The 13 of us will be arriving Saturday, and the rest of the seventy plus people (mostly college students hoping to become certified SCUBA divers) will be arriving Sunday. It's been more than 10 years since I have been on this trip, but I am sure not much has changed. We will make our way to the Key Largo Kampground (did I forget to mention we are camping ) set up a few tents so we have a place to sleep on Saturday night (some are lucky enough to get a trailer) and then head out to Hobo's for happy hour and their chicken wings. The next day, Sunday, we will finish setting up the 15-20 tents, and as the students meander in, they will be given their sleeping assignments, SCUBA gear, and find out who their instructors will be for the week. For some, Spring Break in Key Largo will be a week during their nonage that will change their lives forever, and they don't even know it.
Dramatic? Absolutely not! I went on my first Spring Break in 1998, I did not know it then, but I met my future wife. I did not know then, that many of those people, would be my friends 17 years later. On a whim, I took a SCUBA class at UMass. Project Deep, SCUBA and those people I met on Spring break 98 have shaped my life, changed me in ways I couldn't have imagined 17 years ago, it will do the same for some these kids, exciting!
A broken van? I was right, not much has changed from my days of Project Deep. My wife takes the second leg of the drive, after stopping for fuel, and five minutes in, the van dies. After being kicked out of the driver's seat (because it must have been her fault) we teased her about driving the shit out of her 5 minute leg, and, the van dies again. We are hoping it is bad gas, and some fuel conditioner will solve the problem, for now, we continue on, and hope for the best.
Happily, we made it to the end of our second leg (about a 4 hour drive) with no more issues, so was it my wife's fault? She is behind the wheel again, determined to redeem herself. There is however a new storm brewing, a lollygagger. Two vans, with 12 people ready to get back on the road, while the 13th person, is screwing around in the bathroom, getting food, or shopping for whichever stupid refrigerator magnet reflects the state we are now in. Whatever they are doing, it's always the same one, it won't last long though, there are a few that won't put up with this disregard for our punctilious family. Anyhow, back on the road, my wife and I up front, our five companions, asleep. My wife listens to an audio book downloaded free to my phone, with my electronic library card, while I write my post, using the same phone, not sure how we survived without these before, anyhow, this is how the next 4 or 5 hours will go, hopefully, painfully boring.
Yes, the van is broken.
Back on the road, after ten hours at the dealership. The first diagnosis was an injector module, $800.00, then possibly the wiring harness. Either way, we left without the van, and rented two mini vans, to replace it. No freakin Hobo's tonight, how do I know this? My van won't stop talking about missing Hobo's and chicken wings. Making it to the Florida state line seems like it should be exciting, however, that only means we have another seven hours to go, and I, have another seven hours of hearing about the chicken wings we are not going to get tonight.
This is a good time to publish this post. With now only four hours to go, how much more can happen? We will get to the campground about 2 am, probably the longest trip down, that I can remember. We left Friday at 1, and are getting here Sunday at 2 am, 37 hrs on 95 south.
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