call brother to tell him it's a go, call Cindy to warn her of documentation confetti storm yet to come to mail slot, hit the road bound for Chicago, curse the constant rain but enjoy the natural beauty of the Delaware Water Gap:
. . . then at 72mph in the rain:
. . . . after just cresting a hill on I-80 with lots of truck rooster tails and blinding spray, the bus just drops dead no power, idiot lights galore when I push in the clutch and it is 70mph-Time-To-Figure-Out-Where-I'm-Going-To-Land-This-Thing. If you look at the top of the picture, you can see a truck going in the opposite direction of where I came from. I had to coast down the exit ramp, blow the stop sign and cross the busy four lane state highway AND pick this abandoned gas station at speed with the lower driveway concrete blocks blocking the entrance (you can see the upper driveway blocks through the weeds) but for this skinny little slot that I had to coast through fast enough to be able to coast up to the leaky gas island cabana, where I sat and surveyed:
a) my good fortune for getting here instead of on the shoulder of the interstate
b) the wet wet pavement and the 48* chilly wind
c) the symptoms
d) the water coursing down the supports and trickling down under the bus
It, of course, was not the bad five year-old gas from the Lincoln. I am in Pennsylvania here! The bad gas got me to New Jersey just fine! Was it the damn heater blower fuse again? No. I am afraid I must go under the bus, but I don' waNNA GO UNDER TH. . shut up, yer goin under the bus or I will throw you under the bus. So I crawl under the bus from directly behind the engine so I can enjoy the soothing warmth of the heat exchangers and muffler on my tummy while I search the AHA! damn fuel pump quick-disconnect! After a quick re-connect of the quick disconnect, and a strip-tease change into dry clothes for the bored bird under the cabana, I am on my way . . .
. . . to Ohio, where the skies finally finally finally break:
. . . . thirteen hours of 72mph motoring, and the engine is as happy as can be in that cold air, and so am I, the heater is no longer killing me.
That was yesterday. Today, I drove from Ohio to upper west side of Chicago where I will be visiting locoqueso in the morning. First time ever, I drove the toll roads to make up for lost time from yesterday's delay. Never again! I am twenty dollars poorer, and the tolls sure haven't helped to PAVE the Indiana Turnpike, what a jarring rocky cow path.
Such a loyal bus, poor thing. Turned in 19-22 mpg with all of this crazy high speed driving.
ColinInChicago
