CANYCA: California to New York (and back) pg. 5
Aaah Cleveland. What can I say? A strange and fascinating mixture of concrete and marble and asphalt and smog and deco
architecture and noise and a quaint prettiness amidst the general big city squalor. Intriguing.
We went through downtown Cleveland, and finally found a nice open parking lot (it was Sunday) where Tim went to get coffe for us and I set about trying to find out why the bus was idling like a dying Polynesian water buffalo. As it turned out (and there IS a pun here), the idle mixture screw had the crud on it just as you see in the above picture, the idle circuit cutoff solenoid had backed out as far as its wire would allow, and there was a glop of some foreign matter in the passage between the mixture and volume screws. Not only that, but the bandaging I had spent so much time on with the tailpipe was not holding, so the backfiring could be attributed to that. I spent about a half-hour messing with the carbs and finally got it to sound happy again, and then we went on a little tour of Cleveland's lakeside neighborhoods and saw a really neat mosaic, got to park by Lake Erie and go down to the breakwater beach, and then we escaped Cleveland, and saw only the briefest hints of Toledo, as it was very rainy and dark, and time to bed down for the night.
I met some wildlife as I was walking out onto the breakwater. I don't think it was as happy to see me as I it! You might think that balancing on a foot-wide concrete ledge is easy, but try it over cold-looking, potentially toxic Great Lake water with a digital camera in hand! The beach consisted of chunks of concrete, old bricks, garbage, and an endless supply of shattered shells from freshwater clams or some other crunchy critter. Sorta neat!
Ok, I am about to digress. Since I am to be unable to write/upload a great deal in the next few days, I decided to put up the pictures of the Tamarack Lakes outing. Here's a link to the Tamarack Lakes Gallery page and the Video Clip
Last updated 10-Oct-06, 2:15 am.
Thanks for reading; I'll be writing again in a few days....
OK, I'm back. While I was gone, I managed to write about 3 paragraphs, so here they are:
After leaving the Lake Erie shore at 6:24, we headed west into an increasingly dark and stormy night. The rain obscured pretty much everything on our way to Toledo, so there aren't really any pictures worth showing. Just about two hours of freeway driving, and a stop for the night on the outskirts of Toledo, where Tim procured a room for us (although I still slept in the bus), and the night was spent uneventfully.
At this point, we had only traveled 586 miles from our starting point in New York, which was just a little over half of our intended daily mileage, but since this was that "rare occasion" one speaks of reverently, we had little choice but to take our time and make sure we didn't miss anything cool on the way. The fuel stop and ensuing calculations told me that the problem with the idle circuit I had the day previous affected my fuel mileage in a bad way, but in general, the bus was getting between 18 and 21 mpg, which I thought was pretty darn cool.
An uneventful and uninteresting drive got us to the environs of Chicago,
where I noticed that one of the tires on the trailer was quite flat, so we
parked somewhere in a big multi-store lot and called for aid from a
roaming tire fixer guy. That taken care of, we meandered about
semi-aimlessly in the streets of Chicago, hoping to see some cool stuff,
but trying to avoid losing ourselves in the strange blend of tenements,
fancy-house neighborhoods, Chinatown, antique industrial areas, and other
bizarre city sights. We stopped at a place that sold a GIANT slice of
pizza and a drink for $3.50, and thus sated (albeit not too healthily) we
made our way out of the city, but only after being accosted by a friendly
urban neighborhood heroin dealer. Strange place, Chicago.
Then, of course, the experience becomes adventure.....
We went through downtown Cleveland, and finally found a nice open parking lot (it was Sunday) where Tim went to get coffe for us and I set about trying to find out why the bus was idling like a dying Polynesian water buffalo. As it turned out (and there IS a pun here), the idle mixture screw had the crud on it just as you see in the above picture, the idle circuit cutoff solenoid had backed out as far as its wire would allow, and there was a glop of some foreign matter in the passage between the mixture and volume screws. Not only that, but the bandaging I had spent so much time on with the tailpipe was not holding, so the backfiring could be attributed to that. I spent about a half-hour messing with the carbs and finally got it to sound happy again, and then we went on a little tour of Cleveland's lakeside neighborhoods and saw a really neat mosaic, got to park by Lake Erie and go down to the breakwater beach, and then we escaped Cleveland, and saw only the briefest hints of Toledo, as it was very rainy and dark, and time to bed down for the night.
I met some wildlife as I was walking out onto the breakwater. I don't think it was as happy to see me as I it! You might think that balancing on a foot-wide concrete ledge is easy, but try it over cold-looking, potentially toxic Great Lake water with a digital camera in hand! The beach consisted of chunks of concrete, old bricks, garbage, and an endless supply of shattered shells from freshwater clams or some other crunchy critter. Sorta neat!
Ok, I am about to digress. Since I am to be unable to write/upload a great deal in the next few days, I decided to put up the pictures of the Tamarack Lakes outing. Here's a link to the Tamarack Lakes Gallery page and the Video Clip
Last updated 10-Oct-06, 2:15 am.
Thanks for reading; I'll be writing again in a few days....
OK, I'm back. While I was gone, I managed to write about 3 paragraphs, so here they are:
After leaving the Lake Erie shore at 6:24, we headed west into an increasingly dark and stormy night. The rain obscured pretty much everything on our way to Toledo, so there aren't really any pictures worth showing. Just about two hours of freeway driving, and a stop for the night on the outskirts of Toledo, where Tim procured a room for us (although I still slept in the bus), and the night was spent uneventfully.
At this point, we had only traveled 586 miles from our starting point in New York, which was just a little over half of our intended daily mileage, but since this was that "rare occasion" one speaks of reverently, we had little choice but to take our time and make sure we didn't miss anything cool on the way. The fuel stop and ensuing calculations told me that the problem with the idle circuit I had the day previous affected my fuel mileage in a bad way, but in general, the bus was getting between 18 and 21 mpg, which I thought was pretty darn cool.
An uneventful and uninteresting drive got us to the environs of Chicago,
where I noticed that one of the tires on the trailer was quite flat, so we
parked somewhere in a big multi-store lot and called for aid from a
roaming tire fixer guy. That taken care of, we meandered about
semi-aimlessly in the streets of Chicago, hoping to see some cool stuff,
but trying to avoid losing ourselves in the strange blend of tenements,
fancy-house neighborhoods, Chinatown, antique industrial areas, and other
bizarre city sights. We stopped at a place that sold a GIANT slice of
pizza and a drink for $3.50, and thus sated (albeit not too healthily) we
made our way out of the city, but only after being accosted by a friendly
urban neighborhood heroin dealer. Strange place, Chicago.
Then, of course, the experience becomes adventure.....
(CANYCA page 6)
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