We got a new trailer!
Well, a new to us trailer. :)
There really wasn't anything wrong with the old trailer….. But…. let’s rewind a little.
Watch the video or continue to read. (More trip detail below. More actual sailing on the video.) Feel free to view both and enjoy!
Only six short hours away, we found one of the last living Hobie Mirage Tandem Island Kayaks.
And it took us six months of searching to find someone that actually had one for sale.
Overall, the trip up there was really nice. There was beautiful scenery, and interesting architecture. We went over bridges, and under the water through the tunnels; which bothered me a little bit, I'm a little scared of that.
But it was really nice. At least on the way up there it was.
We made it to the Paddlesports location and everything was set up and ready to go for us. And we were soon on our way home looking forward to the beautiful scenery again and a hopefully relaxing trip back to see our doggies…
but that's not exactly what happened.
We blew a tire.
In... the middle of nowhere… after dark.
We were able to make it down to a gas station with the flat and park it safely, but that's where our adventure took a wrong turn.
We could not find an open business that would be able to give us a spare. As a matter of fact, all the places around us didn't have the size we needed anyway.
We called our insurance company and they said they would send us an tow truck asap. We even received a confirmation text that help was on the way. However… it never showed up.
HOURS PASSED. NO ONE SHOWED UP.
The area was scary. Everything had closed down at 8pm. Even the major fast food chain restaurant across the street! Now 1am. We were stuck there. Assumingly all alone. Though there was a make-shift lean-to in the woods behind us near a dumpster. Like I said… SCARY.
Getting in touch with a different person from the insurance company, they finally, finally arranged have to have an actual tow truck sent to us. But, it did not come until the morning.
We made it home (sans boat) about 15 hours after the death of our tire. The boat arrived safely several hours after that.
Several hours later, our boat arrived!
We really liked this aluminum Trailex trailer. It was light, and was very easy for even me to just move it around the driveway anywhere I wanted it with the boat on it.
But we needed a little bit more from a trailer.
We needed something that could endure a very long trip. We planned on going down to Florida, and the aluminum trailer was just too light for such a long trip; the tires were too small. So we did some Craigslist searching and we did find this EZLoader trailer for about $1400.
We made a few modifications and transferred the Hobie cradles over.
We also needed a little bit of practice parking and backing up, since this trailer was longer, wider, and heavier than our little aluminum trailer. So we hit the mall for practice.
We have been very pleased with the EZloader. It proves a much smoother and less scary ride.
And don’t worry! We have a spare tire on order!