin chops with lump crabmeat cakes, boudin sausage and kicked up green-bean casserole along with other nibblins’. Mark brought out the smoked brisket he had done and some nice Texas beans. Not the fanciest of feasts, but pretty good grub in my opinion; especially Mark’s Brisket, which is the best I have ever had. The logistics of the meal was the biggest challenge, but I had lots of help especially from my Angel and following a slight SNAFU with the crab cakes, we got everything done. We used the pit both as a cooker and warming oven, but most of the heavy work was done on that little 12-inch unit…simply amazing. Judging by the empty serving trays, everyone seemed to like it. Of course, I say part of that was that “Someone else” cooked it. Those kinds of meals are always great, especially after a long day on the water. The rest of the evening was spent enjoying the fine hospitality of these wonderful folks. After supper we all wondered where Darrell and Janet were, when the Bass Hollow staff came over to open the room, they told us Darrell would be rolling in around 1130. Well I made it until Mid-night and had to hit the hay, without seeing the Abernathy’s show up.
Saturday morning was another Tourism Office Day; cool and clear with the promise of some great fun. I noticed the Revenge sitting on the trailer, but quickly busied myself with making breakfast to put that out of my mind. We had the same basic fare with Breakfast Tacos, but with Bacon and Chorizo. As everyone was getting set to head out, Renee and I were going to tag along with Andre and Molly on the ZX. But Todd had a different idea. He challenged me to ride along with Jill while he was in the ZX. Not one to be daunted, I accepted. Jill was slightly concerned that she would scare me…me?....Scared? Jill, Honey, this is EL JEFE you’re talking to. I ain’t scared of nothing on the water…especially if we’re going under 100MPH. So I donned Todd’s impact vest and we all took off. Man did we have a blast. I hardly missed being in my own boat at all. Jill was really getting the hang of running the Scorpion, but she was still hesitant when encountering wakes. The ZX gang looked cool and comfortable with Andre holding a steady helm. Then on one really big Carver wake, Jill throttled back, but we still got airborne. Todd and Renee later told us they could see right down the bow of the 18, under the keel and the prop was out of the water. Since Jill slowed down, we hit kind of hard. Not a back smashing slam, but harder than any other jolt before then. At that point I decided to give her a little coaching on the next one. We continued on to the dam, tied off and swam around for a good while. The rest of the boats joined us some time later and we all took off for Hell’s Gate. On the way, Mike and Matt came along side and got some great shot of the Scorpion. Again we were presented with a large cruiser wake. As Jill approached it, I saw her start to throttled back, so I yelled “Go girl go, go, go !” We jumped the first one like launching to the moon, which Mike caught perfectly on film. The second wave was jut as fun and I threw up my hands on the third wave. That was better than an E-ticket ride at Disneyland! After that Jill shook of any trepidation she had and kept the throttle in its only true spot…WIDE OPEN. Besides, at about 40MPH the thing porpoised like flipper, so running WOT was the right thing to do…I’m with you all the way Jill. It sounds like perfect logic to me. We hung out at Hell’s Gate for most of the afternoon relaxing with our cheese and Spiked Cherry Limeades, thanks to Molly the Cheese Queen. While we were floating around Renee told that the ZX rode like a Mercedes; Todd even called it the ZX “Couch” because it was so smooth and comfy. So, I had to get a ride on it coming back to Bass Hollow. Man, were they right; solid and fast, very nice. Andre even let me take the helm for some speed runs and she handled like a dream.
We got tied up and cleaned up around 1730 to start supper. That night the menu included the few left over chops and brisket from Friday as well as Steaks, several kinds of sausage, chili, cedar-plank salmon, Crawfish ettouffee, and char grilled garlicky asparagus (which is what I brought the little grill for originally). Again, I think we all did pretty well since there was little left after the meal. I know I enjoyed it, and many other said they did too. Plus we still had not seen the Abernathy’s. Mark checked his voice mail, and had nothing. I could not get any cell service at all, so we enjoyed the evening and said a little prayer that D & J were OK. After supper Mike and Matt put on a great slide show of pictures from the rally, and we had a ball watching them. We then watched the wedding video Renee and I had from Cabo with was really nice as well. That was a short night for the Reid’s and we hit the sack around 2300.
Sunday, we were up with the sun and made a run to Graham for mini-cinnamon rolls, something we had discovered at last year’s rally. When we got back, Todd and Jill were set to hit the road. She had a 2-hour drive to DFW, he had a 16 hour drive to Cumberland…That’s my diva. I again made tacos and wrapped the individually in foil so folks to take them on the road. The exodus was beginning, with all the boats being loaded and strapped down for the trip home. Mike and Matt had actually, pulled out in the wee hours already. Renee discovered my left front tire was loosing air at the stem, so we had a de-ja-vu moment from TRII getting the tire changed. At least this time the hub was not trashed. Then we found out that Andre was really sick. We think he got the Amebic bactreria from the lake. So, I volunteered to load the ZX. Of course Renee, Molly and Mark were there to help, and after a few attempts and some concerns as to how it sat on the trailer, we got the word from Andre that all was well so we pulled it over to the side and unhitched the truck for Molly to take him to the ER in Graham. At that point we said our goodbyes and hit the road.
Renee had laid out the new king-sized memory foam pad in the backseat of the Mega Cab, and got back there for a little rest. She promptly fell asleep for the three hour run to Corsicana. After we fueled up, I was still game to drive, so she slept again back to Richland for our next diesel and food stop. She took over driving and I got some needed rest all the back to the storage in Dickinson. I must say, for her first trip through Houston with the trailer, she did great. We got the boat buttoned up and made it back home in just over seven hours. Not bad at all. I heard from Molly, that Andre was OK and they were headed back to KC without the boat. Mark also checked in that he and Polly made it OK.
What a great Rally. We had some breakage, but got the chance to ride on other boats and always enjoy the company of the fine Donzi Family. For those of you that were there, thank you for your friendship. For those of you who were not, you missed a really nice rally….especially you Darrell since you got the weekends mixed up.
Until next year, have fun and stay outta trouble.
JEFE
Friday Morning I was up early and had breakfast going around 0830. Again, I was surprised to see Mark up and moving before anyone else. For those that don’t know, Mark is not a typical Texas Farmer. Usually, only wearing COTTON shorts, he does not hang out at the coffee shop from 0600-1000 shooting the bull. So, early mornings ain’t his bag baby. I had brought a new grill Renee got for free with some office supplies. Yeah, that gives you an idea of what this thing really is. I brought it for a specific dish to be cooked Saturday night, but decided to try it out as a “burner” for other stuff. I must say it worked GREAT…especially for a freebie with Office Supplies. Breakfast was some kicked up tacos with Bacon and Bold Country Sausage, fried up with onions and peppers. Then I scrambled some eggs to go with the meat. Mark and I both brought fresh made tortillas and used a foil pan as a griddle to heat them up. Trip magically showed up about that time and seemed to like the half-dozen or so tacos he consumed. Miss Jill….or Mrs Roadtrip to you, was a site for sore eyes and enjoyed some breakfast as well. By then most everyone was stirring, eating and getting ready for a beautiful day on the Lake. Even Andre and Molly were up and going after having traveled all night; now that is dedication.
Renee helped me launch Jefe’s Revenge as everyone else was getting ready. We had the usual mixed bag of boats. First was the Chaparral crew on Eagle One. David, aka K5Guy, and his crew had come in right behind us last night. Nice looking boat for NOT being a Donzi, but these guys were Donzi at heart. The Farmer had brought both boats and actually broke the Red 22 on Thursday. So, he was relegated to his back up boat….A Criterion….Oh, Damn the bad luck. Plus with Mark in the “Critter” Polly asked if she could ride with Renee and me. Of Course I said yes….how could I deny an original member of the Red Bikini Crew. Speaking of the RBC, Jill, another Original member had her new 18 Scorpion down for the festivities. And in fine Diva fashion, her hired help trucked in the boat, prepped it and had it ready for her arrival as she flew in from Michigan. That’s my girl. Mike and Matt had brought Mike’s 1986 22, which looked practically new. It was a sharp boat and much maligned with a small block. Andre had his 28ZX as the only other Zboat in the crew. It too was a fine piece of work. Rick had his 2005 22 Classic HP500 machine with him. This was a beautiful ride both eternally and under the hatch. Plus VERY fast even with Patti, their two kids and his MOM onboard. There were a whole lot of no-shows, you know who you are so we won’t go into it.
We finally got going and had some great runs around the lake. For some reason I seemed to be leading the pack and just had a ball cruising around that gorgeous lake. The canyon walls, clear water and beautiful scenery, both inside and outside of the Revenge, was nice and relaxing. We peeled off at Hell’s Gate, dropped the hook and went swimming. Mike & Matt, Rick & Family, and David & Crew came with us. Mark had Todd on the “Critter” and went on to the dam with Jill in the Scorpion to give her some more helm time. Andre and Molly stayed with them as well. I guess that ZX just likes to go fast! The water of Hell’s Gate was cool and refreshing…not ice cold as we have had in previous years. We swam and caught up for a few hours, then started wondering where the wayward boats had gone. Eventually, we weighed the anchor and went to look for them. As we made the turn coming out of Hell’s Gate they were zooming up the lake headed towards us. We had some fun making speed runs past each other, and then I headed for the dam with a few others in tow. Finally, all the boats came back to the dam and we headed back up the lake. Again, I was out front, but Trueser and Rick were sticking close. Mike got some great pictures of Jefe’s Revenge and we had a blast blasting up the lake. Just past Hell’s Gate we turned around to buzz the boats behind us, then followed them back towards Broadway. About half way there, I lost about 700 RPM’s in the starboard motor and started bleeding speed fast. Shortly after that, the motor just stopped, so I shut it down to investigate. It seemed like a spark/electrical issue and I went to looking at the problem while Polly took the helm and Angel worked on her Vitamin D intake. The short version is, I could fine nothing wrong, so we idled the 10 miles back to Bass Hollow. In that time, no one of our fine brethren came looking for us. I found out later that my reputation had everyone thinking I was off is some cove somewhere with the girls naked. Hell, that is even more incentive to come looking. Still my crew was solid as expected and dealt with the slow cruise like champs.
We made it back to the Hollow around 1430 and nobody else was there. We had not seen them on the lake so we figured they were zooming up around Sandy Creek or elsewhere. We had a quick lunch then Angel and I went to investigate the motor issue. Eagle One had shown back up with Dave and Ryan doing some mechanical investigation of their own. Quickly I determined that a spark plug was broken on the number 5 cylinder…not a good sign. Dave and Ryan both came over to lend a hand when I also noticed the starter was not disengaging when we tried to turn over the motor. We had it off in a few minutes, and Renee went up to try and find a new one…No dice, it was a special order part, so Dave and I took the thing apart and got the jammed bendix to unstuck. Unfortunately that did not fix the problem and we still could not get the motor to turn over. I started figuring the problem was much bigger than expected and it was time to trailer the boat and not let it ruin the rest of the rally for me. About that time the rest of the pack started showing up and we had lots of help getting trailered and buttoned up.
Around 1800 we started cooking super. To digress a moment, as I was prepping for the trip, I figured we would have a nice large pit on wheels for the major cooking like we have had in the past. Unfortunately, that pit was not available so Mark and Todd had found a dilapidated pit around Bass Hollow. To give you an analogy, this thing was a sweet X-18 that someone let sit out uncover beneath an oak tree for twenty years. It was rusted out, and missing part of one leg. An absolute shame, but it was pretty much all we had…well that and the 12-inch office supply mini-grill I had brought. So, we got to it. The meal that night consisted of Cajun marinated pork loin chops with lump crabmeat cakes, boudin sausage and kicked up green-bean casserole along with other nibblins’. Mark brought out the smoked brisket he had done and some nice Texas beans. Not the fanciest of feasts, but pretty good grub in my opinion; especially Mark’s Brisket, which is the best I have ever had. The logistics of the meal was the biggest challenge, but I had lots of help especially from my Angel and following a slight SNAFU with the crab cakes, we got everything done. We used the pit both as a cooker and warming oven, but most of the heavy work was done on that little 12-inch unit…simply amazing. Judging by the empty serving trays, everyone seemed to like it. Of course, I say part of that was that “Someone else” cooked it. Those kinds of meals are always great, especially after a long day on the water. The rest of the evening was spent enjoying the fine hospitality of these wonderful folks. After supper we all wondered where Darrell and Janet were, when the Bass Hollow staff came over to open the room, they told us Darrell would be rolling in around 1130. Well I made it until Mid-night and had to hit the hay, without seeing the Abernathy’s show up.
Saturday morning was another Tourism Office Day; cool and clear with the promise of some great fun. I noticed the Revenge sitting on the trailer, but quickly busied myself with making breakfast to put that out of my mind. We had the same basic fare with Breakfast Tacos, but with Bacon and Chorizo. As everyone was getting set to head out, Renee and I were going to tag along with Andre and Molly on the ZX. But Todd had a different idea. He challenged me to ride along with Jill while he was in the ZX. Not one to be daunted, I accepted. Jill was slightly concerned that she would scare me…me?....Scared? Jill, Honey, this is EL JEFE you’re talking to. I ain’t scared of nothing on the water…especially if we’re going under 100MPH. So I donned Todd’s impact vest and we all took off. Man did we have a blast. I hardly missed being in my own boat at all. Jill was really getting the hang of running the Scorpion, but she was still hesitant when encountering wakes. The ZX gang looked cool and comfortable with Andre holding a steady helm. Then on one really big Carver wake, Jill throttled back, but we still got airborne. Todd and Renee later told us they could see right down the bow of the 18, under the keel and the prop was out of the water. Since Jill slowed down, we hit kind of hard. Not a back smashing slam, but harder than any other jolt before then. At that point I decided to give her a little coaching on the next one. We continued on to the dam, tied off and swam around for a good while. The rest of the boats joined us some time later and we all took off for Hell’s Gate. On the way, Mike and Matt came along side and got some great shot of the Scorpion. Again we were presented with a large cruiser wake. As Jill approached it, I saw her start to throttled back, so I yelled “Go girl go, go, go !” We jumped the first one like launching to the moon, which Mike caught perfectly on film. The second wave was jut as fun and I threw up my hands on the third wave. That was better than an E-ticket ride at Disneyland! After that Jill shook of any trepidation she had and kept the throttle in its only true spot…WIDE OPEN. Besides, at about 40MPH the thing porpoised like flipper, so running WOT was the right thing to do…I’m with you all the way Jill. It sounds like perfect logic to me. We hung out at Hell’s Gate for most of the afternoon relaxing with our cheese and Spiked Cherry Limeades, thanks to Molly the Cheese Queen. While we were floating around Renee told that the ZX rode like a Mercedes; Todd even called it the ZX “Couch” because it was so smooth and comfy. So, I had to get a ride on it coming back to Bass Hollow. Man, were they right; solid and fast, very nice. Andre even let me take the helm for some speed runs and she handled like a dream.
We got tied up and cleaned up around 1730 to start supper. That night the menu included the few left over chops and brisket from Friday as well as Steaks, several kinds of sausage, chili, cedar-plank salmon, Crawfish ettouffee, and char grilled garlicky asparagus (which is what I brought the little grill for originally). Again, I think we all did pretty well since there was little left after the meal. I know I enjoyed it, and many other said they did too. Plus we still had not seen the Abernathy’s. Mark checked his voice mail, and had nothing. I could not get any cell service at all, so we enjoyed the evening and said a little prayer that D & J were OK. After supper Mike and Matt put on a great slide show of pictures from the rally, and we had a ball watching them. We then watched the wedding video Renee and I had from Cabo with was really nice as well. That was a short night for the Reid’s and we hit the sack around 2300.
Sunday, we were up with the sun and made a run to Graham for mini-cinnamon rolls, something we had discovered at last year’s rally. When we got back, Todd and Jill were set to hit the road. She had a 2-hour drive to DFW, he had a 16 hour drive to Cumberland…That’s my diva. I again made tacos and wrapped the individually in foil so folks to take them on the road. The exodus was beginning, with all the boats being loaded and strapped down for the trip home. Mike and Matt had actually, pulled out in the wee hours already. Renee discovered my left front tire was loosing air at the stem, so we had a de-ja-vu moment from TRII getting the tire changed. At least this time the hub was not trashed. Then we found out that Andre was really sick. We think he got the Amebic bactreria from the lake. So, I volunteered to load the ZX. Of course Renee, Molly and Mark were there to help, and after a few attempts and some concerns as to how it sat on the trailer, we got the word from Andre that all was well so we pulled it over to the side and unhitched the truck for Molly to take him to the ER in Graham. At that point we said our goodbyes and hit the road.
Renee had laid out the new king-sized memory foam pad in the backseat of the Mega Cab, and got back there for a little rest. She promptly fell asleep for the three hour run to Corsicana. After we fueled up, I was still game to drive, so she slept again back to Richland for our next diesel and food stop. She took over driving and I got some needed rest all the back to the storage in Dickinson. I must say, for her first trip through Houston with the trailer, she did great. We got the boat buttoned up and made it back home in just over seven hours. Not bad at all. I heard from Molly, that Andre was OK and they were headed back to KC without the boat. Mark also checked in that he and Polly made it OK.
What a great Rally. We had some breakage, but got the chance to ride on other boats and always enjoy the company of the fine Donzi Family. For those of you that were there, thank you for your friendship. For those of you who were not, you missed a really nice rally….especially you Darrell since you got the weekends mixed up.
Until next year, have fun and stay outta trouble.
JEFE