escape to gero

eric and i were tasked with driving 5 hours down to geraldton to pick up our other boat, maziwa, and run some other errands.  we were really excited about this because it meant a few days in an actual town with restaurants, grocery stores and a movie theater.  at 5 hours away, gero is the closest real town to us!

maziwa has been down there for a while getting an overhaul so she can get back out on the water after a number of years.  along with picking her up and making sure she was indeed ready to go, we had many things other items on our list such as groceries, kitchen supplies, personal lists to fill for people, hardware items, outdoor furniture, and a number of other random things to find, plus eric had to complete a first aid refresher course.

the long drive and all of the running around were more than worth it for the following reasons:

1. hot, fresh water, clean showers

2. a movie in a theater with popcorn (despicable me 2 was awesome)

3. nail polish

4. unlimited internet access

5. salad

my friend janey and i like to joke about the need to find salad.  this happens when you travel somewhere like the deep south, rural virginia, etc. and the only food options you have are fried, cured, or covered in gravy.  you get such a strong craving for salad that you go on a mission to every store you can find in search of something green.

we do have salad here (basically ice-burg lettuce) but it's pretty expensive so we mostly get other veggies instead.  eric and i love our salads, so it's been a bit of a withdrawal. therefore, while we were in gero, we completed our mission and ate enormous amounts of arugula salads covered in fresh veggies and goat cheese.  how sad is it that i'm writing two paragraphs about salad???  :)

but salad was not the only excitement we had on this trip...

after testing maziwa out on the water, we were pulling her in and the wench belt snapped.  that was a minor (though a little scary to have that snap in your face) setback, but we got her fixed up and got on the road the next morning with maziwa wenched to the trailer with two ratchet straps holding her down.  about 1 kilometer before stopping for gas (a gas station is every 2 hours or so), we saw a strap break.  then the second one broke.  we pulled into the station, stopped and got out and the boat was halfway down the trailer!  her eye-bolt has come off and the boat wasn't being held on by anything.  so i'm thinking if it had happened any earlier maziwa would be somewhere in the middle of the road.  now that would have been exciting.

long story short the 5 hour trip turned into 8.5 hours.  but everyone and everything arrived safe and sound and we didn't hit any roos.  i would call that a pretty successful trip.

^^don't know why i didn't take any pics on our trip, except these from testing out maziwa^^