Day 142, Year 10: In Search of Fan Belts
Date: Sunday, March 1, 2015
Weather: Beautiful Day, High in the 70’s, Winds E to SE to E 15-20
Location: Dinner Key Marina Anchorage, Coconut Grove, FL
The Sunday search for fan (alternator) belts took us on an all day chase through Coconut Grove to parts of Miami that we had never heard of. The NAPA warehouse for this area is in Doral, Florida, and that is where we had to go. This is west of downtown Miami and west of the airport in Hialeah. We first took a bus from near the dinghy dock to an area of Coconut Grove that we now know well. Enterprise Rental Car, West Marine, and Advance Auto Parts are all right together and just a short bus ride away. We went to Advance Auto Parts and they had only one fan belt that was even close to what we needed. They checked for us and another of their stores in the area had two more. We wanted four and since the belt they had wasn’t really a perfect match, we decided to look further. The NAPA store in Coconut Grove is closed on Sunday, but Mark found one a little further south. The belts we have been using were from NAPA, so the guy at this store was able to check the number and let us know that he had none. But he suggested we go to the regional warehouse. He said they would definitely have great quantities of what we needed. So Mark started searching on his phone how to get there. Thank goodness for smart phones. Mark got the address, put that in his phone and it immediately told him exactly how to get to warehouse via public transportation. The problem was that it was two long bus rides and more than a mile walk to get there. The phone told us to go one way to the bus stop, but the bus stop where we had come from had a sign for bus 37, the one we needed. So we ignored the phone and went to the closer stop. Bus 37 roared past the stop not even hesitating to pick us up. So we watched it and it turned into the Metrorail station just across Highway 1—very busy highway. We ran as fast as we could, crossed one street and then the highway, and made it to the station before the bus left. We decided that next time we’ll do exactly what the phone tells us. But even so, we weren’t so lucky with the next connection. We got off bus 37 to wait for bus 36A. Mark realized he no more change and only bigger bills, so he ran into a restaurant to get change. Of course, the bus came as soon as he disappeared into the restaurant, so we had to wait almost an hour for another 36A. From there things went a little more smoothly. The walk felt long in the hot sun, but the warehouse did have the belts and the walk back to the bus stop seemed much shorter. We had to run to catch the bus, but we made it. We met some great folks from Toronto on the bus. There were two couples, all originally from the Philippines. They had just returned from a Caribbean cruise yesterday and were exploring Miami by bus. For this return trip, the phone was telling us to take the bus to the closest Metrorail station and then take the train back to Coconut Grove. Since we had decided earlier to always do what the phone says, we did exactly that. The search took us all day, but we did get the belts and we got to see a little more of Miami. And we are now running the engine and it is charging like crazy. The new belts did the trick. So all is well that ends well.
Tomorrow we have another whole day of public transportation travel to Fort Lauderdale and back. This trip will require bus, Metrorail, Tri-Rail, and more buses to get to Holy Cross Hospital and then we’ll have to do it all in reverse to come home. It is a three-hour trip each way which will make for a very long day, but it is cheaper than renting a car, so we’re going to give it a try. The reason for the trip is to meet with Mark’s oncologist to get the results of Friday’s scan. I always wait with nervous anticipation but with hopes of positive results. I’ll share the results in tomorrow night’s log and thank so many of you in advance for the positive thoughts you send Mark’s way.
