so instead of going to bed, I decided to let my parents know what went
on this weekend. that made for the start of this timeline.
considering that I'm only one person, only in one place at one time,
and necessarily self-centric I *know* I'm missing a *lot*, and probably
putting some things in the wrong order. I want this to be a decent
report and I want it to go up relatively soon, so I'd like and
corrections and omissions. what funny or terrible details do you have
that belong in the report? I think since there weren't too many people
there, this should be not overly much traffic for the list.
summation of events:
wednesday
some people arrive, some things happen?
thursday
more people arrive, like Neil. some people arrive late, like me.
mopar tow hooks go on the front of barry's truck. notable since we
have to make them work with a brush guard that they aren't supposed to
talk to (the tow hooks' bracketry replaced the drop brackets the guard
previously sat on). amusement ensued when after 8 hours of work,
Barry's hood didn't close =)
tow hooks go on Tom's truck, Christine (intended to be 2 each front
and back; only 1 front completed due to PITA factor of drilling through
2 3/16" thicknesses. both rear on)
tow hooks go on the front of my '98 (poking through were fog lights
aren't, mounted directly on the frame, engaging both sides of the boxed
in frame with rethreaded and trimmed 8" grade 8 bolts - thanks, Neil!!).
night run to test Christine's KCs; at 03:30 she goes in the drink. 3
of 4 light bar mounted KCs are above the water line.
extraction; christine out by 05:30 thanks to jon's ram's winch, adam's
jeep/anchor, barry's truck's pulling and my personal swimming
friday
full fluid changes in christine (drain 2 pans' worth of water, replace
with oil; etc.), it eventually starts but dies quickly due to water in
the gas tank.
first trail runs, I take much time getting onto the bypass for mud
lane -- it's really gnarly at this point. all the trails are very wet
from rain.
adam and I go down to the lower waterfall, adam attempts and fails to
climb.
I make the very first full run of the mud pit. unassisted, I complete
the pass. first truck with a cap to go through =) adam wasn't first
through this year, even with me egging him on!
after some other mud pit shenanigans, Ed (and Jason and Norah) have
the misfortune of having Bobby, the Bleazard's dog, run out of the barn
and right under his tires. mood *very* somber for the rest of the
afternoon.
saturday
SCORE shows up - 2 Willys, 2 jacked up TJs, a couple CJs and a bone
stock XJ (right?)
fun in the mud pit. a CJ spins an axle.
fun in mud lane.
slippery hill a real mess. over half who climbed it were winched up.
Both Dave and I were *very* close to the edge.
adam crests the waterfall, 1 jeep breaks a front brake line
attempting, the 3-wheel-drive jeep fails, and I fail. I knocked my
exhaust off my y pipe and ran wide open (and very rich thanks to the O2
sensors) for the rest of the day. I also had a tire scare when a valve
stem cap was mangled by an underwater rock backing off the falls - a
piece of it wedged the schreader valve open, and we all thought I'd be
changing a tire.
christine is running mid-day after fuel filter change and re-fill of
gas. tom makes his way down to the stream as all of us (~20 vehicles
w/ the SCORE jeeps) are heading up.
go back up to have some fun at the mud pit, tom takes christene
through and gets her nice and dirty.
lunch was followed by a run to the upper waterfall. we startled a few
people who were just picnicking or something on top of the falls.
jacked up jeeps and a wide open 318.....
I know more happened here.
playing with fire. using up some of tom's bad gas. tom drunk on 4
beers and wondering what jon is squirting out of his fingers to make
the fire flare up. hehe.
sunday
people clearing out. adam and I stay with tom and christine. she
wouldn't start - fuel pump conked out completely. adam brought him in
to pick up another while I packed up.
I pull the truck up the driveway, and we roll her back into the shop.
we pull the box (that took some lift shenanigans thanks to needing to
clean a foot of rocker panel) to change the pump since the body mounts
are a new 3" lift, and the tank straps are original '89. new pump
works after having to coax it back in after re-mounting the box (it had
popped up).
adam takes off after the new pump is in.
the truck started and ran, tom went to shower and I left.
I had to change my alternator in Buffalo (couldn't get it cleaned out
after the mud, even with almost 3 full cans of Coke, quite a bit of
WD40 and a healthy dose of contact cleaner) -- thankfully the
open-till-8-on-a-sunday parts store had one in stock. I wasn't done
'till 9, though, so I've got a $60 core in my truck bed.
I get home to find a message saying tom is flying home, cuz
Christine's trans is fscked. d'oh! not fair... but then again what
is?
I start seriously looking into my standing offer to tow tom's truck
back to 'Sconnie, and hoping that someone here has a trailer to borrow
to save tom a hundred-plus bucks.
I decide to write this up because I'm a) dumb and b) still fixating on
this terrible and wonderful weekend.
and finally, as I ought to have done 3 hours ago when I got home, I'm
going to konk out.
-- Michael Maskalans '98 Dakota SLT CC 4x4 318 details here: <http://mike.tepidcola.com/dak.html> mobile.612.618.4652 campus.585.274.2246 fax.954.697.0487-- Michael Maskalans <http://mike.tepidcola.com/> Apple Campus Rep - ClassTech Consultant - Printer Tech mobile.612.618.4652 campus.585.274.2246 fax.954.697.0487
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