CONFEDERATE RAILROAD

Ruthie (center, arms up) was determined to dance the night away



Danny Shirley, lead singer and founder of Confederate Railroad


Chuck (look right) tries in vane to get Ruthie to stop dancing long enough for a picture. She wasn't having any of it.

Home in Port Charlotte
80*

Saturday we joined our neighbors and fellow football junkies, Chuck and Ruthie, at the Punta Gorda block party. The highlight of the night was a free concert with Confederate Railroad. They have had several number one country singles, the biggest being "Trashy Women" and "Daddy Never Was The Cadillac Kind". My personal favorite is "Elvis and Andy."

The band started out in the 70's as The Johnny Paycheck Band, providing music for the man famous for "Take This Job And Shove It" and later they were the David Alan Coe band for the mega hit, "You Don't Have To Call Me Darlin'".

We spent the entire concert on the floor right in front of the stage, dancing and singing, trying to decide what was more entertaining . . . the band or Ruthie playing to their attention.

After the show we all went out to the newly opened IHOP in Port Charlotte. We really enjoy Chuck and Ruthie's company. If you missed it before, I met them while I was out jogging and saw Chuck's Arizona Cardinals window sticker on his truck. He is a lifelong fan of the red birds back to the 60's, growing up in Western Ohio. They moved to Port Charlotte 19 years ago and live a couple of streets south of us. Ruthie is a Pittsburg Steelers nut. Their marriage even survived a trip to Superbowl XLIII, where we all know what happened.

MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS:
I spent most of the day, Sunday, doing projects on the boat. I replaced a broken fresh water flush intake, (pictures below), replaced a faulty connector on my GPS antenna cable, cleaned out the raw water sea strainers and washed the entire boat. Afterward, I opened the cabin windows and lay down to read a fishing magazine in the cool breeze. What a nice day!


Kathy and I are going over to Chuck & Ruthie's house right now (Sunday, 3:45PM). Chuck and I are going to install some plants and trees in their yard and then we will all enjoy dinner together.

Ship shape pictures


This is what the old one looked like.


This is what it looks like broken. Hard to hook a hose up like that.


The old hole is 1/4" too small


After buying a hole saw bit it went easy


Stainless is better than the old plastic one


Better than new!
This is used to flush the salt water out of our inboard motor, by hooking a garden hose up and running the engine while the boat is on the lift and out of the water.