Sprague's Before and After Homage

A Boy and His Dog
My mom ran across some old scrap books and photo albums and I scanned in a few pics that would make a cool dichotomy of before and after... well cool to me at least.

Here is a picture of me and Dusty, my first dog, as I head off to parochial school for kindergarten. My teachers wore the Habit and I learned about the resurrected Jesus blessing the fisherman at breakfast time.

And here is a picture of Cora and I at Trout Creek Campground when I worked for the BLM in 1996 on the Deschutes. In contrast, this was a time in my life that I was fishing for my breakfast and picking up habits.

I rescued Cora that summer when I lived in a trailer on the river. She was old and crippled when I got her. The vet in Madras took very good care of both of us but said that she probably wouldn't be able to walk the river with me for very long. July 5th, 2007, she finally passed. Being well loved can definitely add years to a life.



Big Water and Bigger Dreams

Here we have My first Drift Boat. I bought it from the husband of the receptionist at the vet clinic in Madras that took care of spaying Cora, "the Neutered Male", that I got from the Bend Humane Society. I bought the boat for like 500 bucks with trailer. It is 18.5' wood with fiberglass overlay and it was a tank. It was gelcoated gray. I brought it back and sanded it all the way down and gave it a green and black gelcoat as well as all brass fasteners throughout. I sold it for 1300 with no trailer since it had bearings that were shot. I took it through boxcar on the D among others like Whitehorse and Buckskin Mary, of course. Brig and Jimmy and I rolled down the McKenzie once and Brig threw a fly into my eyeball. Good times. Hardly anyone takes their drifter through boxcar, by the way. This boat ruled.

Here we have the second boat built from a mold off of a 16.5 Slide-Rite mold I acquired during my first year of marriage. It weighs a bit over 225 pounds and is more impervious to puncture/fracture than anything on the market due to some very high-tech composite structuring. It uses two different stitch-mat glass material about as thick as a lightweight flannel shirt and resin that shows its first stress at 219 psi. Sandwiched between the stitch-mat is a honeycomb foam core on the sides otherwise the boat would flex under the stress of the oars in motion against the water. The hull does not have the foam so that it will flex as it rolls over rocks. I also added the most agressive reverse keels in the industry for better tracking and maneuverability (you can see part of it ending in the grey gel coat on the transition from the side to the bottom). In contrast The industry leader uses about 8 layers of woven roving and chopper gun material to make a boat that is strong but the material needs to be filled with so much (cheap) resin that the weight of the boat pushes 800 lbs or more. The reason they use so many layers is so that the 36 psi resin that is used doesn't show stress cracks so badly... but as a result the bottom won't flex as well either and you may as well have a dentable aluminum boat. No wonder most guys prefer aluminum, they fall in the 500 lb bracket. But dang if aluminum isn't either freezing cold or burning hot to the touch and loud as heck any time of the year. But back to the "before and after"...

The trailer is sporting a one-ton axle and the decking is synthetic lumber that allows the boat to slide effotlessly. Of course there is a roller bar on the back and winch located behind the rock-guard. The trailer is polished aluminum and the bead weld looks like jewelry. It is state of the art, now I just need to get it into the market. Red LEDs light up the rock-guard at night and early morning for extra cool factor (as if anything extra is needed in the cool department). Things have come along way since the mighty Green Ghetto Sled from my college days.

Bring That Funky Beat Back
These photos speak for themselves. Or maybe I am just afraid to comment. But feel free to add your own. Regan is listening to BRMC that much I do know.















1982 CB650 from leaky stocker to Screaming Rocker
When I picked this bike up it was having charging issues and some lighting difficulties, needed the carbs cleaned and front suspension redone. Not to mention just a thorough removal of 30 years of rusty parts, road-grime and a tank that wasn't leaking all over your left leg.

After two years of finding just the right parts (like a Stage 3 Jet kit, pod filters, dunstall reverse megaphone mufflers, new rear shocks, replacement fork seals, clubman drop bars, a GS550 Suzuki tank, a new tombstone tail light assembly, a new wiring harness, and a new battery) I removed the luggage rack and front fender, powder coated most parts, cleaned the electrical brushings, and finally gave it the winning paint job it needed.