Wax On, Wax Off

Though I told the tale, or at least part one of it (here), of moving our boat to a better sales location on Kent Island, the story isn’t over. The boat has to actually get sold, which is a lot more complicated than it might seem: You have to convince someone to pay the price equivalent of a small house for something that requires five times as much maintenance and that can only really be used for about seven months a year. No small task, that.

When we arrived at our destination with said boat we drove it directly into the boat lift. It was immediately pulled out of the water and moved to a distant corner of the boatyard and put on blocks. Where no one could see it. About three hundred feet from water and power. And stuffed behind two other boats. I’m not sure I understood this sales tactic.

It turns out that the boatyard is operated by different people than the boat brokerage, and therein lies the rub: The boatyard also performs maintenance and and provides winter and long-term storage, in addition to providing boat sales space for the brokerage. To make a long story short, it’s taken a month to get the boat moved to a sales location with access to water and power where it can be washed, waxed, and actually seen by potential buyers.

And washing and waxing is exactly what we did this weekend. We waxed about four hundred and forty square feet of hull, pressure washed the entire boat, and painted the bottom of the boat black. We transformed a tired, old, worn out looking boat into someone elses fantasy machine with about thirty hours of elbow grease, and found some great roadside barbecue in the process.

On day one of this mission the pressure washer (thank God for whoever invented these amazing machines!) took a tumble from the foredeck about nine feet to the ground. The quick release hose fitting was the casualty, having snapped cleanly off. After a couple of expletives, we decided to find a hardware store and get a part to fix it.

The local True Value was about two miles down the road, and as we parked Adeventure Truck out front, we noticed the marquee for Island Bar-B-Que across the lot. More on this in a moment.

Old time hardware stores are wonderful places because they are usually staffed with friendly, helpful and knowledgable folks, and this one was no exception. We were asked no fewer than three times if we needed help, and the plumbing guy spent ten minutes with us to find two three-dollar fittings. They will definitely get my business again.

Now back to Island Bar-B-Que: Parts in hand, we headed for the truck with visions of sweet, tangy pork now firmly implanted in our minds. We jumped in, drove across the lot, and discovered… an empty storefront. Bummer. Double bummer, in fact, for we now had The Jones for some pulled pig and couldn’t shake it.

So we drove up and down US 50, heading west towards the Bay Bridge at first, and then heading east towards Easton, looking for barbeque. As we got to the 301-50 split, we came to a large outlet mall and decided to try there. The mall was crowded and the parking lot was a serpentine monster designed to maximize sales by making it hard to leave. We eventually found our way to the other side and found… Auntie Annes Pretzels. Yuk.

I was ready to surrender when, from across US 50, I spotted smoke. The kind of smoke that just must come from a roadside barbeque stand. We dodged and wove our way through the parking lot from hell, remembering that line from Hotel California (“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”), and finally found the exit. Then I saw it: The bright red trailer, the gawdy graphics, and the black smoker. Big Red Bull Barbecue – Score!

Oh, and what fine ‘que it was! The pulled pork sandwich came on a kaiser roll, and was the perfect combination of sweet, tangy, and spicy, leaving a wonderful aftertaste that stuck with you. My side of onion rings were quite possibly the best I have ever had: thick and crunchy with a tasty batter coating, and not at all greasy – these folks know how to run a deep fryer!

It was soooo good we went back yesterday for seconds! Too bad this place isn’t closer to home.