Like Going To the Doctor’s.

Our Location today is Venice, Florida.

For some reason we didn’t pay attention to the weather report last night before going to bed. That was a bad mistake! Neither Kathy nor I wanted to disturb each other after we’d gone to bed but most of the night we kept waking because we were cold. You heard that right. With the high humidity and cooler temperatures we really felt it. The temp dropped near 40 F (5 C) but without running even a cube heater we were both shivering through most of the night. 

When we got up shortly after 7:00 this morning we both donned our hoodies and turned on the furnace to take the chill out of the air. For breakfast we enjoyed our usual cereal but covered it with the Strawberries we’d gotten at the flea market yesterday. Yummy breakfast! 

We were dressed and out the door before 9:00 because we were on a mission. Since late Saturday afternoon we have been hearing a strange squeaking noise coming from outside the truck so we wanted to get it checked at the nearest Ford dealership. We didn’t see one in Venice when we were there yesterday but we had seen one on Friday when we were on our way to explore Punta Gorda. It wasn’t that far but it was in Port Charlotte. 

We explained our problem to Chad the Service Manager saying we needed it checked out before we set out towing the trailer. He sympathized with us but his mechanic had four other trucks booked ahead of us and he figured the earliest he could look at it would be after lunch. We agreed to wait but said we’d walk over to look around the strip mall across the street. 

Kathy getting her hair trimmed.

Kathy and I now had to really waste some time so after walking over to the mall the first thing we did was window shopping to see what stores were there until we hit pay dirt. There was a Fantastic Sam’s hair salon. That is the same chain that we use back home. We walked in to register and were told the wait would be about forty-five minutes. There were at least ten hairstylists and they were all busy plus the waiting area was full. Kathy read magazines while I solved number problems in my puzzle book to pass the time. It was just after noon hour when we both walked out with cooler hair styles than we’d walked in with. 

Front half of customer lounge at ford dealership.

We went to Wendy’s for lunch before we walked back to the Ford dealership to see how things were going. They still had three trucks ahead of us so we went to sit in their customer lounge. After a half an hour Chad the Service Manager came in to say the Mechanic couldn’t hear the noise we describe and would I mind going on a road test with him. I re-explained the problem to Juan and he tried repeatedly to make the truck create the sound with no luck. He had me drive it while he listened but the sound was gone. He said he’d put it on the hoist and examine the front brakes. 

I spoke with Chad and he said the other customers had all left their vehicles so they slipped us ahead of them. Juan reported plenty of material on the brake pads but it did show signs of having overheated at some time and nothing was visibly wrong with it. Since it was safe to drive we could take the truck or come back another time so he could take it apart further to either find or not find the noise. We chose to take the truck and Chad told us there was no charge since no work had actually been done to the truck. Isn’t that like when you go to a doctor by the time you see him the problem is not bothering you. With a big thanks to Chad we were on our way. 

We stopped at another mall that was barely visible from highway 41 to check it out. It ended up being bigger than the Devonshire Mall back home which is huge. We managed to get an hour of walking exercise in before leaving but we didn’t make it far because it was nearly 6:00 and we were getting hungry. As we’re about to leave the parking lot we spot a Steak n’ Shake. Last year we were hooked on stopping whenever we saw one of these places. We enjoyed our supper there tonight and it still tasted as good as ever. 

As we drove into the park this evening guess what we could hear. Noise coming from the truck again. Oh boy! Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.

Krackers

The World's Great Proverbs

Virtue is its own reward.