A spring break road trip down to San Francisco with the wife and kids. My wife plans the itinerary and it does not include boats. If I pushed it, I could probably squeeze a stop in here or there but it would always be under the shadow of a stopwatch. “How much time are you going to need here?” Would be her usual query. That translates to “How long are you going to waste my valuable vacation time on this crap?”. I usually rush through whatever the venue of interest is. Show up at the designated meeting spot where the kids are scrolling through their phones and grumbling that they didn’t get to go to whichever store was of interest and then wait twenty minutes for my wife who’s gone an a walk somewhere.

I did get to tour the Blue Ox Millworks in Eureka, Ca. It was even her idea. But the terms and conditions were the same.

I’ve resigned myself to just snapping my head around at whatever boat wreck is dumped along side the road. I’m fine with that because those are often my favourite boats to check out. The Zombie corpses of someone’s nautical dreams. One of these days I may have to plan a road trip of my own where I stop at all of them and do a deep dive into their rotting timbers.

As for the good ship “Welcome”, there were several of a very similar form along that stretch of waterfront in Coos Bay. Most if them had been preserved and propped up for public view. This one just happened to have the only open coffee shop nearby.