The Trip Part 1

Ever went on a trip so outrageous that the memory stays with you for life. I have quite a few from my childhood but there is this one that stands out so vividly, not only do I remember it, I'm going to have to divide it into 3 parts. So here it goes... Anyone that knows my father knows he likes to fish. I swear to God he was born with a fishing pole in one had and a tackle box in the other. My father had purchased a new boat, at least it was new to us, and mapped out our summer trip. Hmmm... where to this year? What about Canada? 2500 miles north to be exact. Where does that take you? About 30 miles from where the roads just end. The trip consisted of my father, grandfather, friend of his named Wilfred, and my brother and I. Wilfred brought his jeep pickup with a topper on the back and a full size chest freezer. Don't ask...I'll tell you later. Looking at the set up I was a little confused, if the three grownups are riding in the front where are we to ride? The boat? No we got the comfy aluminium lawn chairs with the plastic woven straps set up in the back. The view we had for the next 3 days was looking out a dirty piece of Plexiglass at the front of the boat. Fantastic!! We packed the truck and boat with everything we could think of including two 55 gallon drums we would fill up with fuel later in the trip. We waved goodbye to mom and hit the road. I don't know what we did for the first two days but I do remember the last day. About noon we stopped at this old filling station and got out for a stretch. My brother and I got a funny looking can of soda and Wilfred filled up the two 55 gallon drums in the back of the boat with unleaded. Think about it...My bother and I were sandwiched between a chest freezer and a 110 gallon bomb that was strapped to the middle of the boat we were pulling. We pulled off the pavment onto a gravel road, or what you might call a gravel road. In Minnesota gravel is small nickle sized rocks, in Canada, gravel is a sand road with chunks of bedrock sticking out. After traveling about 4 hours my father put on the brakes and suddenly pulled over. We all piled out to see that the 1929 boat trailer we were pulling had gotten a flat tire. What had happened is that there was so much weight from the 110 gallon bomb we were pulling that it broke a cross member in the boat and the boat leaned on the fender which in turn cut the tire. This was nothing, my father could fix anything as long as he had a hot glue gun and duck tape. We all pulled the boat over and got the fender off , he then grabbed the spare tire and got us back on the road. A couple of hours later as the boulders got bigger and the sand more scarce we pulled over again to inspect the boat. To our surprise the tire was fine, the boat had tipped again and the tire had rubbed a HOLE in the bottom of the boat. Lets take inventory! I was 2500 miles from home in a different country, 8 hours from civilization in the back of a pickup, squeezed next to a full size chest freezer, staring at a 110 gallon bomb and a boat with a hole in the bottom. It gets much better I guarantee!