New area

[Wood Commander]

I just wanted to let my fellow club members know that after much, much careful thought and a tremendous amount of debate within my own soul, I have made the decision to move to the Dallas, TX area from the Seattle area. Or more accurately, the Northern edge of the Ft. Worth region.
I am going to seriously miss all of my freinds and boating opportunities in the Great Pacific Northwest, you guys are the best!
And finding big water around here is going to be challenging. I will be checking out Lake Texhoma at the earliest chance I get.

This move was brought about by many factors. The primary one being my job and it's future opportunities. This was a voluntary move and is going to be quite challenging from a financial and logistical standpoint seeing as we will now have three homesteads to (hopefully) temporarily manage. I am extremely lucky to have a great freind who is helping me out with temporary housing and finding my sea legs here in the area.

This job is a modest promotion and is a significant change from my previous situation. I had been working in a shop with three other guys, now I am in a work area with over 100 workers, who are providing services for over 1900 fellow employees. I've got a huge learning curve in front of me to say the very least!

Due to my current living arrangements my computer time is on a borrowed computer and pretty limited. But I will be checking Boat Buzz out whenever possible.

So, who do we have here on Boat Buzz from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area? I'm anxious to meet new antique boat freinds!

[drrot]

Bret,
My dad lives in the D/FW metroplex. Buy a GPS!. Seems all the roads go in circles. Lots of lakes in the area but no "Big Water". If you get a chance try Babes Chicken in Roanoke. Good luck with the move.

[Bill Basler]

Bret, wow. Now that's news. I know that you have kind of settled into the PacNW and made some great boating friends there. I know you also reminisce about getting back to the Great Lakes as you have roots there. Now Texas. If I hang on long enough you may move to Iowa!

Seriously, I would suggest first going to the member directory at www.chris-craft.org/directory . Click the Browse by State Province tab, and choose TX. Once there click on the "Address" link at the top of the address column and it will sort the list alphabetically by City. Page 3 of the results will start the Dallas entries. You'll find some familiar names there...Bill Baldwin, Seb Borrello, John McConnell, and Alan Isley to name a few. Member Jeffrey Smith photographed the stunning cruiser in front of the gorgeous house up in Hessel a few Brass Bells ago. Jim Frechette is not far away in Austin. Not to mention one of the coolest cities around.

Bret, it's a different part of the country and as they say, Texas is like a whole 'nuther country. My experience is the people in Texas are very friendly and laid back. I think you'll settle in.

I would also recommend getting to know the Wooden Boat Club of North Dallas.

Best of luck and safe travels.

[rdapron]

We miss you already Bret. Hope that you will be able to come back and visit us in "God's boating country."

rob

[campjer]

Bret,

That's quite the move! Wish you all the best with it and I'm sure we'll see you back up and running in no time. Just think that once you have a lady down there - you'll be a fresh water boater again! Let us know of any "barn gems" you made find in your travels!

[Wilson Wright]

Bret:

Sounds like an interesting move...I visited the Dallas group once...They have quite a gang...not affiliated directly with ACBS at the time but five or six had gotten together in a mini-warehouse with adjoining stalls on the outskirts of town and get together a couple of times a week to work on each other's boats...Non as big as yours.

As Bill Basler says Brass Bell Editor Bill Baldwin lives there and while he doesn't post much I'm sure he monitors Boat Buzz on a daily basis, if for no other reason to keep up with what's going on and get story ideas. I'm sure you'll hear from him in a day or so, if not today. The Texas guys are a nice bunch, fun and talented. Enjoy !

[rwhatley]

Bret,

We have a great group of guys here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. Things tend to slow down around here and you will enjoy every minute. It's going to get hot!

Try this link below.

http://www.woodenboatassociation.com/

[tom king]

Reggie, went to your web site. Interesting that the wav file I made about 8 years ago of the sound of the cc engine is still in use by someone.

There is also a pretty active antique and classic boat club in the Austin area as well.

[Al Benton]

Bret,

Check out the video on WoodyBoater this morning. I think I saw a glimpse of a wood Commander in it.

Al

[John McConnell]

Welcome to North Texas! Seattle's loss is Ft Worth's gain. There are a number of marinas at Texoma to choose from. We have our '67, 40' Constellation at Flowing Wells marina which is at the S. West end of the lake. There is also Grandpappy's, Highport, Cedar Creek, Little Mineral and Big Mineral as well as others on the Oklahoma side of the lake. If you are going to be in the area sometime soon send me an email or call me and we would be glad to meet up and show you around the lake.

[Don Ayers]

Bret;

This is great news for us! It's not so bad down here...

Anyway you're coming to my back yard as I have spent much time on Texhoma. My folks retired and have a place at Soldier Creek. It's a pretty big lake with 600 miles of shoreline/93,000 acres and can get pretty rough when the wind goes sweeping down the plains!

Texhoma is one of only two lakes in the US that naturally spawn Striper which is more of an ocean fish.

There are a lot of bigger boats on the lake.

Also you might notice your dollar going a little farther down here.

[Wood Commander]

Wow, thanks to all for the wonderful reply posts! I am anxious to check out everything y'all (I've got to get into the hang of this, actually not so hard for me!)have mentioned here. But right now I'm still in a kind of fog.
I do sort of feel like I'm starting to become slightly more like a Texan because I saw my first Armadillo road kill yesterday. One of the locals asked me if I picked it up, because they make a great pizza. I told him I figured it would be a little too tough for my tastes!

And I've been kind of lucky with the weather too, it's been a nice spring here and not too terribly hot yet. I was actually in fog driving into work Tuesdday morning.
I know that will be changing later on.

And I've got to agree about the circular roads and the need for a GPS. It's been a life saver.