Saturday, June 6, 2009
Big K(K-Mart) parking lot, Grayling, MI: May 19
This was not where we had planned to spend the night. As we mentioned above, we have never before parked overnight in a "box store" parking lot, but Doug noticed that the gas stations in Grayling had especially cheap gas, so we decided to fill up there while passing through on our way to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. When we got to town all of the stations had raised their prices -- all but one, that is, and that had a line of cars. Even though we were towing the trailer, it didn't look too bad, however, so we pulled up to one line and shut off the engine while the people filled up. It got to be our turn, and when Doug tried starting the truck, it wouldn't turn over. It finally did start, and after running a few seconds sounded good so we pulled up to a pump & started filling up. When we finished, we really couldn't start the engine. We called our Emergency Roadside Service, and after having to tell them that there was a Dodge dealer in town (they wanted to tow us 38 miles), we went out to wait for the tow truck. We were only blocking one pump, but that was enough to turn what had been orderly lines of cars waiting politely into a chaotic, every-man-for-himself jungle.
While waiting for the tow truck, we scoped out the area and decided that the Big K almost next door would be a good place for the trailer to be left so that he didn't have to tow the truck with trailer through some rather heavy-duty road construction areas. Doug went over & checked to see if it was okay for us to be left there for the rest of the day and possibly overnight. They said fine. When the tow-truck finally arrived, he towed both truck & trailer to the Big K, to a location of our choice, unhitched the trailer, then towed the truck to the dealer, who confirmed that the fuel pump had gone out. He didn't think he could fix it that day, so he drove us back home to Big K. Then he called us around 5pm and said that it was ready. He picked us up & we paid for the work & drove back home. We decided we were in no mood to start out driving to our original destination that late in the day, and settled in to spend our first night parked at a "big box". Now the real irony of this is that modern cars put the fuel pump in the gas tank, which means that to work on them they have to drain the tank. He had a tank to drain the gas into, but said that since it had also been used for diesel & contaminated gas, he wouldn't recommend putting the gas back in. So we had to completely fill our tank at the new, inflated price, which was 36c higher. Kmart was amply "rewarded" by our spending about $70 there that we probably would not have spent otherwise -- at least not at Kmart -- and it was all stuff we needed!
Since the Kmart was right across the street from the Ramada Inn, where the Kirtland's warbler trips meet, the next day we decided to get up early & go on another KW tour, and we're really glad we did. We got several excellent looks -- one an adolescent male learning to vocalize for at least a minute on a bare branch about 15 feet in front of us, and then a female, again only about 20 feet away, having a male fly next to her, whereupon they nuzzled for a couple of seconds, then flew down to the ground out of sight (for what we suspect was a little warbler hanky-panky). Truly awesome!
While waiting for the tow truck, we scoped out the area and decided that the Big K almost next door would be a good place for the trailer to be left so that he didn't have to tow the truck with trailer through some rather heavy-duty road construction areas. Doug went over & checked to see if it was okay for us to be left there for the rest of the day and possibly overnight. They said fine. When the tow-truck finally arrived, he towed both truck & trailer to the Big K, to a location of our choice, unhitched the trailer, then towed the truck to the dealer, who confirmed that the fuel pump had gone out. He didn't think he could fix it that day, so he drove us back home to Big K. Then he called us around 5pm and said that it was ready. He picked us up & we paid for the work & drove back home. We decided we were in no mood to start out driving to our original destination that late in the day, and settled in to spend our first night parked at a "big box". Now the real irony of this is that modern cars put the fuel pump in the gas tank, which means that to work on them they have to drain the tank. He had a tank to drain the gas into, but said that since it had also been used for diesel & contaminated gas, he wouldn't recommend putting the gas back in. So we had to completely fill our tank at the new, inflated price, which was 36c higher. Kmart was amply "rewarded" by our spending about $70 there that we probably would not have spent otherwise -- at least not at Kmart -- and it was all stuff we needed!
Since the Kmart was right across the street from the Ramada Inn, where the Kirtland's warbler trips meet, the next day we decided to get up early & go on another KW tour, and we're really glad we did. We got several excellent looks -- one an adolescent male learning to vocalize for at least a minute on a bare branch about 15 feet in front of us, and then a female, again only about 20 feet away, having a male fly next to her, whereupon they nuzzled for a couple of seconds, then flew down to the ground out of sight (for what we suspect was a little warbler hanky-panky). Truly awesome!
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 7:52 AM 
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