A trip to the lake

The last five days at Emerald Lake were terrific. Working, fishing, shopping, visiting, and relaxing. Great weather.


On the way up Thursday we stopped at Birch Run and bought a few things we needed, but we could not find the right size sandals for Kathy. We had late lunch at Bennigan's in Midland and more shopping. Trip took longer than usual with all the stops.


Worked on old lawn tractor for part of Friday. On last trip we noticed an intermittent starting problem and it was getting more frequent. We thought it was pto switch so we stopped on our way up at John Deere dealer north of Almont and bought one . Put in the new one but it would not start; put old one back in and still would not start. Put in new one again thinking perhaps I messed up connections, but still no good. Must be something more complicated than swapping out switches.

Should we take the 20-year-old tractor to a dealer and get it fixed? It will still be old and perhaps just as unreliable. We decided we don't want to spent the first day of each visit to the lake working on tractor. Let's just go to Big Rapids to a JD dealer and get a new one. Found one we liked, made a deal, they took old tractor as trade-in along with snow thrower, set delivery for Saturday--all is right with the world.


Dinner after JD purchase at Ruby Tuesday, then on to Menard's and Lowe's (interestingly they sit adjacent to each other and across the road from adjacent Meijer and Walmart stores). Found collapsible saw horses, pegboard hooks, and storage shelf unit for Romeo, and potential paint color for EL.


Saturday morning Kathy went to town to get her hair done by Ellen. A call from JD dealer moved up delivery to mid-morning. We hoped the old tractor would start (it did for Kathy last night after I put the old pto switch back in). Driver missed the driveway on his first pass but then found it coming back south--I heard his truck and trailer rattle up the drive. He offloaded the new one, started the old one and loaded it along with the snow thrower onto the trailer. We then chatted a bit -- an essential part of small town commerce.

When Kathy got home with a fantastic do she told me the Expedition was misfiring. Lee had just walked over with Carlee and Addison so he and I took a look and decided it would be ok to drive it back to Romeo with the misfire, but should not otherwise be driven unless an emergency.

Later Saturday Lee and I went fishing. Carlee began with us but soon wanted to go up to the house and play. Carrie and Addison were there with Kathy. Not many fish caught--couple big enough for Lee to take home later that night. One that I caught seemed to be smaller than the bait I was using.

Sunday we worked on property. Kathy used new lawn tractor and cut grass. Trimmed near road and also got rid of some old dead fallen trees. Later we cleared the area going down to the lake.

Left early Monday morning to be sure we had time in case something happened to Expedition besides the miss. It ran rough but at higher rpms it ran smoother than at lower rpms and up grades. We would not have liked to have driven the same distance home in hills or mountains.

Found out Tuesday the miss was caused by a bad coil and also that the muffler was leaking.

An interesting and eventful trip!!!