Friday, April 28, 2017

A Short Trip to the Cabin.


The Plan.

The plan was to drive to the cabin on Thursday after Harvey got out of class. We had planned to spend Thursday night at the cabin but Matt and Mike had already made plans to spend T, F, S and S there. 

In the end Harvey and I decided to just go up for the day.

Getting Parts.

I figured that we would have time to fix the leaking spring pipes while we were up there so Wednesday morning I drove the jeep to Friedman Bro’s.
I had to get some 1/2” plastic drip pipe and some connectors. I ended up buying 50’ of pipe and half a dozen connectors.

An Abrupt sit Down.

I left the store and walked to the jeep.
As you may know, the jeep is jacked up quite a bit and is a stretch trying to climb in. I normally grab the door with my left hand and the door jam with my right. Then I swing my right leg up into the jeep. I then rest my right bum on the seat and pull myself up into the jeep.
Anyway, I was in the midst of climbing into the jeep, with my right foot in the jeep when my left knee decided that it was no longer going to hold me up. I didn’t quite fall but I sat abruptly on my butt.

I had a hard time getting to my feet as the muscles in my left leg were all stretched and very painful from trying to not let myself fall.
Eventually I managed to get to my feet using the rock guards and the door to hold onto.

I stood there for a while wondering how I was going to get into the jeep if my left leg won’t hold me up.
Eventually the pain subsided enough that I was just able to hitch my right bum onto the edge of the seat and with a little whimpering and some cussing and pulling, I managed to get all the way into the jeep.

Oh great! I want to go to the cabin tomorrow and climb up that steep hill to fix the leaking spring pipes and right now I don’t even know if I will be able to get out of the jeep when I get home.

I had no problem getting out of the jeep when I got home but to get out I just turn with my feet out the door and slide to the ground with both feet.

I still haven’t tried to get back into the jeep.

Lets Take the Van.

I decided that I still wanted to go to the cabin even if I couldn’t walk up the hill.
I still wanted to take the rug up there too.
The one unknown was could I push the clutch down in the van with my sore leg. I figured that I should be able to get into the van because I always use the front hub as a step and I step on it with my right foot.
I went out to the van and tried it. As I suspected it was no problem getting into the van. I tried the clutch a few times and it didn’t hurt to push it down.

Okay it’s settled then, if I can manage the carpet with help, we will put it in the van and take it up there and leave it in the dining hall to be installed in the cabin at a later date.

Thursday

Getting the van ready

Thursday morning, the leg was feeling pretty stiff but not as painful as the day before.
I figured that I was going to be okay to do what needed to be done today.

Tightening the Exhaust Bolts.

When I took the van to get the exhaust welded the guy said that the bolts holding the pipe to the manifold were loose.
I told him that I knew that and would he go ahead and tighten them.
The guy said it would be no problem. Well, I guess it was a problem because he didn’t tighten the bolts

On the way home from the muffler shop I could still hear exhaust leaks.
This morning I crawled under the van and tightened the exhaust pipe flange bolts. They were pretty loose.

Harvey got to our place around 10:30 and we loaded the rug into the van, with Patti’s help.
I had already loaded the tools, parts and pipe we would need for the springs.

So we Headed for Boonville.

Harvey and I got in the van and headed up 101. The van was running real good except for one small glitch.

If I was traveling at say 60mph. and wanted to pass, when I step on it the van would not accelerate. The engine would stutter and stumble and we would actually slow down.
I noticed though, that if I press down on the accelerator slowly, the van accelerates and will go as fast as 80 mph. I didn’t try to go any faster.

What I think the problem is, is that the timing is likely set too far advanced and when I step on the gass the vacuum advance moves the timing even farther in the advanced direction so it causes the engine to misfire. If I move the throttle very slowly the vacuum  advance doesn’t come into play and the engine accelerates.

I’ll have to check that out when I get home

We drove to Boonville and stopped at the Boonville Market to get a couple of sandwiches for our lunch.

From there we headed for the cabin. The road is still pretty bad so we had to go slow.

At the Cabin.

The first thing we did when we arrived at the cabin was to take the rug out of the van and put the it on a counter in the dining hall.

Once the rug was dealt with we went into the cabin to eat our sandwiches.

After lunch we drove up the hill to the trail head.

We took the pipe and connectors out of the van and and headed up the trail.

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It was a little slow going for me because of the fall in the parking lot but I made it all the way to the leaky pipes.

I cut out the leaking section of the pipe…
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Once we got all the leaks bypassed we had to carry the old chewed up pieces of pipe back to the van.

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The Creek.

We took the old pipe to the cabin and took a little break.
After a while we decided to take a ride to the creek. The water isn’t as high as I thought it might be.

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We drove down to check out the swimming hole.

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This is the view looking up stream.
A nice sized redwood tree fell across the stream here. We will have to harvest it this summer.

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This is looking down stream.

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Part of the bank sluffed off into the swimming hole but the current, this winter, removed the big stump in that spot so I guess it was a good trade.

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Can you find the toad?

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After hanging around at the creek for a while we headed back up the hill. We stopped at the the cabin to return the keys to the grove, then headed for home.

Another Glitch.

Twice while we were driving around I noticed that the Check Engine light came on. It went out after a short time but I don’t know what that is all about. It never came on while we were on the freeway.

We got home around 6:00.

It was good to be up at the cabin with Harvey again; it has been a long time.

I was pretty sore from the exercise and from the fall on Wednesday so I’m going to lay low for a couple of days. 

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