Sneaking up to Pymie...

Find Crappy's spot too!

WORST DAY EVAR!  So bad that I'm too tired to even tell the story.  Quick checklist of suck:
 
- my bait store was closed on Friday
- hung the first FOUR rigs I used on the bottom and lost them
- on the fifth bottom snag my 7' ugly stick SNAPPED IN HALF
- motoring away from that spot I smashed my boat into a stump
- finally caught a fish or two and the wind blew us right off two anchors in shallow water behind a **** island
- had to drive clear around the island to leave because of stump_terror
- couldn't park at sheetz on the way home because they didn't think maybe a car with a trailer might need room there
- 5 minutes after hitting 79S I see my trailer tire EXPLODE INTO SHRAPNEL AND DISINTEGRATE 
 
That isn't even the end of the day, since there is a whole saga around that last one.  Put it this way... if you saw a 20' aluminum boat with a blue cover, a shredded driver side wheel and no truck with it in the Linesville rest stop, that was my boat.  
 
FML.  Going to bed.  

Ouch! That is a rough day. Was hoping to hear a better report. I hear you though, the past 2 years in May I've had a motor crap out on me in the middle of the lake. It wasnt the best weather either time. Definitely frustrating when everything goes wrong. Better luck to you next time Zelie

The thing about my trailer, I DO maintenance on it.  When we rebuilt the boat last year I took it to my buddy's garage and got three matching new tires installed and I didn't go cheap.  In addition to that pretty much new full size matching spare I picked up a 6 ton bottle jack that stays in the truck (after the tire fiasco with the pontoon).  I'll admit that I had no tools other than a tire wrench.  I'll be addressing that by prepping a boat toolbox with everything I need to disassemble the trailer inside.  And here's why...
 
When the tire exploded it bent the fender IN somehow.  So when we got the spare on we couldn't drop the trailer; the fender was hitting the top of the tire.  We made some effort to bend it out with a ratchet strap but it laughed at that.  It is held on by 4 bolts.  So I needed two 9/16 wrenches to get the fender off.  Also just for fun we found two big gouges out of the tread on the other side tire (the one that didn't blow up) down to the belts.  We were a little skeptical that we'd get very far on that tire anyway.  
 
Decided to put the blown up rim back on and abandon the boat at the rest stop.  I chocked the rear wheel and left it in one of the trucker spots.  Called in reinforcements on the drive home (that's a good 45 mins North of me).  My mechanic friend brought me a close to matching full size spare from his boat and my dad brought his 1960 Cuban Missile Crisis bottle jack with fancy 4x4 attachment.  Quick time out to acknowledge the beauty of old American tools.  Other than some seals that jack might as well be brand new despite being abused for almost 60 years.  I doubt my Harbor Freight special jack will be an heirloom.  Anyway we drove back up, put both spares on and removed both fenders and headed home.  Right about the Slippery Rock exit I realized the truck had no gas.    Protip: the Slippery Rock rt108 exit of 79 is a LIE.  There is no gas, no anything for miles.  Man I hate that.  Drove clear into town to hit the Sheetz.  Made it home and parked the thing.  
 
Two finishing bits to the story.  First is we just did a go-over of the trailer before we hauled to DE bay a couple weeks back.  Checked tires and pressure on all three, filled bearing buddies, that sort of thing.  Prevailing theory is that something between the launch and 79 cut both trailer tires somehow.  Second thing is when we were fixing the boat the second time another boater stopped by to ask us if we needed any help.  He was on his way back from Erie with his boat.  That's classy.  We didn't need help but I really appreciated someone offering.  There's still some good eggs out there.  
 

this must be the year for it... I had a blowout at that 79 mercer exit back in april. 2 deer took out my truck for a few weeks at the beginning of june.  I also had a bearing disintegrate in Conneaut  OH a couple weeks back.