Our little red rental car was better than nothing but we missed our big truck. We didn’t like being so low to the road.
So when I did my last update, I posted a picture of our truck being towed away on March 21st because it wouldn’t start. We were hoping it would be fixed quickly but that was apparently too much to ask for because we didn’t get it back until April 11th. We were truckless for exactly 3 friggin’ weeks.
I won’t bore you with all the details of the mechanical problems but they were all related to the fuel injection system/parts, (Dave wants to bore you, so those of you who are interested just click here). The reason it took so long to fix was that the problems were hard to diagnose and physically fix since the engine/truck designers leave very little space for mechanics to work in. That means taking everything apart and then old bolts snap and won’t come off etc. Very frustrating process for the mechanic and for us, especially when we heard “it should be ready tomorrow” everyday for the last 2 weeks it was being worked on.
But we kept our cool and stayed fairly patient with the garage, it’s not like we could demand the truck back anyways since it was in pieces. It payed off in the end because the owners were extremely reasonable with what they charged us right up front. We were all prepared to request a discount but they were more than fair...thank God! When we left it was a mutual “I hope we never see you again” goodbye :-)
Good thing we weren’t in a rush to get back on the road and if we were going to be stuck with out a truck for 3 weeks, this was the place to be stuck. The RV park fees are cheap and the people here couldn’t be nicer. We had all kinds of volunteer chauffeurs when we needed them and we had to take them up on that a few times. We rented a car a couple of weekends because it was cheaper then ($10/day) vs. during the week ($80/day). We got to know the manager of the Enterprise car rental place and even she gave us a good deal on an extended rental the last week we were truckless. No complaints about service in Port Lavaca!
Anyways, the good news is that the truck is running great, the best it has in months! We’re grateful the mechanic took the time to fix it properly.
So we’ve just been hanging out in Port O’Connor, fishing whenever we can and the weather cooperates. It’s still been relentlessly windy but it’s warmer. Can’t really complain when I hear about snow still falling in April back in southern Ontario. That sucks for you guys, I hope it warms up soon.
Here’s a few more fishing pictures in case you’re interested....we’ve had some pretty good days recently and lots of fish for dinner!
Looks like we’re going to be staying here until mid May. This coming weekend there’s a big Sand sculpting contest in Port Aransas that we’re going to check out and then the following weekend we’ve been recruited to volunteer at the 1st annual Port O’Connor Crawfish fest. Should be fun!