This is just for those of you who don’t subscribe to this blog and instead just come by now and then to see what’s new. The latest post is actually here, but you don’t see it on the top of the home page because this blog software posts in order of entry start date, not published date. Begin an entry a year ago, and that’s where it is in the final stack. I forgot that, so click on the link above if you want to check out the latest.
Barn Find!
Okay, so it’s not a barn find, it’s a garage find. And it’s not virtually undiscovered, it’s part of the large collection of some guy with Old Car Collector’s Syndrome. I’m currently in Indianapolis, and it looks like I’ll be here in limbo for quite some time, so while I have a pleasant if unnerving wait, you’re stuck with posts like this, using iPhone photos. Next week’s post may be on the price of rusty razor blades in Kazakhstan. Anyway, he’s owned this car for 10 years, and it’s been in storage for a total of 15 years. More accurately, it simply hasn’t been run for 10, which is nowhere near as good as having been prepped for long-term storage. Whoever tries to fire up this thing now is probably going to have a bit of work to do.
The twin exhaust pipes are held in approximate place by baling wire.
This car is a 1968 Jaguar E-Type coupe, also called the XKE, retrofitted with Jag’s tri-carb on its 4.2-liter straight-six for power. It was called a 2+2 for it’s expanded seating arrangement, which has a rear seat with way too little legroom. Thus, they did not call them 4-passenger cars, which would have dampened the Read more…
My granddaughter.
While so many people do their best to make the world a more difficult place to live in, it helps to step back every now and then to remind ourselves what life is really about, and to appreciate that our place in it matters, whether we sense that or not. “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” We are not left helpless as we look around ourselves. Live in your own little piece of the world as it needs to become, not as a contributor to the one that is.
A really blue Bluejay with a tall black crest? The critters here are all pretty casual around humans.
The correction is that the sole RV Park in Tusayan may restrict dump station water usage to 10 gallons of potable freshwater – and that’s to camp residents. My advice is, if you’re going to boondock in the Tusayan area, use your pass to enter the Grand Canyon National Park and head for Mather Campground for their free dump station. Their coin-op laundry has a money changer and what looked to be 20 machines at $1.75 a pop. There are coin-op showers at $2 for 8 minutes, and the boon here is that they are inside the heated laundry building – a significant benefit at the moment. Temps will be in the 50s for the next few days and nightly lows in the 20s. In fact, two nights from now, the low is forecast to be 23 degrees, which combined with a 20 MPH wind should make things interesting.
I’ve been fortunate in that actual temps outside the Defiant have been 4-8 degrees warmer than forecast each night so far. I suspect that the time spent below freezing won’t phase the trailer’s plumbing, especially since I’ll need to keep the propane heater percolating all night in order to keep my breathing air above my tolerance of 45. Outside though, the freshwater fill hose in the truck bed does tend to freeze up and clog quickly in near-freezing air. I don’t expect to need to fill the camper’s tank before this cold wave passes, but I don’t want the expanding water to damage anything, either. That would put the Tankmin out of service. The forecast for tonight is 30 (which is safe), so as a test, I’ve thrown the camper’s remote thermometer sender on top of the hose under the tonneau, so I’ll be able to compare true outside temp with that near the hose. If it looks like 23 may be a threat, I’ll have to disconnect the hose at the Tankmin and empty it. I’d like to avoid that if possible, since that involves unloading much of the truck bed to get the needed access. The exposed waste pipes and valves under the RV are a concern too, but I’m hoping the the large diameter piping will slow down freezing and discourage expansion.
This wide load coming into the Park required a couple of highway patrol cars to block intersections and keep the roadway clear.
On the good side of things, I found two very helpful apps for my iPhone, and I assume that they are also available for the Android platform. One is
Not the best part of the show, but it does reveal the surrounding vehicles.
Returning back to camp at the Sandwich Fairgrounds showed many big trash barrels peppered throughout the camping area, which made me wonder. Then long before sunset, while I was watching a movie after dinner, a few cars and trucks rolled in and parked in the camping field. A little face eventually appeared close outside my screen door – some little guy fascinated by the side view of the glowing TV screen inside the unlit trailer, looked like. Then his momma called him back. More vehicles came, until the big field was decently full. By that time, I’d cleverly discerned that, incredibly, more fireworks were on tap.
Not unexpectedly, many folks in the field brought their own fireworks big and small, so the pre-show entertainment was constant. One family across from my site lit off firecrackers and such on the gravel path that my pickup was parked near, so I had to Read more…
The Enterprise being fitted with new, shorter 4′-8′ telescopic poles prior to the ceremony.
Tuesday, Jan 14, 2014 – The RV U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701, also commonly referred to as the U.S.S. Enterprise, is today having its official name retired. The ship will be rechristened the RV U.S.S. Defiant NX-74205, to be commonly called the RV U.S.S. Defiant. No ceremony is planned other than an evening rechristening which is to include a crew’s supper of “sea varmints” accompanied by red wine, and the traditional custom of breaking a wine bottle on the ship’s hull. Due to Section 3 of the Prime Directive regarding alcoholic beverages, that bottle will be Read more…
View from the rear: one bolt removed, and the other stripped and locked in place.
The skids on the rear of the trailer have been a problem. In use, they have shifted up on the “V” of the angle iron they’re mounted to, allowing the tip of the iron strap to contact the ground directly. That’s tough on the strap, and will soon result in an unusable skid. The cause is that the wheel assemblies were mounted on the rearmost angle of the strap, causing them to shift back and up, out of the way. Given a spindly 3/8″ bolt with a locknut, the bolts bent easily from the side load applied to them.
One bolt was removable, while the other rusted in place and snapped off when torque was applied.
A fix was needed. Either that, or use the grinder to take the entire contraption off completely and let the bumper take a beating. As far as a fix was concerned, it was made more difficult in that the pair of bolts on each bracket were badly bent from the sideways force applied to them. Bolts aren’t made for that. With the help of a high-speed grinder, Kroil penetrating oil and Vise-Grips, the bolts were removed. I decided that maybe less bolt-bending would occur if I Read more…
As of today, Strolling Amok is no longer just a dumping ground for past camping articles copied from That’s Obsolete. The subject separation has been made, and from this point on, all posts having to do with squandering my life will now be added right here.
So, if you like following the RV-related stuff, bookmark this blog or even sign up to get an email when a new article is posted. That’s Obsolete will go back to being what it was intended to be, a not-very-clever look back at cutting edge technologies of the past.
Strolling Amok 