The Adventures of Me & My Shadow #49 in VA,MD & DE
6/20/00
No miles this trip, odometer now 65,438 total, miles this year
12,984.
From , Delmar, MD, Hi Everyone!
After overhauling the carb. I decided to give the engine
a tune up. I have done nothing to it since it was rebuilt. I pulled
the spark plugs, they looked good but the gaps were a little excessive
after running fast and pulling hard for about 70,000 miles. They
are Split-Fire plugs that I got for free before the engine was
rebuilt. Jeff was then a Video News photographer and got a coupon
from someone at a race track. I used the coupon and found them
to be very good spark plugs. I re-gapped them and re-installed
them. I’ll check them at 100,000 miles. While I had them
out I checked the compression, everything looked good. I re-lubed
the distributor, it needs it about every 10,000 miles. I had the
dashboard cover off so, re-lubed the speedometer cable with a
mixture of oil & dry graphite. I still need a new speedometer,
I have been keeping track of mileage with the driving computer
each time I fill the fuel tanks.
I got side tracked from working on the GMC by computers.
I was having a problem with mine, Jenny had a problem with hers
and Alexis was having a problem with hers. I hate computers, but
today they are a necessary evil. The weather was also a problem,
only a few days up in my comfort zone. The rest of the time the
temps have been too low with too much rain.
For you GMCers who want to know more about stopping high
oil consumption on an engine with a high volume oil pump I found
the article that put me onto it. It is in the GMCMM June 1997
by Keith Oxford of San Diego, CA. I hope I have the good results
that he had. I’ll keep you posted and may discus it at the
next rally.
After not being able to receive hotmail for two weeks I
finally got it back. I hope I never have to go through that again.
I was checking my inbox and when I deleted a SPAM message, everything
disappeared. I tried to contact Hotmail and found that this is
not possible. They have a phone number for a phone that must be
in an empty building with the receiver off the hook. I called
it at all different hours of every day of the week, it was always
the same. Under “Contact us” in Hotmail I was directed
to pick a category and send a blank message and they would get
back to me. There was no category for not being able to receive
hotmail and if there was one, when they replied to the message
it would go where every thing else was going and I would never
see it. I finally activated my MSN email account and sent a message
to the Hotmail address and told them the respond to this MSN address.
I waited for awhile and no reply so I thought of a way to get
someone’s attention or at least they would know that I was
out there. I sent a message telling them to contact me, after
I sent it, I sent it again just as fast as I could type it. I
did this for an hour, I had no idea how many messages were sent.
It worked, the next day I checked and I had a reply to every message
that went out. They offered all sorts of advice but it was clear
that I was not going to get to talk a person. It was the computer
or nothing, so I started down the list of advice. I have no idea
of when it happened, or why, but all at once I see that a Hotmail
message was in the in-basket. I was back in business. At the end
of all the replies there was a comment form to fill out to tell
them how I liked their support. You can use your imagination as
to what my comments were, they are not fit to be printed here.
If you sent me a message during that two week period, you
now know why I didn’t reply.
With the price of fuel where it is, it looks like my adventures
will be limited this summer. The Navy Iron Angels are having the
reunion in Las Vegas this year, that is out. The all class reunion
in Coleridge, NE is set for July 1 & 2, I plan to make it
out there but if the price of fuel keeps going up I’ll have
to cancel it also. I’m sure Jeff, Jenny & Virginia can
find enough to keep me busy right here in VA & MD and I still
have some projects I want to do on My Shadow.
On Fathers Day I drove Jenny’s old car down to her place
for a Fathers Day Seafood dinner for me and David’s dad Ralph.
I headed out of Salisbury with less than a quarter tank of fuel
knowing if I could stretch it to the MD/VA border there was a
Royal Farms station that just opened and has the cheapest fuel
on the Eastern Shore. The station across the road from them had
to come down ten cents to stay in business. I just made it with
the gage on empty. I pulled up to the pump and a gal comes out
to tell me they were closed, no electric power. I almost cried,
the cheapest fuel in Salisbury was $1.49.9 and the price here
was $1.43.9 and no electrical power. I went on to an Exxon station
and lucked out, $1.49.9 and I see they had come down to $1.47.9
when I came by on the way back. Most places are more than $1.50.9.
6/20/00 The price of fuel is going higher and the gal in
Sioux Falls told me Gas was $1.80.9 there so it looks like the
trip to the all class reunion in Coleridge, NE is off. Besides
working on the motorhome, Virginia has been wanting me to help
her with some genealogy on her ancestors. Looks like a good time
for that.
Till next time, Dallas, or Dad if it fits.