Thursday, January 23, 2020

More Fun On The Road

$5 Part Installed
Monday was the warmest day of the week in Bernice, Louisiana so I needed to tackle the windshield wiper repair. Our next travel day is nearly 400 miles and there is a 100% chance of rain. Yep, time to get it done. 

I borrowed a ladder from Pastor Brandon, gathered a ratchet, socket, screwdriver and small pair of Channellock plyers and waded in.

I said it was the warmest day of the week, but it was only 50, very windy and the bus was in the shade. That grew a ten minute job by a few minutes, but we got it. I also changed the wiper blade.


Broken part and a new part.


I will replace the unbroken bracket on the passenger side when it is warmer.

More Fun
Sunday afternoon the drive to Bernice Louisiana was smooth and uneventful for us, but not so smooth and uneventful for a guy we were following. Between Farmersville and Bernice, this nice older GMC pickup pulled out on the road and we followed him for a few miles.


The truck was bouncing from white line to yellow line like a pinball so I backed off and let him have room to bounce.

Later, I was so glad I gave him some room. He was bebopping along and all of a sudden his hood flew up. The dashcam caught the moment it happened.


Here it is zoomed in.


He quickly pulled over and there happened to be a wide spot in front of him where I could pull over too.



Can you see that the hood is not only flung open, but it is hanging completely wopperjawed? It is hanging by the hinge on the passenger side. The driver's side hinge is up in the air.


I do not know if the hood latch in front was undone and as the hood came up, the bolts on the main hinge on the driver's side were sheered loose or if the main hinge came loose first, but it was a mess.

Fortunately, the driver was able to see how to pull over and somehow the windshield avoided getting broken. The hood itself was bent a little, but was in remarkably good shape. The big hinge was bent so I bent it back toward normal and we were able to set the hood back in place without scratching either of the fenders or the hood.

It would not go down enough in the front to latch so we tied the latch to the bumper with a rope. He was good to go, so he went.



I do not love huge rims and ultra thin tires, but the truck was beautiful. Turns out it was a 1977 GMC Cheyenne 10


Like I said Tuesday, it is never boring out here on the road.😇

Hey, thanks for reading!

Davy