Diary/Photo Journal
Week of August 31, 2003
No sooner then we are off the ferry when our second glitch comes calling. A small bump in the road and a strange "click" and "jingle" sound prompted questioning looks between us. Now, you have to realize, that Cindy has her unique personality when it comes to odd squeaks and creaks, but this was a new sound and only happened the one time.
Being the suspicious creatures that we are, we looked a little more closely
at our front end and found the noise-producing culprit - a small sway bar plate
(the best way I can describe it - that helps reduce the sway of the van) broke
in two and the jingle was the sound of the bolts hanging freely from the
departed piece. This part is not vital to the driving of Cindy and really only
comes into play when the RV is pulled into a tight turn, so we were not too
worried. We were just not looking forward to finding a repair shop or welder
and seeing as this was on Labor Day, we knew we had to wait until the following
day.
We pulled into a small, neighborhood style market in Davis, North Carolina and
while I got ice for our cooler, Gerson figured it would be best to remove the
dangling, jangling part and prepare for the trip to the welder. While he
is under the front end (with his back end sticking out from underneath), a man
leans out of his truck and asks, "Need any help?" Gerson briefly explained
what happened and what we think was needed and this wonderful man states, "Well,
my son is just down the road and he can weld anything."
By now, I have poked my head back around Cindy, not sure of what I was hearing,
and gave Gerson a look of "what have we got to lose". The man, as we came
to know as "Jack", persisted in his cause and the next thing we knew, we were
following Jack back to his house, only a few blocks away (Ok, so the town was
about one mile long). His son James "Pitt" was home and within an
hour, the part was taken completely off, cleaned, welded and reinstalled to fine
working order. Jack even went so far as to provide me with his own
computer so I could update our email and check on the website. Talk about
your Southern hospitality.
It truly was one of those rare experiences that restores your faith in people.
I could have sat and talked with Jack and Pitt for hours but unfortunately, we
needed to press on and we had to leave. I don't think we can really thank
them enough.
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Gerson and Jack Pitt and Gerson fixing Cindy |
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Hunter - very under fed and under loved yeah, right! |
With Cindy being repaired, we were off to South Carolina for a quick stop at
Charleston and Fort Sumter. Unfortunately, we played what was to be a bad
part in a comedy because just as we were walking up the long entrance to the
Fort Sumter memorial, the last ferry to the fort was departing. Not
wanting to swim to the Fort, we had to settle for perusing the museum and
leaving with a few explanatory brochures.
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Gerson at the Charleston Harbor and the Yorktown |
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This was our best and only view of Fort Sumter where the Civil War was said to be officially started |
We found a wonderful place in Georgia to stay for the night called the Crooked River State Park.
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Georgia sky |
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Sunset over the Crooked River |