Key West Transit

Ed (Door into Summer) and I flew to Key West to bring back Ed and Claudia's cars to New Bern where they are keeping Door into Summer for the summer. (Does that make New Bern, NC the "official Door into Summer" of Door into Summer? )

OK, for those of you who don't know me I always get a laugh out of product endorsements - you know, Pampers, the "Official Diaper of NASCAR."  Yup, when I am going around the track at 200 mph and I just about loose it on the turn I think of Pampers, the "Official Diaper of NASCAR."  Interview guy: "Do you always get nervous when you almost crash and burn?" Driver: "Depends (the official adult incontinence pad of NASCAR.)  (I think I have milked this enough.)

We got up at o'dawn thirty for the ride to the airport.  We of course get there the requisite hour early so that we were sitting at the gate 55 minutes before departure.  Craven County Regional is not all that big don't you know.  We flew to Atlanta without incident and then switched planes for the trip to Key West.  About an hour out one of the other passengers complained about chest pains (actually he was a diabetic going into insulin shock) so we turned around and flew back to Atlanta.  About 2 hours later we took off again to Key West.

By the time we arrived our ride was long gone to other responsibilities so we took a cab to NAS Key West.  Under the current Commanding Officer cabs are no longer permitted to come onto the base so we were faced with the 2 mile walk in the hot sun to the marina.  Fortunately we were picked up by a friend who was driving by and he dropped us off at the cars.  Having lost so much time we immediately started driving north.

All went well until Ed noticed that I was throwing off pieces of something (he was trailing me.)  I noticed it too, all of a sudden I could not steer.  It turns out that the serpentine belt had self destructed.  One of its functions is to run the power steering pump.  Great fun at 70 mph.  We got over to the shoulder safely and waited for a tow.  The next day, with Ed being $700 lighter we continued on our way to New Bern, arriving yesterday without further incident (except of the dump truck that covered us with shredded tire - at least there were no big pieces.)

I was reminded of an incident in my youth.  Mom, Dad, Ace and I were heading up the just opened New York State Thruway (yes, I am that old) on a camping trip.  We blew the fan belt.  Dad took the rope that held the canvas bad for our tent closed, tied a knot, (a square knot - we were Boy Scouts of course) and put it in place of the fan belt.  We drove for a couple of days with the rope belt until Dad could find a replacement.  I realize that there has been a lot of progress since then but there was no way we could jury rig a serpentine.

Today a front is coming thru so we expect high winds and possibly some rain.  Another great excuse to procrastinate working on Reboot.