REDneckin IT.. An airboat love story

It truly is a labor of love to own one of these babies. You can't go to the Dealership and BUY one. You have to make your own. In the past few years I've watched my neighbors build all sorts of things. Sometimes shaking my head. Sometimes in wonderment. Mostly in awe. All the boys over there can build something. Even Rodney. With his pirate ships and what not. That kid is an electrical dervish. But they build things all the time. From Nothing to WOW!

So the latest "BUILD" is this air boat. It took about a year. Parts would come. People expert in certain areas would come. Slowly and surely like the mad scientist in the best old movies, out of the scrabble, comes this really cool looking thing. What is amazing is that every element was piecemeal when it got here. Every item was built from scratch. And every item was built by one man's hands. Pretty cool if you ask me! But you didn't. :)

The big question for me is does it work? will it float? did it get put together properly? Its not like Billy had plans. and Friday i got to see it in action. I've never been on an Airboat. I 've seen it on tv. I've seen it on DIRTY JOBS (with mike rowe) and seen it flip. I truly just wanted to see what it can do in action. I had no intention of getting on it. Or is it in it? But i did. Heck i jumped out of an airplane, i can get on an airboat and go for a nice QUIET ride. WAHOOOOOOO! is all i can say about that!

Back behind where we live is a 60 acre private enclave owned by friends and its as raw as the day it was created. (well except for the telephone transmitter poles in the back of it. Within minutes we are in the middle of nowhere, right in the middle of the city. How odd. We saw a few brush cattle grazing. We saw some feral hogs. Some turkey prints. Some gator nestsThere was an area back there the pigs rooted. We saw pretty much anything you could see in the wilderness. A microcosym of sorts.

Here are some pictures of billy and his airboat. The newest love in his life. His wife, Patty, and rodney and I took this little puppy out for a spin. So all i want to know is?

where can i get one!

This is HOT rod.. bet he follows in Dad's footsteps.

Billy and Dave speeding along.

We saw these guys when we were leaving. They wouldn't let us
. Sitting in the middle of the road. So we waited, and waited
, till they tired of us. See the calf? it was a day old.

Dave, the other neighbor!

Patty! always laughing!

nathan. wondering what the heck am i doing there?

Nice sunset was starting. Had to do a bit of retouching to make
this sky turnout like it did.

This is Billy, motioning for Guess WHO?
next on the airboat.