05-19-13

We slept in yesterday. After Fridays drive I was pooped so I didn’t get up until around 8:00.

The weather was stormy with thunder storms rolling across the valley.

I wanted to get a set of metal shears so around 11:00 we decided to go into Blanding and see if we could find a hardware store.
When we went to start the jeep it would barely turn over. It started but it was a close thing. 
The battery has been acting strange lately so I decided that now would be a good time to put one of those gel sell type of batteries in the jeep.
We found a True Value Hardware and got the metal shears.
From there we drove around looking for an auto parts store. We finally found a Napa store and I went in and bought a battery.

The whole time we were in town it rained with thunder and lightning.

 

Patti wanted to get lunch so we drove through town again and found a small burger joint.

Patti had a chicken sandwich that had a couple slices of ham in it. I had a Philly Cheese Steak.
The sandwiches were good and the place was busy.

By the time we got back to the RV Park the rain had stopped so I started replacing the battery.
Normally replacing the battery is just a quickie. As it turned out this gel sell was a bit bigger than the original battery. Fortunately the the engineer that designed took different sized batteries into account. There was a spacer bolted to the bottom of the battery container that could be removed for larger batteries.
Unfortunately the battery box had to be removed to get to the bolts for the spacer, so it took a while for the battery swap. About the time I finished the battery replacement it started to rain again so I took a break for about an hour.
By then it had stopped raining and the ground dried up so I when back out to see if I could implement my new tailpipe repair idea

If you remember while we were in Williams I tried to get the tailpipe welded. No one in town had the time to do it so I did a temporary fix with metal tape and hose clamps.
Well, after driving over rough roads the pipe came loose again.
I decided to try using a can and the hose clamps to hold the pipe to the muffler. That is why I needed the shears.
We were planning to have Polish sausages, potatoes and sauerkraut for dinner so I used the sauerkraut can for the repair.

I crawled under the jeep and removed the clamps. I left the metal tape in place and trimmed the length of the can to fit.  Then I wrapped the can around the pipe and reinstalled the clamps.
We will see if that works.

When I started this blog the sky was clear. By the time I got to this point the clouds are starting to build.

We are supposed to have some more thunderstorms this afternoon.

Today we are going to take a ride through The Valley of The Gods. It’s an easy ride but very scenic.
You'll see the pictures tomorrow.