Usually, I try to keep my blogs strictly “business” aka airplanes!  But this has a combination of business, pleasure, and airplanes!

This weekend we took a trip down to Marathon Key (drive time 6 hours) to purchase Fast Aviation’s new truck.  It took us 8 hours to get there due to a flat tire and horrendous weekend traffic.

After a 10 minute change out (trust me I counted) we were on the road again.  My phone rang when we were north of PBI (Palm Beach) and it was my best friend Erinn!  She was in town for the weekend and it just happened to be on our way.  So we stopped and had lunch with her.  Erinn is an air traffic controller at KORD.  She was my mentor all through ATC school.  Make sure you do as she says or you’re going around! ;P

We arrived at Marathon and David loved the truck. He has many plans on how to incorporate his trailer and truck into a salvage and airplane haulin’ machine! haha!

Contrary to popular belief, we pretty much work 7 days a week. So, its not everyday we get to go somewhere for “fun.”  Technically, this was for work but we got to have about 2 hours of fun! haha

While I was laying there soaking up the sun, I received a phone call from my Father stating that our 182 was broken down in Naples.  So there went our “fun” out the window!  We packed everything up and left early.  Instead of heading back to Sanford we went west towards Naples to fix the airplane.

Since we had a flat tire and was already using the spare tire on the VW Jetta, we decided it would be “smart” to just throw her on a trailer.

We had ANOTHER detour about 20 minutes after getting the trailer.  We just got up to 65 on the highway when the truck started shifting funny then slowed down.  Once it got to 20 mph it stayed in first gear!  David was silent next to me and I knew that he would blow a gasket any time soon.  We inched her to the nearest Auto Zone.  I was navigating and my father was back in Sanford Googling ideas on what might be wrong.  He suggested an electrical issue.  I then suggested unplugging the U-Haul trailer.  As soon as we did that the truck drove normal! Something in the wiring shorted out our speed sensor in the tranny.  We purchased the speed sensor at $23 JUST in case it was damaged during that crazy “shifting issue.” So take note to anyone who rents a U-haul trailer!

SO back on the road AGAIN. We got to drive through alligator alley and I took a little video.

Here is a video of the everglades and a surprise at the end!

Video: IMG_1644

We arrived in Naples after about 4 hours of driving and nonsense.

After a jump, she was off again.

Video: IMG_1651

We got in late last night but all in all it was an interesting trip.  One thing cool we saw in the keys were the endangered Key Deer.  David and I were looking outside the car for them in the woods/marsh area while driving south on US1 when one just started walking across the street in front of us!!!!  I wish we had a camera rolling for that!  That deer was probably sitting on the side talking to his buddies saying “Hey Bob, watch me scare those tourists!”  David slammed on the brakes and the deer didn’t even flinch. He just kept walking…

Did you know that its a $20,000 fine if you hit a Key Deer?  THANK GOD we didn’t hit Bambi!!