Thousands of miles away, my other buddy, Too Tall Tom, contemplates his move to Texas. He is saddled at the moment with Too Many Boats. This prevailing predicament befalls him often, as he is quite the tinkerer. Rather than sitting on some bar stool, he finds all sorts of boat projects, carefully restoring them and re-selling them. His dilemma is, "how can I drive 3 boats to Texas, without going crazy?" The boat in question is a sweet Vagabond 17 that he has brought back to life and she is just waiting for the wind to blow into her sails and give her perpetual life. Her name, most appropriately, is Zephyr.
Out of the blue, comes an email from Too Tall Tom. He has decided that he is going to give Zephyr to Joyce, a person he barely knows. I reply, "you couldn't give it to a more deserving person." Too Tall asks me to call Joyce and see if she would receive the gift. A few days pass before I can speak with Joyce, but upon hearing the news, Joyce breaks down in tears. God has heard her prayer and Too Tall had heard his marching orders. Together they meet in the California desert to transfer the boat and trailer to Joyce's truck.
The night before Joyce stays at the Vagabond Inn
Too Tall recounts,"We met halfway between our homes, in Barstow, CA, and I gave Joyce the pink slips
and she gave me a pretty Indian carved turtle and a flat rock from her ranch, and a nice clay pot with corn meal for the turtle to eat. I had asked for a power token to balance the deal."
Joyce and Zephyr back home in Arizona
Joyce, already making plans for her first trip.
Too Tall, "Someone once said, you don't really own something until you give it away. Well, I don't know about that, but I feel good about giving Joyce some Joy."
