Mimi and Poppy were here at the end of last week. Poppy made sense of the mess in our garage by throwing out our junk and organizing the remaining junk-- including three of the same oil filter. He also re-constructed a nifty double shelf from an old outdoor sink that he had built as a fish-cleaning station during New Daddy's bygone fishing days. It holds our automotive supplies very handily. Poppy and Mimi still remain the most amazing in-laws ever.
Friday morning, the kids and I went back home with Mimi and Poppy. New Daddy followed us that night. Saturday, we took (our annual?) a kayak trip down the Little Pee Dee River. It was beautiful, as usual. Even better was that it was running very low, and along with scrubbing the bottom some, we had the place to ourselves. Precious got out and waded along a couple of sand bars, and Bubby sat in the water and tasted the green globs from the riverbed.
New Daddy had prayed to catch at least one fish so that Precious could enjoy it. Just before we got to the take-out point, he saw a splash under the bridge. He cast to it and immediately brought in a very nice bluegill! She and Bubby got to touch it, and she even threw it back in the river.
Sunday afternoon, we headed home, glanced at the clock, and decided that we'd be home around 9:00. We stopped for supper a little over halfway through the trip. The highway after that was bumpy, but we were bent on getting home. New Daddy set the cruise control around 75. The trailer was making a booming noise-- reminded me of when my old Ford LTD needed a new universal joint.
We didn't think much about the road noise and blamed it on the bumpy concrete. Then, the trailer started bouncing on the hitch, and the tailgate latch was squeaking like a chorus of mice. We pulled over to check things out.
The trailer's passenger side tire was flat. We rode on it for a little longer, until we started feeling the rubber flapping around. We pulled off at, thankfully, a deserted exit. Who wants to deal with a flat tire with cars whizzing around and gawking? New Daddy unhitched the trailer, and we went twelve miles down the road to the next exit with a truck stop. He ran in to get some supplies. We needed some padding, duct tape, and a knife. He walked out with eight rolls of paper towels and a travel pillow with a dead bug in the packaging. Duct tape and a razor blade would have to be found at the gas station across the interstate.
When we returned to the trailer, New Daddy measured the trailer and realized that it would never fit on top of the van. That had been the original plan. So, instead, we decided to leave the trailer and pile the kayaks on top of the van. We put the pack n' play pad down to protect the paint and pushed the Hobie up. The front underside was touching the roof, so we shimmied a sun shade under that part of the kayak for protection.
While trying to center The Ride on top of the Hobie, it became unbalanced and fell off. Miraculously, the children stayed asleep inside the van. New Daddy laced the tie-downs around and through the grommets on the kayaks. As we started off, a loud flapping noise developed. New Daddy pulled over to check things out. After realizing it was the sun shade, he called for duct tape. After thus securing the sun shade to the underside of the kayak, we were finally on our way around 11:00.
A while later we stopped at Wal-Mart to buy some rope to do the Canadian canoe-thing on the front end. I napped while he went in. At the checkout, New Daddy got stuck behind some folks who refused to pay $2.90 for $300 worth of stuff on their food stamps. Then, we kept the speed between 60 and 65 the rest of the way home. We finally arrived, tired, but very thankful, at 1:45 AM. It had taken us eleven hours to make the six hour trip.
Purchases soon to be made: two tires for the trailer- one for the spare, and cross bars for the roof rack so that we don't have to depend on that crazy trailer to haul our kayaks!
Perhaps this post may become the first of several "fishing disasters," her side. Especially since he hasn't had too many disasters-- er, trips lately, or had time to blog about them. I definitely have some from the archives that just need to be typed up...
Picasa for this post
Friday morning, the kids and I went back home with Mimi and Poppy. New Daddy followed us that night. Saturday, we took (our annual?) a kayak trip down the Little Pee Dee River. It was beautiful, as usual. Even better was that it was running very low, and along with scrubbing the bottom some, we had the place to ourselves. Precious got out and waded along a couple of sand bars, and Bubby sat in the water and tasted the green globs from the riverbed.
New Daddy had prayed to catch at least one fish so that Precious could enjoy it. Just before we got to the take-out point, he saw a splash under the bridge. He cast to it and immediately brought in a very nice bluegill! She and Bubby got to touch it, and she even threw it back in the river.Sunday afternoon, we headed home, glanced at the clock, and decided that we'd be home around 9:00. We stopped for supper a little over halfway through the trip. The highway after that was bumpy, but we were bent on getting home. New Daddy set the cruise control around 75. The trailer was making a booming noise-- reminded me of when my old Ford LTD needed a new universal joint.
We didn't think much about the road noise and blamed it on the bumpy concrete. Then, the trailer started bouncing on the hitch, and the tailgate latch was squeaking like a chorus of mice. We pulled over to check things out.
The trailer's passenger side tire was flat. We rode on it for a little longer, until we started feeling the rubber flapping around. We pulled off at, thankfully, a deserted exit. Who wants to deal with a flat tire with cars whizzing around and gawking? New Daddy unhitched the trailer, and we went twelve miles down the road to the next exit with a truck stop. He ran in to get some supplies. We needed some padding, duct tape, and a knife. He walked out with eight rolls of paper towels and a travel pillow with a dead bug in the packaging. Duct tape and a razor blade would have to be found at the gas station across the interstate.
When we returned to the trailer, New Daddy measured the trailer and realized that it would never fit on top of the van. That had been the original plan. So, instead, we decided to leave the trailer and pile the kayaks on top of the van. We put the pack n' play pad down to protect the paint and pushed the Hobie up. The front underside was touching the roof, so we shimmied a sun shade under that part of the kayak for protection.
While trying to center The Ride on top of the Hobie, it became unbalanced and fell off. Miraculously, the children stayed asleep inside the van. New Daddy laced the tie-downs around and through the grommets on the kayaks. As we started off, a loud flapping noise developed. New Daddy pulled over to check things out. After realizing it was the sun shade, he called for duct tape. After thus securing the sun shade to the underside of the kayak, we were finally on our way around 11:00.
A while later we stopped at Wal-Mart to buy some rope to do the Canadian canoe-thing on the front end. I napped while he went in. At the checkout, New Daddy got stuck behind some folks who refused to pay $2.90 for $300 worth of stuff on their food stamps. Then, we kept the speed between 60 and 65 the rest of the way home. We finally arrived, tired, but very thankful, at 1:45 AM. It had taken us eleven hours to make the six hour trip.
Purchases soon to be made: two tires for the trailer- one for the spare, and cross bars for the roof rack so that we don't have to depend on that crazy trailer to haul our kayaks!
Perhaps this post may become the first of several "fishing disasters," her side. Especially since he hasn't had too many disasters-- er, trips lately, or had time to blog about them. I definitely have some from the archives that just need to be typed up...
Picasa for this post
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