The Eagle Has Landed!

Well, Eagles, Cara counts too. But we're not really eagles, or even birds. It was kinda an euphemism...   no wait, Google says thats wrong. I had to look it up because I can't think of the right word. Nevermind.

The point is, Cara and I are in Seattle! We caught the redeye out of Hawaii friday night, enjoyed an overnight rest in some undersized airline seats while being serenaded by a 2 year old in the next seat crying almost the entire flight. Caught the Light Line train the next morning to my Gary's house and eventually picked up the Blue Donkey.

While we were at North Westy (the shop that fixed up Donkey for our trip) Eddie and Kathryn showed up. I stole some pics from Eddies Facebook because he wouldn't give them to me....

 

After an exhilarating test drive with Kirk, the head honcho at North Westy, we all caravaned back to Gary's for some Drinking. Um, I mean planning and refitting of the Donkey. While we (Eddie and myself) watched, Gary began building furniture by flashlight until it was too late to continue annoying the neighbors.

We had some delicious dinner the girls prepared and experimented with my portable icemaker. Thats my kind of living! Eventually we called it a night and crashed. Tommorow should be a productive day.

 

First night camping....   OK, Gary let Cara and myself stay inside. Hopefully we'll get the heater installed today. Donkey will be ready soon!

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Day two in Seattle.

Rain.

All day.

Rear hatch makes a decent roof, but it drips into the cargo area. With Gary and Eddies help we made great progress, but underestimated the job ahead of us.

Beginning stages of a rear cabinet....

Gary and Eddies work in the main cabin, Gary has some great carpentry skills.

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Day three in Seattle.

More Rain. Alot. Floods in full effect in Washington. Do you know where your Ark is? We're still working on cabinets, Eddie completed his Clutch master cyl instal, helped Gary install a new Master Cylinder on his truck. Mostly finished and painted cabinets. I screwed up my project several times, Gave up and went to  North Westy for some time on the lift to replace some front end stuff. Kirk is the man for letting us use his facilities and tools to finish prep Donkey prior to our trip. We replaced the front CV's and tierods, a couple other small items and a good pre-trip shakedown. Kudos to Kirk for helping us out, Thanks!!

Donkey continues to run great, having a proper boxer is enjoyable. Cruising at 65 is cake.

My heater is installed, but I still need to run the fuel lines.

We'll see what tomorrow brings, hopefully theres less rain. We haven't even thought about packing yet.