From Ray M.
I am submitting this little story about my first trip to Malachi this spring to open up the cottage as a way of identifying and thanking the people who helped me out.
As per usual my first trip to the cottage, the Dilly Dally Inn, is a solo endeavor. I take a few days to hook up the water and the propane, haul supplies, and assemble the dock and all that while my wife works in Winnipeg. She’ll come out later.
This time around my 2002 Sonoma broke down about five miles before the landing. 
The upper ball joint on the front right let go completely just as I negotiated yet another bigger bump on the road. The tire and rim flopped against the frame and that was it. I couldn’t safely move another inch. I am fortunate that I had slowed down. In my truck there were the boat motor, several containers of gasoline, about a month’s worth of food for myself and my dog, my lake clothing, a few tools, etc. In other words it would be hard to imagine anyone coming by who could take me, my dog and all that was in the truck to the landing without a lot of time and trouble. After about an hour of stewing about what I was going to do along come Tom and Cheryl Pendergast pulling a trailer that was half empty. 
In a matter of a few minutes everything that I had in my truck was loaded into their trailer and vehicle and thanks to them I got to the landing with all my gear in good time.
Of course, from there I could load it all into my boat and carry on. Another problem developed however because I really couldn’t put everything I had into my small boat in one trip. This is where Clay and Kim Reichart stepped in. Some of my supplies went into their boat and they delivered it to the cottage. Very nice.
On Jeff Stephenson’s advice, I phoned Godbout Towing in Kenora to ask them to tow my truck into Kenora and get it fixed. They couldn’t do it that day (Tuesday) but would schedule a pick up the next day. Of course, they wanted me to be there when they picked it up so that I could give them the keys and also pay them. This is where Ken and Virginia McCartney came in. They were headed into Kenora on Wednesday morning to run an errand and they willingly helped me by driving me and my dog to my stranded truck where I could wait for the tow truck. It took two hours for the tow truck to come by. The driver loaded up my truck on a flat bed and for a few dollars more took me and my dog back to the landing where I could once again get into my boat and go back to the cottage.
The tow truck took my truck to the GMC dealership garage in Kenora – Kantola. By phone they agreed to fix it but couldn’t promise to get it done until the following Tuesday unless there was a cancellation. I was okay with that. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere anyway.
It turns out that there was a cancellation and my truck was repaired on Friday. I learned that Lorne Mazur was headed for Winnipeg on Saturday morning and I gave him a call to ask for a ride to Kenora. Without hesitation, he agreed. So on Saturday morning I met him at the landing and had a good visit with him while he drove me to Kenora. It turns out we have mutual friends from Winnipeg.
So everything turned out rather well. I guess you might want to know how much all this cost. Well the towing cost $250.00 and the new ball joint along with a thorough inspection of the other parts of the front end cost $400.00.
It just feels good to know that there are people around the lake who are glad to help out when other people are in trouble. Thanks to all!