We arrived in Key West yesterday, but not with some interesting hiccups along the way. We took our not so trusty beast of a van with us, packed to the brim with tiki product for Parrothead (not a smart idea). The van was good to us for the first day of travel. She made a few weird noises, but we just assumed it was grumpy from the Florida down pours. We made it through Key Largo (the very top of the Keys), and the van started rattling underneath really loudly until eventually we thought the whole van would collapse on the highway!
We pulled over at the Islamorada visitor center to figure out what to do next. We just spent $600 on the van a few days before the trip, and we vowed that we wouldn't put one more dime into her, unless it was for gas. So, Pete decied to call around to see if we could rent a van. No vans available, but Uhaul had a 10 foot box truck. It will cost approx $500 to take us to Key West and to drop off in St. Pete plus the cost of gas.
So, we called a taxi to drop us off at Uhaul, mind you, the taxi driver seemed a bit drunk when he picked us up. Something common you see with the folks that live in the keys. Either that, or he was going through alcohol withdrawl. His face was red and his hands were shakey. We asked him if he knew of anybody that needed a crappy van. He said he has lots of latino customers that would be interested, but he didn't want to let them know because he would lose their business. I was thinking in my head, "Umm....what?"
The Uhaul clerk was really nice, he gave us a break on price and we were then off to unload our crappy white beast and load up the glorious Uhaul. Oh...almost forgot, we called a scrap yard and the owner said he would buy the van outright for cash. We knew that would help us pay for the Uhaul at least.
We felt a sense of relief by having a somewhat normal vehicle for the week, even if it meant it was a box truck.
The loading went pretty smoothly and we were surprised how much we were able to fill the Uhaul. This is the most product we have ever had and at that moment, I was not happy about it. But...we kept a positive attitude and tried to whistle while we worked.
The scrap yard guy showed up with his tow truck. Two heavy set, Italian guys came out. First guys name was Jimmy and to my surprise, the second guys name was Jimmy too. How does that happen outside of the movies? Jimmy and Jimmy? Are you serious?
They were swell guys, offered us $350 cash for the van. We took it and were finally back on the road to Key West.
We are here now, in a REALLY nice hotel for a really reasonable rate and will be unloading AGAIN in a few hours to get set-up for the show tomorrow.
More to report soon, hopefully not about a crappy white best of a Uhaul.
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