The Ferry Signaled Twice

 What a crazy, yet lucky day! We were up early as the plan was to make calls to auto repair shops. After giving it a lot of thoughts I decided to try the local Chevy dealer who was the first to open its service dept. at 7:30.

Naturally, you can't get through right away, because people are either not yet on their job, or they have gone to frequent the company coffee maker. But I was promised a call back.

Well, my patience is not of the most desirable, so I quickly decided to hop into the van and drive the 0.6miles to the dealer's place. At the service dept. I told my story and was allowed right in. That was a good beginning. Other places would have said, Yeahhh, but we are already fully booked for today. Not this one, Sir!

I went to the waiting area and pulled out my Smart Phone.

After watching funny cartoons for an hour, the service guy comes around telling that they have sourced the parts for the cable with another dealership, and sent a driver to pick them up. Later, I learned that that guy drove 20 miles to another town for it. That took some time, but we would get the parts. 2 hours later I started wandering around outside in the sunshine when I came into the back yard of the dealership. There I saw my van parked and from underneath I saw 2 legs protruding, just as I had done Sunday morning. 

????

But only moments later the man emerged from underneath and drove the van out for pickup. WOW, he seemed to be finished.

Back inside I got my bill which was so low that I almost got a shock. $242 bucks seemed nothing for this job, especially when one remembers that some guy spent at least 90 minutes to get the parts from that other dealership. Parts was only a little more than $50, rest was a standard fee they use for diagnosing a vehicle.

The name of that dealership is Lester Glenn Chevrolet in Freehold, NJ. These guys go the extra mile for you! Thank you!

Getting back to Camp Walmart and Bea was all smiles and we got a quick lunch ready before hitting the road again.

Our immediate destination was Cape May, 2.5hrs. away.

I quickly booked the 6pm departure, as it seemed a bit too tight with the earlier 2:30pm departure.

We got onto the Jersey Garden State Parkway (which is full of toll stations) and we made it to the Cape May Ferry Terminal 5 minutes before the 2:30pm departure. We told the friendly ticket lady we wouldn't mind to wait until 6pm but she got on some intercom with the ferry and was given clear signal for us to come onboard. 

Before we were allowed to enter, a police officer rounded the rig with a drug dog. Then the ticket guy had to take a look into the van and into the trailer. It was then that I heard the ferry leaving signal..... What?

But crew members were now directing us to the ramp and ...lo and behold - there was just enough space for our 54ft rig. The gate behind us was closed and now I heard the leaving signal of the ferry once more! Seconds later the ferry was moving out from the harbour. People had been watching us from the upper deck. They must have thought "why are these people coming that late?" But we hadn't been late, we were 4hrs early!!

90 minutes of a ferry passage was flying by, when I had gotten a coffee from upstairs and broken out the cookies we had gotten from our neighbours back home. I felt really good. Life was good again. We were finally moving again and into the right direction. We were south-bound!

On the Delaware side is the town of Lewes, and that's where the ferry lands.

Tomorrow is gonna be a new exciting day, but hopefully without any more delays being part of it.

An evening walk along the boardwalk

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Our day trip today