Penelope Rides Again!
Sorry for sloppy writing. This post is informative only. It is now 11:07, and I’m ready to go. Leaving Victoria St. Auto Tune after a little over a week and a half. Engine runs better, carb not leaking, no backfires, quiet, strong (relatively speaking). Still got hot (200 degrees) up hard hill on test run. Swapped radiator hoses from water pump. Back to sucking from the top, return to the bottom. It runs cooler. Two further test runs confirms this. Theory: Water pump shot, thermosiphoning only action causing flow through radiator. This is something I just came up with. I welcome other explanations. Oil leaks much better. Deformation of valve cover still an issue. Not much leak though. Certainly no puddles (except for tranny).
I intend to make it to Smithers tonight. I may fall short, as it is about 5 hours by normal car. Michele will want to hear from me in AM, I’m sure, so I gotta at least be somewhere I can contact her from to indicate state of being and whereabouts.
What else? Not sure. I’m sure I’ll be stopping several times to check things over, including timing, oil level, water level, tire condition, etc.
I will miss this place, which was beginning to feel like home. Just being here I was developing friends and a lifestyle, and although I could have fit in and made a good life of it, I’m also glad to be leaving, and especially to rejoin Michele.
There may not be any more posts for a while. Hang in there….we’ll let you know how things progress as soon as we get to an Internet place…
Thanks for all the support and enthusiasm!
Gene
Progress
Yesterday I was stiff, today I was/will be sore. Wrenched some more for Dave…removed a leaky power steering box from a Suzuki 4×4, and removed a head from a Ford pickup with a crazy-complicated V-6 with bent valves. Then Chris came by and asked if I wanted to go check out the Ancient Forest (cedars and hemlock), and Dave said they’d be all right as a couple cancellations had occured, and that I should go check this out. It was cool, and it was nice to spend time looking at big trees and getting to know Chris.
When we got back, there was a package for me:
‘ Nuff said….
Gene
p.s. There are emails I have scanned but not responded to, but I’m too tired now and it’s going to be a long day tomorrow. Expect some response but brief…..lots to do! And thanks!
Working Stiff
I slept late on purpose, getting up around 7:30. Art had the shop open, and was bangin’ away at stuff, and it was time to get cracking and accomplish something. I knew in my heart that the package I was waiting for would not show up today, and a check of the tracking number and a call to UPS confirmed this.
It’s raining right now – it’s been doing that all day on and off. It sounds kinda serious at this point though. Good thing the bus only leaks in a couple spots: One of the ceiling vents, and one side window that has a bit of a seep. I took the Meeze out for a little walk, and she ate some grass. She was on the kitty leash, a simple affair consisting of a red cord and a jam latch. She didn’t seem to mind it though, and it apparently worked well, as she tried to bolt when a noisy truck rumbled by. Apparently Meezers don’t like rain, either, so she was glad to get back inside.
I was incredibly stiff from yesterday’s hike, but I don’t think I hurt anything. At least not in a serious way. Then I got shanghaied by Dave, just as I was getting into the marking and cutting of my plastic windshield shields. The shop was swamped by customer’s cars, and Dave needed some more hands, so he complimented me by asking if I’d like to work off my bill. Of course I said I would … what self-respecting man would not? And so there I was, working my first day as a mechanic. It was kind of fun.
I replaced an air-conditioning pump on a Dodge minivan, learned about serpentine belt tensioners, fought with horridly-placed bolts, installed a flywheel, went to install the clutch kit for this groovy ’63 Mercury pickup only to find that it was the wrong one (story of my life, eh?), and test-drove another truck, and then replaced its alternator. Not a helluva lot of stuff, but I did help a bit, and feel good about it.
While all this was going down, I had the video clips from yesterday’s shenanigans all edited and ready to process, and got that done. Here’s one clip from that series: http://vimeo.com/12384860 This is the snake from yesterday, and a shot of a morel, all bracketed by the two vista shots I got.
In the meantime, my parts are not moving. They are sitting in Richmond, B.C. This is annoying. To see a shipment NOT moving is cause for upset. I think I will boycott UPS. Not that they will notice or care. I’d boycott the as-yet unnamed company in California too, for being so uncooperative on the shipping thing, but boycotting your only source of parts is not really a good idea. He who has no boat should not bridges burn.
I made that up. Can you tell?
I think it’s time for an early bedtime-going. There’s more wrenching to be done on the morrow.
Gene
Longing to be back on the bus, but making the best of it
As I write this, I am sitting on my camp chair in a meadow listening to birdsong. The ducks are tethered nearby snapping at bugs and browsing in dandelions and clover. Although it was sad to leave Gene, Penelope and the cats behind, driving off in the Toyota sure lifted my spirits. At the time, I thought we would only be separated for a few days…
Traffic was light on Hwy 16 as I passed green rolling hills interspersed with forest and occasional patches of beetle-killed trees. Locals spoke of much milder winters which makes for happy beetles. The Lake District (Frazier Lake, Burns Lake) was scenic with enticing lakeside cabin rentals, but I was headed for the cheapest campground I could find on the internet, the Cantaline Motel and RV Park in South Hazelton. Five bucks a night with showers and laundry!
Near Telkwa t
he mountain views became majestic and even more grand near Smithers with an upscale alpine resort feel. I pressed on for the Hazeltons hoping for the best, and was relieved to find tall mountains still in view as I pulled into the lot of my chosen establishment, which proved to be darn near perfect for my current situation.
The proprietress is totally wonderful and reminds me of a West Sonoma County ex-hippie. It turns out she is an avid world traveler and who has been to India, Nepal, Turkey, China, Japan, Australia and more with good stories to share. Travel books and mementos are scattered around the cluttered office. This place is rustic and funky-cool with a book lending box, handwritten signs, a recycling area that includes ‘compost’, and a free line dry laundry option. I had a good feeling about it from the start, and it helps that the ducks are completely welcome. They have had visitors with horses, sh
eep and rabbits before but these are the first ducks. When giving change for the washer, Canadian money was kindly explained to me. Dollars are goldish coins called ‘Loonies’ since they use to have a loon on them but now can have other things. ‘Toonies’ are silver with a gold center, and are two Loonies. The rest seems the same, but Canadian bills are more interesting.
I parked my truck in the meadow near a picnic table with a view of the Roche Deboule mountains on one side and a birch grove on the other, thankful for finding this frugal traveler’s dream. The ensuing news about frustrating part acquisition delays would have been much more disturbing if I was still in the industrial alley trying to care for ducks without grass nearby.
Exploring a new area is always exhilaration, and the Hazeltons are full of promising distractions. There is an old town, a native museum, native art galleries, many totem poles, one of the highest suspension bridges, water falls, hiking trails, lakes and two huge rivers. Highlight so far include seeing three bald eagles eating a two foot long dead salmon on the Skeena river beach in the Anderson Flats Provincial Park, watching wild ducks on Seely lake, walking around a row of old totem poles on a windy day in Kispiox with no other people in sight, and hearing coyotes howl at Ross lake. The views are stunning, the vegetation lush, and the forests are diverse with birch, poplars, aspen, hemlock, fir, pine and cedar. Wildflowers are in full bloom now with abundant red columbine, wild roses, vetch, lupine and many others. I keep taking pictures of those beautiful mountain. There are no crowds and not much traffic, and people are friendly. It would be the perfect vacation if Gene was here, the giant mosquitoes were not, Penelope was fixed, and I had a kayak and a fishing pole.
Camping with the ducks has been, well, interesting…My plan was to sleep on the bench seat in my truck with the ducks on the floor, but ducks are stubborn and refused to stay put. Now Phoebe perches on the top of the seat, and Finnegan lays on top of me, shifting when I roll over. When I am in camp during the day they can be out in the grass on leashes, and there is even a small pond (water leak).
It is hard to get Wi-Fi and charge my computer without driving around inverting so this will probably be my last post until I am back on the bus. Hopefully sooner rather than later. – Michele
Another Weekend in Prince George
Not that a lot has been going on, but there seems to be plenty to do. Yesterday, before Ian came to drag me off to his house to hang out, have a shower, eat some food, and see his coach, I was plenty busy. I finally managed to repair and install the front driver’s side marker light, slathered Corroseal (to arrest rust) on the bits of bus that I had removed to get at the timing chain, as well as a few other spots on the body and in engine compartment. The fog lights (those are the two lights on the inside of the four headlights) which are supposed to be yellow, did not work, as their connectors had been snipped for some strange reason. I made them work, and topped up the oil in the differential. Today, I set out to get a bit more accomplished, but did very little. Certainly nothing on my list for today got done, but I should have time tomorrow. The oil-bath air cleaner needs cleaning, I will finish cutting the magnets from Scott and preparing the plastic sheeting for windshield rock repellent, wash the exterior, apply more Liquid Glass to the front (to help minimize damage from rocks hitting the paint), and clean and organize the interior to help prepare for leaving.
It is -possible- that the timing chain and sprockets will show up tomorrow afternoon, but I’ll not get my hopes too high. I’ll definitely put in some phone time with UPS, and see how far that goes. Today, I also poured three bottles of “Never Flush” into the radiator, hoping that it would start its cleaning job. I rigged a socket adapter for my drill and spun the fan/water pump with it to circulate the chemical since I cannot start the engine. There was a strange slimy brown gunk on the inside of the rad cap, and I hope this stuff goes away with this Never Flush stuff AND a good flush some miles down the road.
Dave, the mechanic/owner of the shop, came by midday to take me out to a road to the east of town where we (that would be Dave, buddy Chris, and three boisterous canines) set out on foot for an arduous slog up a mountain road to the peak, where several cell towers and other antennae were perched. It rained a bit on us for a while, but by the time we got to the top, we were dry again. There were mountains in the distance, and we could see for quite a ways, although the air was hazy, a by-product of the pulp mills.
Around the side of one of the tower emplacements, Dave came across a good-sized snake of great beauty, and I spent several minutes annoying it with my video camera. I got several strikes on the outer housing of the lens, and I’ll share those with you later. It was really a cool snake, and it made lugging that big camera up the mountain worth it.
On the way down, we stumbled upon a several nice morel mushrooms, and ended up with enough to take back to Dave’s house and saute’ them up, and mix them with mac and cheese. Yum.
Dave took us for a little -4×4 action on the way back, and we arrived back at the shop in time to see Art’s work of the day, his motorized bicycle “chopper” project go through the last stages of its final assembly, adjustment, and running. They finally got it going enough to be somewhat reliable, and I watched the guys riding it around with big silly grins on their faces. Pretty cool machine.
Then I spent a bit of time with Doug here in the coach, talking about this and that, and showing him the snake footage. He really liked the cats, who were curious, and appreciated a new person for once.
Tomorrow will be another day.
That’s an idiotic thing to write. Sorry. Of COURSE it will be another day, unless the sun goes out. Or whatever. But The shop will be open by the time I arise, and I’m sure I’ll get back into productive mode, chomping at the bit, I’m sure, because at this point, we can afford no more delays. We will have ten days to make it across the Alaska border with the cats and ducks, and given the way things have been going, we’ll have little time to stop and sniff the flowers, or explore the mountains. I’m sure we’ll get some of that in regardless, but it won’t be the lollygagging we had hoped for.
Michele is probably going to post something of her experiences out in the Hazelton area, and she has some neat stuff to relate, so I’ll let her do that. I’m sure she has many photos of beautiful and interesting places and things!
Time to hit the sack. Got to shove the Cow kitty out of the way first though….
Gene
SNAFU (again, and again, and another)
Unbelievable.
Simply unbelievable.
One thing I’ve learned is NOT to ask is “How can it get any worse?”
Not that it is as bad as it can be, or could have been. I’m again considering the fact that our bus could be stuck on a soft, narrow shoulder of some truck-infested highway, with only a 10-mile walk to get phone service, and the nearest garage is manned by one of those sweaty-shirted mechanics with a tendency to set prices for his marginal work based on customers’ needs, and parts are not anywhere closer than, say, some company in California that cannot seem to understand what it is to ship something FAST, as in FedEx. Apparently they are on the wrong foot with FedEx, whose office is but a few blocks from them, and they cannot schedule a pickup no matter how much I requested it.
You see, we are now awaiting the correct chain, as well as sprockets, but they are not scheduled to arrive here in Prince George until Wednesday. Late Wednesday, based on the time of delivery of the wrong chain yesterday, which was about 4:45. UPS needs to contract out to a separate company once the package gets into B.C., and apparently they are not in good relations, or that company doesn’t really care so much about some poor chap sitting in a bus, waiting.
Pretty soon, I might have to start whining, if I don’t wear myself out from sniveling first. I might run out of possible things to do to the bus, and this may well make me kind of crazy. There will come a time that I am unwilling to disassemble parts or systems, for fear of running into more complications, but I have yet a few things I can do. Perhaps I should fill the tanks….40 gallons each….with the 5-gallon jerry can, walking several blocks each way. Uphill both ways. In the snow. Barefoot.
I just got off the phone with Michele, and she is gritting her teeth, but hanging in there. We do feel like we are somehow cursed, albeit lightly. There must be a reason for the multiple screwups and delays that have plagued us since just before we left Happy Camp. Probably some jaded clerk behind a desk at the Bureau of Fate and Luck who arbitrarily determined that we were having too much fun, and we needed a few annoying setbacks to keep us humble and our perspectives balanced. I think that clerk may need a swift kick in the patookus. How’s THAT for perspective, eh?
I’m getting a lot done, but I’ll speak of that later. I’ll warn you first so you can go do something else while I prattle on about gaskets. In the meantime, I can tell you that Michele viewed a native village today, replete with totem poles. I think she is in the middle of a reservation or native land, and besides the enviable position of her physicality – in the mountains – she is apparently enjoying the culture and trails, as the ducks are enjoying grass and the pond they get to swim in. The kitties are having much less fun, as there is just not enough for them to do, and there is only so much they can stare at outside before succumbing to kitty boredom and sleeping all day. They do tend to roughhouse at night, so they are getting a bit of exercise and play, but I know they would rather hear the throaty rumble of our Buick straight-8 as we slither over the passes and into the remote northwestern British Columbia. The weather in Hazelton has been considerate of Michele’s situation, and she had a hot shower, which sounds like a good idea to me…it’s been a while, and I habitually find myself rolling around on the ground in oil-stained dirt, with both arms extended up into a greasy engine compartment.
There have been some good moments. Today’s highlight was the airborne nature of a certain Chevy S-10, but I’ll tell you about that later. Tomorrow I may attend a barbecue at Ian’s. This is the bus-nut I mentioned in an earlier post, and since I’m long on time, I may as well take some time off. On Sunday, Dave has invited me to join him on a hike in the wildlands behind his house, and I cannot think of a single reason to say no to that, especially since my exercise has been limited to wrenching and trudging to and from the shop. I saw some exquisite sledding (snowmobile) videos. I worked on the bus, petted some kitties, and ate a sandwich. Is this getting exciting or what?
As far as work goes, I did, with Michele’s approval, make sure to order new sprockets for the timing set, as the chain and gears usually wear as a unit, and nothing would be more heartbreaking after all this than to find that the gears were contributing as much to the slackness as the chain wear itself. I cleaned, and provided a new gasket for the compressor sump, as well as the air intake for the compressor itself. This may help the situation wherein the compressor is mixing a little too much oil in with the air (and water) that it likes to shove into the tanks, as the filter had not been cleaned in, say, 30+ years, and the resistance to vacuum through the filter on the intake stroke would find its balance by sucking oil up past already worn rings. I fixed the lid on my toolbox – the one that holds my wrenches – and remounted the support bracket for the compressor plate. All this needed to happen anyway, and it certainly took many hours off the final re-assembly. I attempted to siphon (with a bulb tube, not by mouth) the last 10 gallons of nasty old fuel from the tank, but the hose is not cooperating, or the fuel level is too low. The drain plug on the tank is a square plug, and attempts to remove it resulted only in it becoming less square, so I gave up on that for now. I may just go ahead and fill it with fresh fuel, as the dilution level will be so high as to render the effects of the bad stuff negligible. I will, of course, add a solvent, like Berryman’s B-12, so that any remaining varnish does not clog the carb jets, and that should be that. I am hoping to minimize the purchases of fuel in little towns once we hit the Cassiar Highway.
I just alienated our skittish Himalayan “Persephone” by dropping medicine into her eyes. She has a condition requiring medication, and apparently these drops really hurt. She may never talk to me again.
The light lingers long here in this northern latitude, and I just took a stroll to get a couple real-life photos. I am taking requests, by the way. Anything you’d like to see? I can show you a bit of nasty welding on rusty metal, or perhaps you would prefer a shot of the now-silent yard in back of the doggie day-care place, which keeps us all perpetually annoyed with incessant barking during the day. Or maybe you’d like a view of a scrap heap? How about I capture the video we shot so far and post that for your enjoyment? Hey…now THAT sounds like a good idea. I’ll get right on it. It won’t be the tightest editing; I’ll do that later for a whole-trip video, but for now I’ll just give you what we’ve got so far.
Here are a smattering of shots depicting my current life, and the stillness of Penelope. Perhaps we should not have named the bus after a mythical character who stayed put….
Perhaps I should change the marquee away from that damnable “Here One More Day” which doesn’t seem to do much credit to the power of positive thinking. Perhaps my patience is wearing thin. I’ll get to that video now. It will keep me preoccupied for a bit.
Gene
It’s in Hello
Frustration after frustration. That’s the MO here, and so far it’s not letting up. We’re at the point now where we can either wait until after this next weekend to get the correct chain (yep, the wrong one is what was in the box), or sprockets that match this new chain, and also somehow match the cam and crank … OR we modify the existing sprockets to fit the new chain by cutting the outer 1/3 off each sprocket edge … OR we add tensioners to the old chain. Problem is that some of these things we are considering are one-off-only endeavors, and if we guess wrong, we’ll be as bad or worse off than before.
Michele is doing fine. I talked to her around 10:30, and we are in touch every few hours. She is in a beautiful place, Hazelton, near the beginning of the famed Cassiar-Stewart Highway, waiting for me, or the decision to continue on to Alaska without me. I am fine with her decision, as I certainly have had many adventures off on my own, with her stuck at home, and she really needed the change of scenery. It is nice to hear a bit mre pep in her voice when we speak on the phone, and I can concentrate on getting this beast rolling. And feeding the cats, of course.
I just got back from Terry’s, where a metal lathe stood ready to make the cut into the gears, but when I mic’d it out, and saw the amount of material we’d have to remove, I got the heebie-jeebies. Terry is a big-time, all-out snowmobile builder and modifier, and he has material that is designed to work as low-wear chain tensioner. We are thinking that if we take up equal amounts of slack on both sides of the worn chain, the timing would be fairly close to original, and would remain constant, or close. The cam timing may be a little off, but the distributor timing is adjustable, so it will likely be near enough that I would be able to tune the engine to some semblance of proper functionality. The fun part, should we go this route, is determining exactly how to apply this tension, and some clever thinking and diligent fabrication will be required to ensure that it not only works, but is resilient enough to withstand the rigors of operation.
I’m going to put in a call to the supplier in California first thing tomorrow. If it is possible to get the proper chain or sprockets here on Saturday, then that is probably the best way to go. Otherwise, it is a major fabrication day, but at least there are enough brains here, and plenty of cleverness, not to mention tools and materials, to make this idea work. There is no way to test it but to drive it. This requires hours of re-assembly.
At least I got a lot of the mess cleaned up today, and fresh oil in the crankcase, as well as fixing the blown-up muffler. There was a time when I thought the chain would not arrive today, and because I figured I had lots of time, I would repair the poor thing. Quite a bit of cutting and welding ensued, but I think I have something now that will hold up, and hopefully it won’t have to endure any more backfiring!
But now it is time for bed – well past, actually, so I bid you good night!
Gene
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
For the past few days I have been contemplating a change of scenery…Not that this industrial alley isn’t wonderful, but I am intrigued by the scenic road ahead. The timing belt is available but is being shipped from California, so will not arrive until tomorrow which will put Penelope back on the road on Friday. Gene has been busy doing all sorts of other maintenance things which he will surely expound upon in great detail with full color pictures soon, but I am getting listless. I have thoroughly explored this city and am ready for a change. Today I will head out with the ducks in the truck for Hwy 16. I found some cheap motels on the internet, but if the weather is good I can try camping. This will give me time to explore the little towns along the way and enjoy some beautiful scenery before meeting back up with Gene near the start of the Cassiar Highway. I will take a lot of pictures! – Michele
A Bit of Good News with the Bad
The bearings check out OK….nothing alarming came up, so I put the pan back on. This was the good news. The bad is that our hopes for an easy replacement timing belt were dashed, and because America was in holiday today, I could not contact the one and only possible source for a new one to see if they had it in stock. Several people in the know were talked to, but it all seemed to boil down to Egge in California. They specialize in obsolete parts. First thing tomorrow ….
Michele swam the ducks today down by the river, and enlarged her blister from walking a lot. She has been exploring the many and various riverside parks nearby. This town does value its greenery, and it is nice to see such care. Here are a couple of her photos:
A nice gentleman came by and introduced himself as a bus nut. He recently got back from a bus shindig down near Cache Creek, which we narrowly missed. His name is Ian, and he was interested enough in Penelope to crawl under and lay on the ground for a bit (perhaps he was resting). He offered us a place to shower, and relax, which was really nice. He and Judie have been in our situation. We may well take him up on the invitation…depends on how things go. Another, much older guy came by and said he had had one of these things for 20 years and three months. Also, I met Dennis, the driver of the hopped-up Cub Cadet. He walks with a limp, and is sporting some scars and bruises from his recent crash. He sure knows his stuff. Seems like he’s spent a lot of his life building all sorts of crazy vehicles in which to add stories to his list of near escapes and crashes!
I worked all day, in between trips out to look for a timing chain. I think this will be another one of those brief, boring posts, and I apologize. We’ll go see a bear or something. Mountains, lakes, trees, and winding road. Later of course. But for now, it’s just making Penelope go, and go well.
I guess that’s about it. I rack my brain, trying to find something worth writing about today, or perhaps something that happened earlier, but all I get is a flash of last night’s weird dreams, and the urge to sleep becomes stronger.
So, as is customary, I will leave you with a couple photos that have nothing to do with what is now going on. Here’s what I look like getting personal with a carburetor, and a bridge over muddy waters.
Gene
