01-25-13

Today was literally “the shits”.
Patti and I slept in this morning and decided to go out for breakfast. We went to the Mountain Quail and had a standard breakfast. While we were there we decided that instead of going back to the RV we would go directly to Blythe to take care of shopping, etc.

On the way, the I-10 freeway was choked off due to a border patrol check point complete with drug sniffing dogs.
They were only about a mile east of the California fruit quarantine station. It didn’t take very long to get through the stop. We continued on to the third Blythe exit. By this time my bowls were in turmoil, lots of gas and gurgling. I told Patti that I needed to find a toilette very soon. As soon as we got off the freeway we turned into the Carl’s Junior parking lot and I went in to use the bathroom. When I got in there both stalls were in use so I went back to the jeep and we headed for Albertsons because I knew where that toilette was and thought I could make it.
Of course the traffic was exceptionally slow with a bunch of old farts that didn’t know where they were going, clogging the street up.
Eventually we got to the parking lot and I rushed into the store almost at a run heading for the bathroom. I made it into the stall but couldn’t get my pants down in time and made a big mess.
It was horrible!!
I got cleaned up enough to pull up my pants and walk some what normally out of the store.
While I was in the toilette, Patti did some grocery shopping and was at the jeep when I got there. 
We got in the jeep and headed for home.
Needless to say we didn’t do any other shopping.

It was a really bad experience.
From now on when I go out for breakfast, I will go directly home and wait at least 20 minutes for my guts to work before going any where else. There must be something in the grease or something that they wash the potatoes in or maybe it is the coffee because this happens to me every now and then; but normally I go right home and make it to the toilette in time.

When we got home and after I got cleaned up I went out to see if there was any oil spots on the back of the jeep.
Sure enough there were spots on the spare tire and back bumper. I crawled under the jeep to take a look and found that the transfer case output shaft seal was leaking slightly. The differential pinion seal was not leaking. 
I noticed some oil on the front of the engine pan. It didn’t look like it was coming from the front seal so I lifted the hood (or bonnet if you are British) and noticed some oil spots on the fan shroud. After investigating a bit I found that the power steering pump was leaking a little. After looking around more I noticed that the valve cover was cracked at every fastener on the drivers side and there was oil along that side of the engine. The leaks aren’t bad so I will keep an eye on them and if they get any worse I will have to order a new valve cover.

At this writing it is raining and is supposed to continue for a couple of days.
We probably wont be going anywhere and I won’t be working on the jeep until the rain stops.