December 8, 2008

• Day Five…

  Mechanics, Motors, Micro-Brews,
  and (Finally) Making Headway!
  
  *Or, How I Came to Love A Grandpa Who was Not My Own*

  I‘ve been blessed with an incredible set of Grandfather’s…
  On my Mom’s side, “Pappa” was a fighter pilot in WWII, a flight
  instructor, a chef, an aircraft salesman, and a serial entrepreneur.

  His soups made it to the moon on Apollo 15-16, his restaurant has
  been awarded the Golden Spoon award for decades… Oh, and he
  holds at least one Guinness World Record that I know of… Not Bad!

  As for my Dad’s side, “Pop-Pop” is a hero, a soldier, family man…
  And the greatest fisherman my Dad’s ever known (and THAT is saying
  something, ’cause I’ll tell you what… My Dad can catch some serious fish!)

  It shouldn’t be taken lightly then, the whole “loving another grandfather”
  thing. But you see… I’ve gotten ahead of myself a bit.

  __________________________________________________________

  Monday morning I woke up with a start.
  It was late! I hurriedly got ready for the day, scarfed down some DIVINE
  Apple Cake, and rushed to borrow my friend’s home phone (haven’t
  I mentioned that they’re seriously stuck in a hollow? No high speed
  internet, no cell service, NOTHING! haha).

  I knew who I needed to call… They’d been closed all weekend and
  nearly all of the dead ends I’d phoned before had recommended I call
  them… Needless to say, I was excited when they answered the phone
  on the first ring.

  My hopes were dashed though “We don’t work on old Bugs any more”.
  
  Blast!

  They gave me a name and number though… For THE guy they recommended
  “If any one can fix it, he can… Heck, he can listen to your motor and tell you
  exactly what’s wrong with it”.

  Suddenly, I felt better

  After a quick conversation, and one more desperate attempt to fix the car
  myself, I set out… Clattering, banging, popping, and smelling like poor Bugsie
  was about to catch on fire… Insane!

  We made it though… And as I pulled into the shop “Grandpa” looked at me
  like I was CRAZY. “This thing’s about to blow!”

  After I told him what had happened, his concerns for my sanity were confirmed
  “You SANK your Bug??” he asked. “Yup” I replied… “Oh”.

  After that, he was stuck with this look on his face for much of the day:

  

  Oh, did I mention that my new hero was wearing a “This is What the World’s
  Greatest Grandpa Looks Like” sweatshirt? He was workin’ it too! haha.

  It took us several hours, tinkering about, before he finally decided to take
  a lunch break, and I walked over to a local brewery (great beer and food!)
  I was STOKED to discover that they had WiFi also, as it’d been 5 days since
  my last “proper” internet connection and I was downright jonesin’!

  In fact, that’s where I finally posted Day One of this adventure… I was a little
  behind, lol.. Hadn’t expected to be THAT out of touch!

  As time passed, I caught up on my hundreds of emails, 200+ Facebook
  notifications, and a few checkups with my team leaders (it still amazes
  me how much they can get done even when I’m literally “off the grid”).

  Then my battery died.
  SO, I made my way back over to the shop.. Just in time to hear my baby
  start… Stutter, cough, then run better then she had in days!

  Things still weren’t right of course, so after a few more hours of tinkering,
  we started tearing parts off his little roadster project “sacrificed” in the name
  of Bugsie’s needs.

  “Sacrificial Lamb”

  

  
  “Tools For Transplants”

  

  
  “Trained Hands”

  

  Speaking of hands; one of the very first thing “Grampa” taught me that day
  was all about gout, and how it’d been rotting away his finger… DISGUSTING!!!

  But let me jump ahead a bit… Because after we transplanted a carburetor
  (apparently, even though I’d spent the day before, rebuilding mine, there was
  still something wrong in it), the distributor, the spark plugs, and more…

  Tested the compression, torqued the heads, changed the oil, reset the timing,
  and God knows what else, we finally set to fire her up again… Only to realize
  that her fuel tank was DEAD dry!

  So, after draining a bit of fuel from one of his SWEET sand rails:

  

  She RAN!!!!!
  And boy did she ever… After over 200 miles of the most painful driving I’ve
  ever experienced in a car… Sputtering, complaining, backfiring, and overall;
  HATING me… She was like an all new creature!!

  Ahhhh it was love

  Oh, and Gramps was nice to me on the cost too… Even though he had to
  put off all his other projects for the day, and focused solely on my little girl…
  Tore all sorts of parts off HIS car, and more… What a tremendous blessing!!
  (I love my Bug, I love my life!).

  God is good.
  

  And so, as the sun was setting, I set out.
  The plan for the evening? Head North… And boy did I ever!

  

  On the drive up, I passed the light house Ethan and I slept “in” on our ride down
  from Alaska, and many other landmarks that I’d have loved to have spent some
  time around… But now, I was THREE days behind and I had to make serious time
  to even get close to Seattle before Thanksgiving.

  Of course, that didn’t stop me from taking a half hour at the Golden Gate Bridge.
  I think it paid off, don’t you??

  
  Landmark…

  

  
  Landscape…

  

  You simply MUST see this larger… I’m certain you’ll agree:
  Click Here!!

  From there, I’d planned to find a place to sleep, somewhere North of Marin
  County… But I just kept going… And going… And going. about 4 hours later,
  I finally made camp the FIRST TIME… But my, this story is getting long, you’ll
  have to wait ’till the next episode before I tell you of deer, cops, more deer,
  more cops, MORE cops… Oh, and more…

  SUCH an eventful day is to come…

  

  P.S. Tell me, which was your favorite photo in this set?
  The ones from Day Six are going to absolutely blow your hair back!!

  • 4:37 am
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