So, the next day, I was at the hardware store, tackling the list of items needed to make that boat floor new! Wood, screws, and the like. I actually met Bob up there, he wanted to make sure we got the prettiest pieces of lumber they had!!! He was going down his copy of the list, and he introduced me as his friend Tiffany!!! :)
So, what Ace didn't have, I ventured to Lowe's, Home Depot, and had to go to a speciality store to get the fiberglass resin. All the while, Bob was back at his house, with our boat in his shed, and his time away from his wife, cleaning out the bottom of our boat. He totally gutted it out, and started from scratch.
And of course, I have a connection with a nuts and bolts guy, and he and his lovely wife supplied lots of screws, nails, and nuts and washers!
And, Bob began work shortly there after. I would wake up in the mornings, get Noah off to school, look towards their home, and there he'd be, pulling the boat out of the shed and getting started on that days task.
Bob spent the next couple of weeks cutting boards, nailing, rearranging, and fiber glassing!
This was in the early spring, and the weather was wonderful, but it was still a whole lot of hard work. Precise work. And the whole time, Bob never asked for anything in return.
So, he got the floor finished. And it looked great. Custom built just for us! The next task would be the motor. The one without a foot!!!
Bob agreed to help us get it running, but didn't have the parts needed to do so. D began searching the corners of his brain to figure out who could help. Everyday, while reading his routes, D would talk to people who had boats, go to boat shops, and basically put out an all alert for the particular part we needed.
Then, one day, he happened to remember the dad of a guy D used to hang with, and so he looked him up in the phone book. Well, two days later, I'm at this man's boat motor graveyard, picking up the foot we needed. He and his wife are absolutely down to earth, wonderful people. They invited me in, just like family, gave Noah candy out of their granddaughter's candy stash, and visited with us. They also have 2 sons (grown of course) and they are also 6 years apart! We had lots to talk about!!! I feel like I met these folks for a reason, for such a time as this!
And, I brought it back to Bob, and he hooked it up. He gave us another small list of supplies (oil, gear grease, a battery, etc.) we would need to be in business. So, more shopping!!!
While I was getting these supplies, I mean the exact same day, D called me and said, meet me outside with some Mean Green Cleaner! I said, uh-oh. He was reading the meter of a guy out by fish river who was cleaning out his shed, and had a pile of life jackets (12-assorted sizes), a battery box, some safety flares, and maybe something else, I just can't remember. D reads this guys meter once a month, and knew this stuff had been sitting there, but he'd never seen the guy outside. This time, he was there with no where to run. D told the guy we'd just gotten a boat, a fixer-upper, and the guy said, well, you wouldn't wanna take that pile of junk off of my hands would ya? D said what junk? The guy replied, those life jackets, battery box, and safety flares!!! Um, hello! Life jackets are at least $10 a piece, and the battery box I had bought (and later returned!) was $25! So, with a little elbow grease, and Mean Green, it was all like new!
So, Bob continued working out the kinks of the motor. We began getting flooring estimates (carpet, spray-in, tile) and checking on seat prices! And this is where I'll stop for today!
