It's A Miracle

Dusty and the boys pitched a tent and slept outside Saturday night.  Traci (knowing her husband's curse) and Laurna slept in Pumpkin.  It did not rain.  It was a miracle or something really bad is coming.

The St. Louis bunch went home after breakfast.  They invited us to a fish fry and had to get home to make the preparations (yes!).

Joyce and I made it to their house about 5 pm and Dusty had the fish in the deep fryer.  He had already made grilled asparagus and Brussels sprouts and roasted corn-on-the-cob.  Traci was making au gratin potatoes, slicing up cucumbers and had just taken a pound cake out of the oven.  She sliced fresh strawberries to go with the cake.

The fish came from the Gulf of Mexico.  The gang had gone to Destin a few weeks ago and caught a bunch of Vermilion snapper.  At least they were told they weren't Red snapper because Red snapper were not in season.  A lot went into catching these fish...and a lot came out while catching these fish.  Traci and Laurna contributed the most - the "out" part while Dusty and the boys fished.  The result is possibly the best fish I've ever eaten.

Dinner was fit for a king.  Sooo delicious.  They had outdone a lot of super good seafood restaurants and it was a whole lots less expensive - for Joyce and I, anyway.  Dusty said it worked out to somewhere around $50 a pound.

After dinner we sat down to a game of new Trivial Pursuit (Bet You Know It) where you get to bet on whether the person answering the question would get it right or not.  We let Traci win (wink, wink).

After a wonderful evening, it was time to pay the piper.  Traci made me haul off bags and bags of old clothes and toys she was giving to our local fire dept.  We filled the Jeep up, leaving just enough room for a couple of over stuffed adults and a little dog.  We slept well.

Well, We're here and it's thundering

Should have known. We're camped near Dusty and it's raining. No, Dusty is not camping, but he's close enough to have his usual effect. The trip up yesterday was long, but uneventful. However, I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. I wanted to gas up at the Casey's Store in Forsyth. I knew it would be easy to get in and out. But, when I got there, someone had left their car blocking the pumps. We sat there for quite a while. I even asked an attendant who was dumping trash if she would see if the person could move their car. The attendant disappeared inside and that was that. I don't know if the person was in taking a crap or chewing the fat or was locked in the trunk. The car was sitting too far out from the pump to have been there for gas. I finally gave up and drove off. I wasn't in that big a need for gas.

We stopped at Strafford for gas and on up the road a ways to a rest stop just beyond Marshfield, we stopped for lunch. What a nice rest stop. The DOT has been working on it for what seems like years. But, it's finished now. Actually, it's a Welcome Center. It has a huge parking area for trucks and a special convenient area for RVs. The picnic tables are all under neat little cabanas built like old-time gas station and motor court fronts. A wide sidewalk leads down between all of them and has a yellow center line painted like a highway and U.S. Highway 66 road signs along the walk.

The rest of the trip went by like the countryside we passed. I drove about 55 mph because we were bucking a headwind and were not in a hurry anyway. So, it was a nice trip.

We went to Dusty's for dinner and to catch up a bit. Then came back to the park for bedtime. Having Coors along makes this kind of camp much more enjoyable and convenient.

I'm sitting here now with Joyce, Ditto and Laurna still in bed. Yes, Laurna came to camp the night with us. Everyone else has a part in a neighborhood triathlon this morning (in the rain). Poor Laurna didn't have a part to play so she came home with us last night. She's all sprawled out on the cab-over bunk still sawing them off. I love that little girl.

Going To Babler

We're just about all packed and ready to go on a short trip up St. Louis way.  After having the transmission worked on, I wanted to get a few miles under its belt before we started out for Custer State Park in South Dakota next month.  So, we're going to spend the weekend at Babler State Park just outside Chesterfield.  We're towing Coors so we will run back and forth to Dusty's.  Dusty has a fish fry planned - ummmm!

The Ol' Switcheroo

Well, I got the latest emergency flasher to work.  The flasher has + & - and L (load) pins and the + & - were reversed - not per flasher spec, but per Ford spec.  Anyway, I made up some short wire extensions with spade connectors on them so I could cross the two leads.  Works good now.

Bleed Man Bleed

Yesterday I got Joyce up and out to help me do a another run at bleeding the brakes.  I had bled the front brakes after changing the calipers, but they still felt a little soft so I wanted to bleed the rear brakes, too.  After crawling around cussing and groaning for a while I decided it just wasn't worth it.  It was time to pay some younger guy to do it.  So, today we took Pumpkin to a local shop.  We had to go to Ozark anyway, so we dropped Pumpkin off and went to town.  When we came back, it was done.  The fella said I had actually done a good job.  He went ahead and vacuum bled the rears and bled the fronts anyway, but did not see a lot of air.  I had to pay him $30 for the compliment, but I'm satisfied there is no air in the lines.

Then on the way home, just as I started down the hill on Cox Road, I let off the gas and was touching the brakes a bit when all of a sudden they quit slowing me down.  They still felt firm, but just weren't slowing Pumpkin down.  So, what the heck???  Then I realized the engine had died - the fire had gone out.  Why?  I do not know.  It started right back up and didn't so much as hiccup again.  So now I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Oh yes, the transmission temperature gauge seems to work okay, although I'm still not sure of it's accuracy.  It only got as high as about 125-130 degrees.  I may have to wait until I'm pulling Coors up and down a few hills in hot weather to give it a good test.

Okay, now I'm getting pissed.  I received the replacement emergency flasher I ordered (the 2nd time) and IT DOES NOT WORK!  I'm too ticked off to investigate further right now.  Maybe tomorrow.

Temper Temper

I put the transmission temperature gauge in today.  I hated cutting the transmission cooler return line since the transmission was just resealed, but cut it, I did.  Didn't lose much fluid and managed to catch most of it.  It was a messy job, though, as fluid kept trickling out and running down my arms to my elbows.  Pretty difficult to use a wrench that is sloppy wet with transmission fluid.  But, I got that part done relatively easily.  All it amounted to was cutting the steel line and putting in a tee with compression fittings.  The temperature sensor screwed into the tee.

Next I had to run the wires.  This involved removing the panel between the door and windshield, the driver's side kick panel and the driver's side step (formed vinyl insert).  Running the wire from the sensor wasn't difficult.  I had to run it along the top of the cross-member which I did not particularly care for, but I couldn't run it up and over the transmission because it would have been too close the the exhaust.  There is several wire bundles running through the step well already so it was easy to just follow them.  In fact, I had ran another wire for the tow bar brake indicator through that same area some time ago.

I was able to snake the sensor wire, a ground wire and the "hot" wire up out of sight at the end of the dash.  I spray painted the back side of the meter (wires and all) with flat black paint then glued the gauge with rubber cement to the top of the dash over near the door post.  The paint was so it didn't looked too yucky from the outside, through the windshield.  I'm not sure how well the glue will hold, though.  Time will tell.

After all that work, and I'm not sure the gauge is working right - I can't tell without taking Pumpkin for a spin and heating up the transmission.  The gage's lowest reading is 100 degrees and just idling didn't seem to bring the temperature up enough to start registering.  So, I don't know if it is working right yet.  I've got to do some more brake bleeding, but when that's done I'll take pumpkin for a shakedown run.

Shot Myself In The Foot

Pumpkin's hazard flasher was too weak.  With Coors in tow, the rear lights were hardly visible.  They flashed so fast the bulbs did not have time to light up.  So, I went shopping for an electronic heavy duty flasher.  Local parts stores did not carry any (that I found) that could handle more than 6 bulbs.  With Coors in tow, I needed at least 8 bulb capacity.  I found what I wanted on-line and ordered it.

First, after several days, I had not received notice of shipment.  So, I emailed them and was told they were on back order.  I waited several more days and finally received notice it were on it's way.

Second, it had a USPS tracking number.  But, after a couple of days, when I checked the shipment progress, it showed it being repeatedly processed through the same facility in Pennsylvania.  Over and over each day it was the same...Processed through blah, blah, blah.  I contacted the postal service and they put a query on it.  I got a call from our local postmistress letting me know they were looking for it.

Eventually, it came, nearly 5 weeks after I ordered it.

Yesterday I stuck it in Pumpkin and immediately blew a fuse.  After all that crap, I had ordered the wrong part.  Now not only do I need a new flasher, but I need a new fuse.

I did a little better research this time (I hope) and ordered another part.  But, I ordered it from a different seller because it was several dollars cheaper (and maybe I was a little embarrassed after giving the first seller a hard time).  Now if it just doesn't go on back order and doesn't get lost in the mail...