A weekend that started from Hell ended with the best jam session ever! On the way to the Boynton Beach Haunted Pirate Festival, our truck broke down in a little place known as Bartow, Fl. At 8:30pm. So....we had it towed to a shop at 11pm after spending a couple hours trying to locate the problem with the help of a very enthusiastic local by the name of Paul. We met Paul in the Citgo located 50 yards from the broken down truck. With Pauls help, we discovered the problem lie in the fuel pump. No easy fix on the side of the road at 10:30pm. The tow truck driver (a man of small frame and wild hair named Big Shoes) dropped everyone off at a napa shop in Bartow. The adventure began from there as we 3 musicians carried our suitcases and instruments through the dark and quiet streets of Bartow 2 miles to the nearest motel. We could not help but picture these small town folk peering out their windows at the silhouette of 3 musician wandering into town at midnight... A very special thank you to the kind folks over at Stay Inn and Suites and Bobs Bar The following morning, a mere 4 hours from showtime, we discover the auto repair shop is not open on the weekends. So we walk to the Enterprise car rental station. We inquiring about renting a car, we are informed that they have no vehicles to rent and that we should continue walking to the Ford dealer to rent from them. Which we did. The nice people at Bartow Ford allowed us to rent a Fusion for the remainder of the weekend. We loaded up at the motel, made a quick stop at the truck and got back on the road. Now with a 3 hour trip we needed to make in 2 hours to make our first showtime. A thank you to Celtic Mayhem for covering our first showtime. The rest of the weekend went off without further trouble and we have just now landed back in St. Pete to recover. A fantastic weekend and big thank yous to everyone in Boynton Beach and all the folks who put that show together. We will see you again next year. On time, preferably. Slainte! (Addendum: Thank you to FL DOT for the lack of Cash Tolls and the over abundance of SunPass Only exits. With our rental car, we found it difficult to pay with a SunPass we did not have, only to get off at the only available exit to our destination...which did not accept cash payment. We are sure that someone would have happily accepted an hourly wage to stand in a booth to collect our road money... Just as we are sure you will find a way to route that $100 fine to us. Looking forward to it....)
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 05:14:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015