With so many threads over the years about bad neighbors, I thought I'd share a story about good ones. As I've mentioned previously on this forum, I've been hanging out at our family cabin in northern Wisconsin since the pandemic hit the U.S. back in March. I basically ran up here because of my compromised immune system, my chances in Los Angeles weren't looking good at the start of this thing. I figured that I'd be bored but safe.
I never spent much time here over the years since I live in CA. It was my mom and stepdad's summer home and they built it 30 years ago, both have passed away in the last 2 years and now it belongs to my brother but sits empty most of the time. He will not get here at all this year due to travel restrictions, (he's overseas).
Anyhow...the boredom thing hasn't really worked out. In fact, I have not been bored for one minute since I've been here. There are plenty of small maintenance jobs to do plus I towed my Airstream trailer here and bought an Airstream RV since I got here, both need a little attention. I also dragged one motorcycle with me and bought another since I got here...have to stay busy, you know.
None of these rolling stock items are close to new, so all need attention. Today, I finally got around to changing the steering gearbox on my '99 Ford F-250, (tow vehicle and all-around workhorse). I've had it for years and it sat unused for months at a time in L.A., now it's my cross-country DD. I'd been putting it off because it's a slight bear of a job and I did not want to run into any snags and be car-less up here, it's pretty remote.
We have only one close neighbor, my mom built a similar log cabin next door for some friends and they sold it to the current owners, the Wongs. They are dream neighbors, a young couple w two cute kids who have also been living here full time since the pandemic hit. They have a pontoon and a fishing boat and are on the lake all the time. Very chill, very nice people. It's all about the peace and quiet up here, so bad neighbors would really suck. At first, I kept to myself in my cabin, totally socially isolating. When the weather turned nice, I met them down on the dock and now we hang out all the time, sitting in our boats on the lake talking, etc.
I've had the new gearbox sitting in my trailer for a month and today I dug into it. The job was actually going smoothly and looking like it would be done in one day when my phone rang. My neighbors had gone out picking wild berries about 20 miles away and their car would not start. Mom/dad/2 kids and the dog, stranded and I cannot even begin to tell you how remote of a place they were. It's crazy beautiful and wild up here, there is a bald eagle nest across the lake on land my brother owns, a loon family on the lake, bears and deer everywhere, raccoons, every type of bird in North America, etc.
Did I mention that my truck was in pieces on the ground? Any other day of the year and this little rescue would be a turn-key operation. So I called our next closest neighbor and other best friend up here, Eric. He lives a 5 minute walk away, if I take the shortcut through the woods. Eric is the Police Chief of the nearest small town and was my elderly parents' best friend, he really stepped-up and helped them a lot in the final years. His teenaged sons put our dock in and take it out every year, watch over the place like a hawk when it's empty, (most of the time except this year), that sort of thing. Eric is also a car guy and has many vehicles and always down to help in all situations. I call him and he's driving somewhere but I explain the situation, asked if he had a vehicle I could borrow to go help the other neighbors, (we are all friends). He says of course, walk over and grab my F-150, the keys are in it.
I get his truck and my jumper cables and head towards the pin on the map the stranded friends sent me. It's really far but a cool area I hadn't explored yet so an adventure. All state or county land, just soft dirt roads through pristine forest. Where they broke down, there was a stream w trout in it. A fishing hole like you've never seen, unless you live somewhere like this. Thousands of acres that anyone can use, hunt and fish on, even chop wood w a permit, apparently.
These friends have a nicer/newer car in Minneapolis but their cabin car is a 10 year-old Jeep Cherokee w high miles and a 5.7 hemi. We could not get it to run w a jump, (it just started and died), so we left it there until tomorrow and I got them home. We packed 3 adults, 2 small boys in car seats and their large, 3-legged dog into the older F-150 that is only an extended cab. It was cozy, lol.
Once I got them home, I went to return Eric's truck but he told me to just keep it until we get things sorted-out and he gave me a huge tow strap and advised me that we could totally get away w towing it home since it's all dirt roads and one county road. Tomorrow we will go back w my scanner and the tow strap and get it home one way or another, then figure out if I can fix it or tow it to a shop in one of the neighboring towns.
So now I have my F-250 on jack stands, an F-150 and two Airstreams plus a MC in my driveway here. I'm starting to look like a local, lol. I'll get some pictures tomorrow and turn this into a repair thread.
