little lake trip (not what we expected)

For a few months Matt has been eager to get the family out of town.  Me too.  We need more open space and fewer high-rises every now and then!

This past Saturday was the day that seemed best so after a slow lazy start we loaded the van with lunch and a few other supplies and hit the road.  

We started out heading south and east on highways, then smaller roads, and within 45 minutes we were on this. 

There isn't much suburbia here.  It's urban-urban-urban, apartment buildings and elevated highways and then, bam.  Welcome to the countryside.  We stayed on this road for about 20 minutes, headed towards the end of a skinny strip of land that jutted right out into the middle of a large lake.  

And we found it.  The end of the road, I mean.  And the lake.  

When we stopped the place was empty except for a few lonely fishermen and a lazy crew of 3 or 4 workmen building a small vacation area that will open in six months. 

We piled out and started exploring.  

It was absolutely beautiful.  But unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) the water was not clean enough to tempt anyone to swim.  Ahhh.  Rapid-paced development has not been kind to the environment.  

Soon it was time for lunch and the workers let us eat on the partially completed decking of the new mini resort.  

After lunch we decided to head to a different area of the lake only to discover that our van wouldn't start.  AGAIN.  Y'all, this is the fourth time we've had trouble with it in the past month.  So discouraging, especially considering we leave for a mountain trip on Wednesday that is a NOT EASY  8-ish hour drive.  

The good news is that to be stuck somewhere with a dead car, well, our location was pretty much perfect.  At one point Isaac even said "do we have to leave right when the tow truck gets here, or can we stay longer?"  ha!  

Matt fielded oodles of phone calls coordinating the tow truck and a dealership-provided ride home for the seven of us.  I had no idea how he would ever begin to explain where we were.  It was decidedly off the beaten path.  

After a while Matt walked over to talk to the workmen, asking about a few random boats that were tied up along the shoreline.  Next thing I knew he and Luke came bounding back... Matt had 'rented' the boat and it was rides for everyone.  

The dealership van and the tow truck did show up, remarkably at almost exactly the same time.  The flat bed tow truck was so big and the road so narrow that it was quite a scene.  Of course, there was no one around to watch it.  But us, of course :) 

That's the tow truck driver in blue, and the dealership rep in our van.  This is the second time our van has been towed in a month!  And it failed two other times as well, but the dealership was able to send someone out to the site to "fix" it.  

Needless to say, we are pretty frustrated.  I think they are too.  They are spending loads of time and money trying to get this van working right (so far it hasn't cost us much at all - ).  

So the van is back, and Matt used it Monday and it worked fine.  Tuesday is our no drive day so it'll be parked and then Wednesday morning we plan to head for the mountains.  It's got a new fuel pump, and we really really hope and pray that this is the end of our van problem story.  

Next post from the road :)