Silver Glen Here We Come!
It’s finally Friday, and today we leave for our first trip of the year to the Silver Glen Spring . All the work is done. Our boat is loaded with food and drinks, plenty of fuel in the boat, and a full tank in the truck. Heck, I even made time on Thursday to change the oil in the truck.
Good To Go?
So there we were. On the road and only a mile or so away from our shop. The truck shuts off and will not restart. The good news is that we were still very close to our shop. The bad news is that the Silver Glen is in the other direction.
After many failed attempts to get the truck running, we get the boat back to the shop with a friend’s truck and then we go back to tow our truck. At this point it’s still only noon and the plan is to figure out the truck issue, fix it, and keep the weekend alive.
Another Twist …
Just to add one more dynamic to our crazy start; our good friends, Kim and Tony, are meeting us up at the Silver Glen this weekend. To really appreciate this twist, you should know that these particular friends will typically show up at the Silver Glen late in the day on Friday and stay for the whole weekend. Just not this time.
Remember, it’s still early on Friday. We’re back at the shop and Jennifer is calling them just to let them know what’s going on. Surprise, surprise, surprise. They’re already on their way to the spring!! Yep, this time they planned to surprise us at the boat ramp early.
No pressure. We’ve got this.
The Fix:
As we get deeper into troubleshooting the truck problem, it becomes obvious that the “no spark” issue is because of a failing ignition module inside the distributor cap. So it’s off to the local auto parts store for a new ignition module.
Now, some will say that our 1995 pickup truck has too many miles (426,000). I’ve been told more than once that we should consider a newer vehicle to tow our boat. Nonsense.
This truck has done it all for us. We’ve been all over Florida with our boat and this truck has done the job every time. I can’t even begin to count how many trips to the Florida Keys it has made with the boat over the past 14 years.
Just like we try to keep our boat ready, we believe that constantly maintaining our truck makes it very dependable. This situation was unexpected but there really is no way to predict when the ignition module might fail. This was a quick and inexpensive repair and we are back on track for an awesome weekend.
And Then …
So Kim and Tony already have a two hour headstart on us. And just as we get closer to finishing our truck repair, Jennifer gets a text from Kim. They have already made it to the boat ramp, launched, and are underway to the Silver Glen Spring. It seems that their boat started overheating right away. Tony has turned around and they are heading back to the ramp to try to remedy the problem.
Unable to find a quick answer, they tell us that they have put it back on the trailer and are heading back to their house. OMG!!! Not only do we feel terrible for falling behind on the trip, but even the weather is beginning to turn for the worse.
Now we’re not so sure that we even want to head up there without our friends. Not to mention motoring the St. Johns River and crossing Lake George in foul weather.
After some serious conversation, the decision is made to postpone this trip for a few weeks and try to fill our weekend with some other local options.
Hard choices are sometimes made easier when all fingers point in the same direction. One thing that Jennifer and I have learned over time, is not to push a bad situation. It rarely works out well.
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“See you on the water!”
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