Vacations, Small Towns, & Mechanical Mayhem... Part II
John D said
Aug 5, 2010
Part II: Tuesday morning.... Crap - the boat's still in the water, and the truck is hooked to the dolly hooked to the Taurus. (I really don't want to unload the car, un-hook the dolly, hook up the trailer.... you get the picture.) There's gotta be someone around with a truck & a 2" ball. Yup, Jerry's truck... but it's a dinky S-10 4-banger 2wd. Got a vehicle with a hitch, but Jerry is in AZ.
Problem: Getting both the boat and the truck & trailer to the landing at the same time, with only one person that can drive both. (Son is too young for the HP rating of the boat, and we have DNR Nazi's prowling - Mom doesn't like anything bigger than a 10HP rowboat.) Now, you need to understand there's a genetic glitch in my family. I'm the ONLY one alive that has the ability to back up a vehicle with a trailer attached... this is an even longer story.
Sub-Problem, Jerry's Truck: Everyone has a set of keys to other cabins up here, for various reasons. John (my other neighbor up there) has keys to Jerry's place - hopefully the keys to the truck are in the cabin, not in Jerry's pocket (in AZ). SCORE! The keys are hanging on a peg! John volunteers to help. He'll drive the truck & trailer to the landing, and meet me there. We get the trailer hitched (I purposely DID NOT connect the lights) and I head to the dock.
Now, I tell John (who's about 83) that my boat/trailer rig is really easy to launch. "Just back the trailer in so the tops of the fenders are barely underwater"... "Really, that's it? My boat you've gotta drive the whole rig in..." (oh boy....)
By the time I get the boat fired up and head to the landing, John is just pulling in. So I'm idling about 30' off-shore and he backs into the water... POP, POP, POPPOPPOP - the sound of my trailer lamps expoding. (Turns out John connected them for the 1/8th mile run on dirt & private roads to the landing). The rear bumper of the truck is awash, and the exhaust is burbling like an inboard - so much for "Just the tops of the fenders" - and I holler to John to pull up about 8 feet. "What??" "Pull up so the fenders are just out of the water!" "What??" We meet about 1/2 way on this argument, and I get the boat centered and clipped on.
I'm going to owe Jerry a set of tires. Rather than a nice, easy pull... John just HAMMERS IT and (tires smoking) YANKS me and the boat out of the water. I don't say a word, and we get back to my place in one piece. Get the boat parked and pull the prop for repair (different story).
I guess you can't complain about volunteer help too much.
Tuesday morning.... Crap - the boat's still in the water, and the truck is hooked to the dolly hooked to the Taurus. (I really don't want to unload the car, un-hook the dolly, hook up the trailer.... you get the picture.)
There's gotta be someone around with a truck & a 2" ball. Yup, Jerry's truck... but it's a dinky S-10 4-banger 2wd. Got a vehicle with a hitch, but Jerry is in AZ.
Problem:
Getting both the boat and the truck & trailer to the landing at the same time, with only one person that can drive both. (Son is too young for the HP rating of the boat, and we have DNR Nazi's prowling - Mom doesn't like anything bigger than a 10HP rowboat.)
Now, you need to understand there's a genetic glitch in my family. I'm the ONLY one alive that has the ability to back up a vehicle with a trailer attached... this is an even longer story.
Sub-Problem, Jerry's Truck:
Everyone has a set of keys to other cabins up here, for various reasons. John (my other neighbor up there) has keys to Jerry's place - hopefully the keys to the truck are in the cabin, not in Jerry's pocket (in AZ). SCORE! The keys are hanging on a peg! John volunteers to help. He'll drive the truck & trailer to the landing, and meet me there. We get the trailer hitched (I purposely DID NOT connect the lights) and I head to the dock.
Now, I tell John (who's about 83) that my boat/trailer rig is really easy to launch. "Just back the trailer in so the tops of the fenders are barely underwater"... "Really, that's it? My boat you've gotta drive the whole rig in..." (oh boy....)
By the time I get the boat fired up and head to the landing, John is just pulling in. So I'm idling about 30' off-shore and he backs into the water... POP, POP, POPPOPPOP - the sound of my trailer lamps expoding. (Turns out John connected them for the 1/8th mile run on dirt & private roads to the landing).
The rear bumper of the truck is awash, and the exhaust is burbling like an inboard - so much for "Just the tops of the fenders" - and I holler to John to pull up about 8 feet.
"What??"
"Pull up so the fenders are just out of the water!"
"What??"
We meet about 1/2 way on this argument, and I get the boat centered and clipped on.
I'm going to owe Jerry a set of tires. Rather than a nice, easy pull... John just HAMMERS IT and (tires smoking) YANKS me and the boat out of the water. I don't say a word, and we get back to my place in one piece. Get the boat parked and pull the prop for repair (different story).
I guess you can't complain about volunteer help too much.