Look what drug in the Cat!

Whoop! My new Puma FTD made it in on Monday, but due to some emergency issues at work, i couldnt go pick it up until Wednesday. I wanted to go run it around on Lake Houston a little with Mr. Lott, but my job loaded me up with waaaaaayyyy too much [url=mailto:$*@$]$*@$[/url]#!! of workload that HAD to be done before I left for me to have time to go try out the new Puma FTD that day. When I pulled into the parking lot at Bowden, I saw two Cougars right off the bat then I saw this sparkling Maroon and White BassCat parked by itself over on the side of the lot. I said, THERE IT IS! YEAH BUDDDDDYY!!! I let loose a big ole Whoop! then started drooling over all the shiny! John Bowden was busy, but still took the time to pass on some basic info and got William to run me through all the wherefores and how-tos on my boat. I had already called ahead and let the now I couldnt go boating that day because of work (not necessarily a bad thing to have too much work slowing you down), so no big deal there. William was extremely helpful going through all the switches and operation of the ighst stalker lights and aerator for the livewell, how the key started the motor, where to run the hydraulic jackplate during breakin, what to do if it started chinewalking, how to swing out the trailer tongue, let me kow about the zerks for greasing the bearings, and going over the stuff in my paperwork goody bag. I made some tentative plans to try again to meet up with Mike for the next day, but work boogered me again. Now due to some other stuff I already knew about, I wont be able to take my new boat out for three weeks!!!! AAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!Even without the boat being in the water yet, I am very impressed with how well the boat was put together and how nice everything looked. Top notch all the way! William also covered how to switch fuel tank readouts on the smartcraft gauges and reminded me to switch tanks manually in the back with the motor OFF!!! so you dont switch readouts and forget to switch tanks!!! I will try to get Mike Lott out to Bowden in a few weeks if it looks like my work schedule is light, otherwise, Im hauling my boat up to Rayburn and breaking it in up there. Itll give me a chance to fool with the depth finders, too. I felt bad not having it only two days and havig to stick it in storage. Like I said, AARRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! But, such is life. My boat will be there when things settle down.I wasnt to thank Bowden Marine for making me such a great deal on this boat and getting it set up just the way I needed it and making helpful suggestions along the way while we discussed options, then colors, then other options, then trade-in for my old 89. It was a great experience. John and William stayed late at the shop numerous times to sit down and talk with me to hash things out on what my old boat had, what the newer boats had in the way of improvements over the older styles, when was the best time to order y boat and what to expect on delivery times when it came down to the Owners Invitational week, the factorys vacation in July, and everything else.The boats triagular livewells at first look small when you see the lids shut, but great googley moogley theres a cavern down there that will easily hold 10 good sized fish, and maybe even a few less monsters if you were to be so lucky! Amazing! The seats are really cushy and I can actually see over the windshield now! My dad and grandad had restuffed the seats on the old boat, but my grandad had decided that they could save some of the stuffing for later and only used half what was called for and wound up with a low-sitting seat. Plenty cushion, just sat low. NOW I CAN SEE!!!! Whoop! I went for the iddle seat instead of the middle step. The middle seat is a lot wider than I thought it was. Storage compartments everywhere I looked; shiny stuff everywhere I looked, just FRICKING AWESOME BOAT! I CAN NOT wait to get this sucker int eh water and put it through the paces with the 250 Merc. Its gonna be a big change from the old Pantera with a carbd Evinrude 150 to this new steroid injected Merc 250. Whomp! I expect I will take it and run it just like William at Bowden told me to during break-in and for the 4-5 hours after that. After that, Im going to be leaving vapor trails on Rayburn and dragging around to parts of the lake I normally didnt go to before because of how much gas it took that old motor to go. At best, the old motor only got about maybe 2-3 mpg cruisig at 35 with a full load and the motor trimmed out. Plus, it only had a 26 (I think?) gallon tank, and I could only go so far without having to trailer up and go get gas about 10 minutes down the road if they had it. Not any more! 52 gallons! Wow! I will get some lake time with that much tankage (and mkae my wallet choke when I fil up. HA! Oh well, thank you socialists and tax-hogs for driving oil exploration overseas!)Anyway, I felt like a kid in a candy store with a coupon for a free 100 lb bag of gummy worms and sweetarts! Whoo-hoo! Cant wait to get it in the water and have some fun!Suggestions for slight modifications Mike Lott and I discussed: make the night stalker switch an on-off button to light up the entire bank or shut it off. The left/right button is goofy. I guess if you know which side of the boat the Humminbird SI shows the fish is comig from , you can light up that side and help Mr. Bass see the bait. BUT! Youre SOL if the bass goes to the other side, finds it dark, and just swims on. HAHAH!! Im kidding about that, but seriously the switch needs a simple on/off. Also, the trailer electric harness wires need to be about 10 inches longer so they can meet with some of the trucks out there, like mine, that have the big step bumpers and have the 7-blade RV plugs aways up and away from the trailer ball. It made life a little difficult in the hot Autozone parking lot, but that was my fault for not asking what kid of wiring setup the trailer had and just assuming it was a 4-pin. I need to find one of those 7-blade to 5 wire flat adapters with the yellow coil wire cable like I had for the old boat. For now, I made myself an extension for the 5-wire harness and got an adapter for the RV plug for 5-wire or 4-wire setups. Its all good now! The dealership did have some of the 5-wire to 7 adapters earlier last week, but had run out. No biggie really. They have some of that sutff on order. We get in the same pickle at work. With the economy still dragging @$$, parts suppliers keep a low inventory in a lot of cases since stuff doesnt move very fast. I understand the reasons behind that. Maybe that will start changing after (political statement mode on) November (mode off)!!! Whoop! Will get some pics of the boat up here when I get a chance to take some with it in the water. ow to name my boat before I get it in the water. Im thinking Rev (all yall fellow Ags understand that!) would be appropriate. Now, to go get some sleep. Been a VERY long day while I fought skeeters the whole time (the bugs, not boats!!!)Your Signature …