This is my post for #freewriters 2812 prompt your ticket out of here hosted by @mariannewest
He told me he was not going to put the kayak on top of his truck because it would cause him to burn more gas, he was going to put it inside and leave the back window open. It was too long to go inside, and he had to put it on the roof. (There goes the 10 cents he would have saved.)
I thought he had it tied down good enough with one strap wrapped around the rack at each end. He thought it was not enough. He said he did not trust the rack to hold, so he wanted to strap it to the truck's frame.
We tried to run it down the side and hook into the bottom of the truck. When we did this, the ratchet part came out, where it would bang against the truck when he was driving. So that did not work. Everything he tried would not work, and he was getting aggravated. I knew better to say anything when he gets like that, but it sure would have been nice to say, at least this is your ticket out of here. He gets to see a new area, be away from home, kayak, ride bike trails through a forest, fish in a lake, and sleep in an air conditioned tent. While I stay home and pull weeds. (Insert envy, if you wish!!)
He tried to hook it to something on the inside of the truck, and the ratchet part stopped where the window was to shut. He finally put it down the back and hooked it under the bumper, and that seemed to make him happy.
He was pretty much loaded, and as I stood here looking at all of this, I thought, just think of the amount of things we would take if I were going with him. He even had stuff behind the seats with stuff and the passenger seat was full.
This time, he only threw a small fit while trying to mount his bicycle, he forgot how he had it last time and took some fiddling to get it right. This time, he only had to take the bike off once, so he is getting better at it. Last time I think he took it off a half a dozen times and threw a good fit over it. You see, he does not trust the bike rack either. He put two ratchet straps from it to the truck.
If four ratchet straps were not enough to hold a kayak down, he had to tie a small white rope on the front and back of the kayak to the front of the truck and the back to the `bike rack. I am not sure what this rope is doing that four ratchet straps can't do, but it made him feel better, so that is good.
He was ready to leave and said he wanted to look over his list one more time. Good thing he did, he forgot his fishing poles. He is 68 years old and has been commercial fishing on his own since he was 15, and he forgets his fishing poles.
The last time he camped, he left his worms in the truck and they all died. I looked in the center console, and there were his worms in the sun. I got a piece of paper egg crate and put it under them in his ice chest so they will stay cool but not on the ice, and this time, he will have bait to fish with.... I try to look out for him.
There he goes, on another great adventure. He called to say he made it, and he wanted me to look on the Walmart website for the town closest to him and see if they had a cheap air conditioner. The one he bought for the tent is an inside unit, but when he turned it on, it sucked his tent in so much that he thought it would break the poles. It also leaked water inside the tent, it had a drain hose on the outside. I think there might have been a drain pan under it that he did not get when he bought it.
I told him the cheapest one he could get was 139 dollars. He said he was going to go buy it, because he can not sleep in this heat without one.
He called back and said it might ruin it if it rains, but he put the air conditioner outside and ran the air hose inside. He said it is now cold in the tent. I told him if it rains, to put a piece of plastic over it. He said they are not calling for rain, but this is Florida, and it can rain with the sun shining.
I hope everything else goes good for him and he enjoys his time camping.
photos are mine