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By 12:30, I
was wide awake - and Marc opened his eyes soon
afterwards. We looked at each other and decided then
and there that we might as well start our long drive
to Lake Eustis right away. By 0115, everything was in
the car and we were off, planning to take Hwy 64 all
the way from Nags Head to I-95 just past Rocky Mount,
as Lanny had recommended. It was a cool night,
virtually traffic free. By 0400, we were purring south
on I-95 and beginning to look forward to breakfast and
coffee. The heater was once more running only
intermittently, but still nothing really dawned on
Uncle Al (or Marc). After a fine bacon and eggs
breakfast in South Carolina which tried -
unsuccessfully - to introduce us to grits, we were off
again. We made good time and were only 8 mi. from the
Georgia border at 1130 when we hit a big,
construction-related traffic slowdown. We took this
opportunity to switch drivers and a mere 15 minutes
later, potential disaster struck. Marc reported that
the engine temperature gauge was shooting up into
danger territory. Even the idiot light went on.
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We pulled
off the road and put our CAA membership to good use.
We learned two things - both bad. It would be at least
45 minutes before a tow truck could get there, and
despite Al's RV Plus membership, the boat would not be
towed. This was a direct contradiction to what Al had
been promised by CAA when he signed up for the extra
(RV Plus) coverage. The local gentleman (very politely
but firmly) said that, unless we were towing our
living quarters, only the car would be towed. This did
not sound promising. We sat back and did some reading
and crossword puzzles while waiting for the tow truck.
About 15 minutes later, we decided that it was safe to
unscrew the cap from the coolant reservoir. It was
virtually dry!
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It was only
then that Al finally remembered what had been lurking
in the back of his mind: In the winter of 1972, Al and
a friend had encountered a similar "intermittent
heater" problem west of Cornwall on a very frigid -30ºC
afternoon while returning from a Brador-beer forage in
Quebec. The friend knew cars and immediately said:
"Your rad is low on fluid." Sure enough it was. After
experiencing the futility of trying to melt -30ºC snow
in a coffee cup, Al had a brilliant idea. One of the
hundreds of Brador bottles in the back of the car was
sacrificed to the cause and we continued on to Toronto
without further problems.
Well, neither our small emergency supply of coolant from the trunk, nor our half bottle of Montclair spring water was nearly enough to bring the coolant up to its recommended level - so this time, an Outer Banx beer had to be sacrificed for the greater good. We only needed half of it, so Marc had the rest. We tried the engine. The idiot light still came on to greet me, its intended audience, but the engine was no longer overheating. We ran it for a few minutes, then turned it off and settled back to await our tow truck. Having been misdirected by his dispatcher, the latter didn't arrive until nearly 1 p.m. Unlike most of our own local tow truck operators, this fellow was totally uninterested in seeing if he could offer helpful suggestions. No, he had no idea where there were any garages willing to work on VW's. Did we want a tow? If not, he would proceed to the Caddie that was also waiting for him just ahead of us. To give him credit, the driver did give us his cell phone number and invited us to call if we couldn't make it to the gas station at the next interchange less than a mile away. Well, we
did make it and Marc topped us up with genuine coolant
and some chocolate bars. This time, the idiot light
stayed off and we were on our way once more with
hardly a worry in the world.
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We were
expecting a dinner-time call from Lee Hughes, the New
Zealander on his way from the SE corner of the US (Key
West) to the NE corner (Eastport, Maine) in Frank
Dye's former second Wayfarer Wanderer. Lee had
emailed me on the previous Thursday to inform us that
he was expecting to be within our "striking distance"
by Tuesday when we hoped to see this adventurer in
person. At 5:30 p.m., we turned off I-95 onto I-4 near
Daytona Beach, and shortly thereafter, Marc's cell
phone rang. Lee - right on time! What a man!! Lee
informed us that he was moored at the public dock in
very pretty Cocoa and would be awaiting us in the
morning. Having settled that matter, we dropped SHADES
off at the Lake Eustis SC at about 7 p.m. Even
this turned into a bit of an adventure: Marc had to
discover a weak link in the chain barring vehicle
access to the club (a shackle) and then we managed to
get stuck in the spot when a big tree had been removed
to expand the dinghy area (a board under the tire did
the trick there). Then it was off to briefly announce
ourselves to our very kind hosts, Mike and Dotty Murto
in Tavares, who were going to put us up and up with us
for the better part of a week (or more as it
turned out!) We were shown our beds and immediately
had to leave again, for dinner at Dead River Vic's
which we'd been looking forward to for two whole
years! A couple of hours later, we were back and ready
to trade gossip with our hosts. But it had been a long
day and we were off to sleep pretty early.
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caught the sunrise of a glorious Florida morning. Later, he got a couple of shots of ... .. |
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Spring
foliage comes early in Florida, as you might suspect.
By 9 a.m. we had enjoyed a large glass of Florida
orange juice, freshly squeezed by Mike's own hands,
and were off for an 11 a.m. date with Lee in Cocoa.
Having assured the Murtos we would feel guilty if they
had to cook for us, we had a leisurely, tasty
breakfast at a Denny's in Eustis and then a
nice relaxed drive to Cocoa. Construction delays on
made us a tiny bit late. Our visit with Lee is
described by him in the Feb. 10th Weekly Whiffle
complete with the usual bunches of photos by Marc and
Al and can be accessed by clicking here. Lee is a wonderful
fellow, and we had so much fun with him that Marc
subsequently decided we didn't really need to go visit
his uncle in Tampa (who might not have been well
enough to receive visitors, anyway!) and could spend
another day with Lee instead before heading back to
Eustis on Thursday. This revelation came after Marc
had treated the two of us to a room in Cocoa Beach's
posh ocean-front Holiday Inn.
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along the Atlantic, Uncle Al contented himself with lounging on the beach in front of the hotel ... .. |
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| One last chore
before the afternoon nap and shower - a rad flush so
that our little baby wouldn't freeze her rads off, once
we got back up north - a horrible thought, but it had to
be faced The gentleman providing our "flush" was most
impressed when he got to sniff our unique coolant
mixture as it was being drained. At 6 p.m., we were back
in Cocoa to drag Lee away from his beloved sponge bath
(literally a sponge in a plastic container!) and coerce
him into using the showers for which Marc was paying a fortune! A freshly scrubbed Lee then accompanied us to Coconuts,
a lively beach bar, where we enjoyed one and a half
beers before the ear-splitting music came on, heralding
karaoke night. Gulping down the last of our beer, we
headed back to Cocoa and a repeat visit to Murdock's
which we had very much enjoyed the previous night, but
they closed at 10 p.m. so we took Lee back to his
Wayfarer quarters which he would have to move a few
hundred yards off the public dock for the night. It was
looking like an early night for us as we headed home to
Cocoa Beach - until Marc spotted a "ballet", a perfect
spot to plot racing strategy... ... |