Home Safe from my road trip
Made it!
This past week was about getting home and being home. Mike Huck and I left Eric's place on Tuesday morning, after a wonderful breakfast. We got out of there just before Eric took Sahale to school. Turns out my cousin is very particular about what time they leave the house. Not a minute earlier, not a minute later, and I didn't want Mike and me to be the excuse they were late! 😄
The drive home was lovely. It was good to get some quality time with Mike and catch up and Bond on the trip. Tuesday, we drove in the rain and made it to Brookings. On Wednesday, the weather was beautiful as we drove up the Oregon coast from Brookings to Seaside, where Mike has a home. Thursday was the final push, in torrential rain, to finish the trip home. You can read more and see pics here.
Dan Weatbrook
After dropping Mike off at his place, I unloaded the Van and then headed to Bob's house to watch an epic Seahawks v. Rams game! That game was something else!
What a Game!
Friday was all about getting settled back in here at home. I went through all of the mail that had accumulated while I was gone, paid the bills, and did a deep clean of the van. In the afternoon, I ran the backstay adjuster for Corvo over to West Seattle for maintenance. Turns out the only guy who maintains these devices is someone I worked with back in the early 1990's at Seafirst Bank. It was good to catch up with him.
About two miles from home, I was driving north on Aurora Ave, and my car just stopped with no power at all, not even any for the hazards. Fortunately, a nice woman stopped behind me and turned on her flashers and just waited for me. So I called AAA, and while I was waiting for them to pick up, I used the website to place a service call. Once the service call was in, I tried to start the car, and it started right up! I cancelled the service call, and the car ran all the way home (and the lovely lady followed me, to make sure I was OK). I did some troubleshooting and found that the positive cable was loose at the battery terminal, so I tightened it. It's going to take a couple of trips before I feel really good about it, but that would explain everything ;)
Friday also saw us move the cat Mango, that Julie is fostering, over to Chris and Emi's, as Julie is headed back to Berlin for the holidays. Friday night, we took Julie to dinner at Razi's before she finished packing for her trip home.
On Saturday, we picked Julie up and headed over to Bob and Kristie's for brunch and to catch some College football before Catherine dropped me off at home and ran Julie to the airport.
So last year, Kyle and I did a suspension upgrade on the van
Dan Weatbrook
Ever since then, the van has had a "list" to the driver's side, which I have just not been able to figure out. Was it that the van was heavier on the driver's side? That didn't make sense, since the "list" wasn't there with the stock springs, and these springs are stronger. Eric's friend Mike figured it out while we were at the race track. Turns out the passenger-side leaf spring connection to the frame was installed upside down. So the chassis was sitting on top of that connection rather than hanging from it. This caused the back passenger side corner of the van to be four inches higher than it was supposed to be!
After I got home from Bob and Kristie's, I decided it was time to see if I could flip it over. This project was either gonna be super easy or super hard. It's a good thing that Stefan just called me for Tom and Helen's address, so I could invite him over to help me, since it wasn't going to happen with just me working on it. It took about an hour, but we were successful, and now the van is sitting on its lines, so to speak, just fine. Boy, that feels good!
I hope that everyone has a happy and safe Christmas!
Love ya all!
Dan W
