Heading South from Michigan;
Dec. 26th, 2015
It was one of those days, the ones we all experience. Your body and mind are reeling from all of the emotions your feeling. It was the day we locked the cabin door for the last time this year. A sad day made easier by the inevitable cold weather that was coming. We were headed to Indiana for the holidays, excited about the hugs and laughs and smiles that we were going to share, and it was the first stop in our trek to Jacksonville and our winter home on the water.
We finished loading the RV late in the day. Our new to us dinghy, an aluminum fishing boat was tied to the hood of the jeep and the jeep tethered to the RV. We were ready. It started to rain soon after our departure and the wind was howling. The night was as black as coal, no sign, of a moon., making it difficult to watch for creatures of the night through the rain. About five miles before we came to the interstate ramp I heard a noise that sounded like a large tin can hitting the road. I looked at Tom to see if he heard it but no response so I kept quiet. Soon after the noise Tom noted a flashing yellow light in the distance behind us. We hoped it wasn't police of some sort coming after us. We pulled over at the ramp to check all the lines before getting on the interstate Tom was just getting out of the car when the pick-up truck with the flashing yellow lights pulled up next to us. He asked if all was OK. Tom said yes thanks, just checking tie downs and such. The fellow backed up behind us and getting out of his truck again ask Tom if he lost something, Tom replied, no, just checking everything. The gentlemen was persistent. I see you have a line hanging from the back of your car, did you have a boat on top? Tom looked up at the same time he answered yes, but the boat wasn't there! At that point he yelled for me to come out, announcing that our dinghy was gone. Obviously the tin can sound we now acknowledged to each other that we heard. The kind gentlemen said he had it on the back of his pickup and had been trying to catch us. He hoped we would realize we lost something before getting on the interstate because this was as far as he was willing to go. The nose ring on the bow of the boat had broke off allowing the boat to go air born tearing apart the other straps holding it down. After the addition of bungy chords to the front and three rather than two straps across the top we were back on our way, a little damp and cold. Damage you ask? Well apart from the broken ring we had a pretty good sized dent in the back of the jeep and sum rumpling of the seam on the bottom of the boat. The remainder of our trip to Indiana was slow as we kept the speed at 55, but four plus hours later we were parked at our friend Lois house in Portage, tired but safe.
