I'm Baaaaaaack!

"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
08/05/2019 at 10:00 • Filed to: None

Just spent a week with this view outside my bedroom window:

Lake Lure, North Carolina, to be specific. We rented a huge house for 11 of us plus one dog, 5 kids under age 7 with our two (4 and 6) being the oldest, which made our lives considerably easier. 208 stairs to the lake. One of us (not me) brought along a ski boat.

SO hot. Very little internet. No cell service. Much swimming. Many beers. Many firsts for our kids including jumping off the dock and flying on an airplane.

It’s a beautiful area, but I was SO happy to come home to dry air and a nice breeze. It was 52 degrees this morning at our house which is about 15 degrees cooler than the mornings there.

I’ll share more pics later. Gotta catch up to life and work for now.

DISCUSSION (13)

Ash78, voting early and often > functionoverfashion
08/05/2019 at 10:11

Awesome area. Geologically very similar to NH, as well :)

Be glad you had mornings in the 60s....most of the South in August is 78 at night, 95 during the day. This is a cooler than average summer.

But if you want some of the coolest temps in the East (at least in the Southeast), you can head up to Highlands and Cashiers, NC, about an hour from where you were. At around 4,000' t hey’re normally 15-20 degrees cooler than all the surrounding areas. Not many places in the Eastern US where you can actually get high-altitude cooling effects.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > functionoverfashion
08/05/2019 at 10:13

52 degrees sounds damned glorious. I went out at 6:30 this morning and pulled weeds in the yard for about an hour due to that hateful orb of heat in the sky. It was in the upper 70's by time I finished.

functionoverfashion > Ash78, voting early and often
08/05/2019 at 10:18

The mornings did feel relatively nice, but by the time we motivated to go anywhere, the sun was in full effect. Which, by the way, was very good luck for us, in that it was only overcast for one morning, and we never got rained on except briefly while in transit in our cars a couple times. The only big storm that rolled through was while we were in Asheville.

We’ll have to look into the Highlands / Cashiers area, sounds nice. We’ll probably go back to NC again sometime just because our friends are there with their boat. I think we convinced the crew to come north for next year, we’ll bring OUR boat and go to VT or something. Everyone else will probably freeze haha

functionoverfashion > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
08/05/2019 at 10:19

In fact, “glorious” was one of the words we used to describe coming home at 2:30 pm to a 5-10 westerly breeze with temps around 78 at our house. We left a few windows open and it was 63 IN our house this morning , it felt amazing.

Ash78, voting early and often > functionoverfashion
08/05/2019 at 10:26

Yeah, Lake Lure is very pretty, but there are definitely a ton of small lakes all through the TN/NC/GA mountains. I’ve only been up there once, since that’s 6 hours away and on the other side of the mountains for me.

If you don’t have a particular destination (like Asheville) then you’ve got a ton of options. Limited only by how boldly you’re willing to tow a boat on supremely windy roads...

North GA is also very accessible thanks to the Atlanta airport, then you also have tons of Big City stuff you can do en route.

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion
08/05/2019 at 10:39

Welcome back. I finally got around to buying a boat. 01' Bayliner, 18', 125 Merc. Should do nicely for a couple years.

functionoverfashion > Future next gen S2000 owner
08/05/2019 at 10:51

Nice! Not a bad ride, 18' is a nice size, and that’s a good engine match . Bayliners usually come in well under the price point of something like a SeaRay or Cobalt but they have the same running gear, controls, all the really important stuff. It’s like buying the Toyota instead of the Lexus.

Also, pics please.

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion
08/05/2019 at 11:03

I may be taking half a day off of work to go register it and put it in the water. It needs a few things, tires, winch, and some maintenance stuff but we are in it for a good price. I’m tempted to flip it.

Is it better to store the motor up or down over the winter? It's got hydraulic trim, I'm not sure which way to go this fall.

Kinja'd!!!

functionoverfashion > Future next gen S2000 owner
08/05/2019 at 11:29

Does it freeze where you are in the winter? If so, trim it down or else cover the end of the prop where the exhaust comes out so water doesn’t go back into the exhaust outlet and freeze. I’d also highly recommend changing the gear oil as part of winterizing, just in case any water might be getting in there (it shouldn’t be, but you know, just ‘cause).

If you leave it up, a lot of engines will have a little lever you can flip down to hold the weight of the engine when it’s trimmed all the way up. So, trim up, flip lever, then trim down carefully until the lever is holding the engine’s weight. A block of wood will do the same thing if there’s no lever.

Boat looks clean from the pic!

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion
08/05/2019 at 11:46

Never thought about water running back in through the exhaust. It does freeze. I was thinking more of just resting on the hydraulics. I’ll throw a 2x4 under it and rest on that. It does have the lever for trimmed up and rolling down the road.

functionoverfashion > Future next gen S2000 owner
08/05/2019 at 12:38

It’s one of those things that I was taught a long time ago, but yet I see engines left like that in freezing climates and nothing happens... so maybe it used to be a thing, but manufacturers now design those passages so it’s not an issue? Anyway, yeah a 2x4 does the same thing.

functionoverfashion > Ash78, voting early and often
08/05/2019 at 12:50

I don’t think we’d go back to Lake Lure, just because there are so many other places to explore. But the house we rented had access to a resort at one end that had a beach, bar, restaurant, tennis, pool, lazy river, mini golf, big golf, and all that. Very nice for us, and especially for those with smaller kids.

For his part, my friend was not fazed by the winding roads towing his boat. I wouldn’t be either, but I have a few thousand more hours of towing under my belt than most boat owners.

I’m sure we’ll go back that way before they leave the Charlotte area. I expect they’ll move back up to New York where they’re both from... at some point.

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion
08/05/2019 at 17:33

Blew off work for the afternoon. Boat does boat things.

Kinja'd!!!