The outer bands from Hurricane Gustav lashing out at Pensacola Beach
There was almost a tragedy however for us from Gustav, we almost killed the van. After I had gotten up at 4:00 am to go and help a friend move his furniture upstairs in case the storm surge got too high Sharon and I went to the beach. We wanted to see the large waves, which were recorded up to 18 feet that day! They were amazing, we took the puggles so they could play, but we never let them off the lease so they would not end up getting swept out to sea by the dangerous surf.
On the way home we drove on the road we lived on before Ivan. There is now a dip in the road that was filled with water, which we thought would not be too deep, we were wrong. The van stalled halfway through, I had to get out to push and when I did water flowed into the van as the water was over the bottom of the doors. Sharon helped me push it out of the dip. It would not start back up. I tried everything. I then pushed it a few blocks so I was away from the dip so people would not drive by thinking “Lokk at the dumbass that tried to drive through the water and got stalled out”. We decided to leave it to dry out, perhaps then it would be alright.
The next day we went back to the beach, this time with some ideas of things to try, but to no use. Still no start :( It just would not fire up. Later that evening I went back out with Bryan. We changed the oil, dried some sensors, pulled spark plugs, changed the distributor, replaced a few blown fuses, and then when finally nothing worked we flooded the intake with starter fluid. Then there was life, it started up!!! It sounded bad, the belts were squealing like a scalded cat for a bit, but it was running just fine. I drove it home. The relief I felt was great. I had been so stressed. If we lost the van we were so screwed, I did not know what we would do. But the van did not want to die I guess, she still has some life and purpose in her yet. Someone up there was looking over us.
Thanks Noah for watching out for mom and dad. We love you.