At Emerald Isle NC for the holiday weekend. Beautiful weather; don’t know when I’ve been to the beach for the Fourth of July and not needed 7×24 AC. For the second night in a row, we have the house open. But that’s not the purpose of this posting. We took the boat a couple miles down the island to launch at Island Harbor Marina for the first time since I bought a season ramp pass, and boy what a difference a year makes. It’s under new ownership, this year, and long term plans call for the ramp to disappear, probably by fall 2011 the way the schedule is going, and they will have a dry stack as well as slips. However, for this year, the ramp is still there, and you get valet launching of your boat and parking of of your truck. We got our parking number, pulled in, climbed in the boat on the trailer while the staff backed us into the water. I backed the boat off the trailer into the water, and away we went while they parked. Upon return, I pulled up and the dock, gave the staff representative my parking claim check, and the trailer appeared. I drove the boat onto the trailer, they hooked it up, and pulled out of the water. The only thing I had to do was to put on the tie-down straps. That is so cool 😉