Hijinks on the high seas

Sorry, Dave Leu! We don't even go out if the wind is over 7 mph!!! Haha!!!

No, our troubles are on land.

I mean, have you ever seen a three-wheeled boat trailer???

I hadn't either, until I watched my boat come out of the water this fine day. Linda at the wheel of the Suburban, me on the dock aligning the boat on the trailer...

You see, we were "forced" up north because Burt Lake Marina was crafting a new cover for me. One that covered the entire bow (long story there) and well, the old one was worn. One week of boating, drop the boat off for fabrication and installation, then another couple days of boating at completion. Win, win, win, right??? Here's the new cover:

So the launch at Walloon is directly behind that white vehicle by about 25 yards. That's the Hotel Walloon center-left. The boat is parked at the public launch parking lot. To get from the lot to the launch one must drive a short distance through the residential area.

Here's a pic from before the hotel was rebuilt:

I know. "Hecker, who cares?"

Well. Just to make a point - I drove from DeWitt to Indian River, to and from our room to the Burt Lake launch, to Burt Lake Marina, then Burt Lake Marina to Walloon... maybe 250 miles?

And the wheel fell off between the launch and the parking lot. What are the odds?

So at this point, boat on trailer, wheel recovered by the lovely Linda, who walked the streets and found the wayward tire, on the wheel, with the brake drum firmly bolted on. And she started rolling it back to the parking lot. A kind lady stopped and helped her load the assembly into the back of their SUV, and they dropped it off, and Linda, back at the parking lot where I was with the boat.

Now, we have decisions to make. First, where's a repair place? Perhaps Walloon Village Marina, three miles up the road. They would have to look at the damage to see if they could do it.

And a few roustabouts at the parking lot were pretty sure I could drive with the one wheel missing. At least that far.

The lakeside Marina wanted $125 a night for a slip, should I want to travel with the boat in the water and not on the trailer.

Wtf?  $125?

After much angst, we decided a potential repair bill over $1000, should we damage the area more by driving... at that point, the spindle looked fine to me. It just looked like bearings were bad. Hopefully the axle was not bent... the threads on the end of the spindle looked good... it hadn't suffered any contact with the road surface, nor borne any weight, so my experience said, $150 to $250 at this point for repairs.

We decided to bite the bullet and took the slip. 

So now, it's after five. We had planned to visit Dann Balesky, a high school classmate of mine living in Indian River, for dinner. Scratch that.

We tied up the boat at the slip (did I mention, $125 a night?) and drove and dropped the trailer at the Walloon facility, three miles toward Petoskey. They would not be able to take a look until the next day.

So. Back to our room in Indian River. Next morning, I went to Burt Lake Marina, service guys, to see if they could/would do the fix. The guy there was outstanding, and drew me a what-if sketch, best-to-worst-case scenarios. So their capability was iffy, depending on the extent of the damage. If the spindle needed replacing, uh, cha-ching, and that would be well beyond their range of work.

Next up, a drive to Petoskey to consult with Royal Tire, mentioned to us by more than one person as maybe doing this type of repair. It's just north of the hospital on the bay side... right around the bend from Johan's. You do know Johan's, right??? Haha!!

Anyway, the guy there felt it was a little more than they could handle, sooooo... he recommended a shop in Afton. More on that in a minute.

So, we went to Walloon to grab the trailer and check on the boat, at the slip, and called Gil in Afton. Left a voice message that we were on our way, please call if you aren't in. 

Zero service from Verizon (Linda). Plenty of service from Project Fi (me). Another win for Google!!! (ATT is the provider in the Walloon area, and much of northern lower).

Over the river and through the woods.... all back roads, eventually landing at this place on M-68 between Indian River and Onaway (hence, Midway, right?). I have my Garmin set to "no highways" and am trying to find a similar setting for my phone GPS. So far no luck.

When we got there, Gil said he could fix it, but it would be tomorrow. This at 11 a.m.

Then, at 4 p.m. he called to say it was done.

What????

So we could come get the trailer (minus the brake on that side, the shoes were bent) and then go back to Walloon and hook the boat and go home!!! For $200!!! 

Oh, and $125 for docking that one night.

We still have to get the brake fixed, and of course the DeWitt Service Center can do that work. 

So with the boat loaded and ready to come home, we get on US 131 south.... and the a/c dies on the Suburban.

DeWitt Service Center will fix that Monday, and the trailer Wednesday.

All in all, so much fun (!) this boating stuff...