Visiting With Samantha.

A change of Plans.

We had planned to visit with Samantha’s other grandparents but we got a call from Sue, Samantha’s other Grandmother. She had injured her back and was not up to having visitors at this time.
We will see them the next time we are here.

Patti and Samantha go Shopping.

Around 10:00 Patti and Samantha went to Walmart to pick up some groceries and other stuff that Samantha needed.
While they were shopping I stayed at Sami’s place and worked on yesterdays blog.

A Late Lunch.

About an hour after Patti and Samantha returned from their shopping spree, we went out for a lite, late lunch. After lunch we went back to Samantha’s place and visited until around 6:00.
We all decided that we weren’t very hungry so we decided to go for a “dessertinner”. In other words we were going to have dessert for dinner.
We went to the Black Bear Restaurant. They didn’t have a great dessert menu but we managed to get some things.
Samantha and Patti both ordered Hot Fudge Sundae’s and I had a Blackberry Cobbler ala mode.
Everything was good of course and it filled us up.

Back at Samantha’s.

After dessert we headed back to Samantha’s for more visiting and TV watching.

Here are Samantha and Patti sitting on the Hide-a-Bed visiting.

The Hide-a-bed.

I hate to complain but both nights I spent on that rack, I dreamed that I was being interrogated by the Spanish Inquisition.
I am an old school camper and have spent many a night sleeping on the ground but I can’t remember having a less comfortable bed.

Watching TV.

We sat around watching TV. We watched the Kids Baking Championship.
Amazing bakers for kids under 12.
After that we watched reruns of M A  S H. It has been years since I watched M A S H. It really was a superior show in it’s day.

Bed Time.

By 11:00 I was falling asleep in Samantha’s big over stuffed chair so we turned in around 11:30.

Okay, that’s it for now.
Sometime this morning (Sunday) we will leave Redmond on the next leg of our trip to Idaho.

Ride to Redmond, Oregon from Glendale, OR.

Leaving Kathi and Bob’s.

We left K&B’s around 8:30 and headed north on I-5 toward Roseburg, OR. As we got closer to Roseburg the smoke thinned out to where we could almost see blue sky.

Highway 138.

When we got to Roseburg we turned east on 138. This highway crosses the Cascade Mountains and connects with Highway 97 just north of Crater Lake.
On the west side of the mountains the highway follows the Umpqua River.

The smoke wasn’t to bad here on the west side of the mountains but we could see it up ahead of us.

By the time we crested the mountains the smoke was much thicker.

Going down the east side the smoke was very heavy and stayed that way all the way to Redmond. When we got to Redmond the temperature was about 98° and smoky. YUCK!!

Dinner at Baldy’s.

We got to our granddaughter, Samantha's around 2:00. We visited until around 5:00 and then went to a barbeque place called Baldy’s for dinner.
The food was great, The prices were reasonable and the service was stellar.

After dinner we went back to Samantha's and visited some more until bed time.

Okay, that’s it for today.

Hanging out at Kathi and Bob”s.

Just Hanging Out.

Yesterday we mainly sat around Kathi and Bob’s place and visited for the whole day.
We did go to a hamburger place down the road for lunch, then back to K and B’s for more visiting.

Dinner at Seven Feathers.

Around 5:30 we drove to the Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville about 25 miles north of Glendale. We had dinner at the buffet. Not bad for $10:00.

Patti Wins.

After dinner Patti wanted to gamble a bit. So I followed her around the casino until she found a machine that called to her. We sat down at the machine and after about twenty minutes Patti had won about $60 then the machine started taking her winnings. After a few minutes of loosing she quit and cashed in.
In the end she was a winner.

Back at Kathi and Bob’s.

Back at K and B’s we visited some more and watched a little television.

We hit the sack around 10:30, as we are planning an early start in the morning.

Okay that was our day.

Heading for Redmond, Oregon in the morning to spend a couple of days with our granddaughter, Samantha.

Heading for Glendale Oregon.

Getting Underway.

Around 8:00 we left the house. We decided that we would stop at Tans Donuts to pick up something for the road.
At Tans, I realized that I had left my wallet at home. It is a good thing I found out before we headed up 101. I may not have noticed until we had to get gas. Probably around Crescent City and that would be a bitch.

Eventually we got under way, heading north on 101. There is some smoke in the air from the ongoing fires in Northern California.

More Smoke.

The further north the worse the smoke got. Driving through the Redwood Parks the smoke was a little better. Maybe the trees filter some of the smoke.

Past Crescent City we drove east on US 199. Lots of smoke here also.

On I-5, between Grants Pass and Glendale, more smoke.

From what I can tell, we are going to be in smoky conditions for the whole trip. There are large wild fires in every western state.

At Kathy and Bob’s.

We arrived at Kathy and Bob’s around 4:00 in the afternoon.
After a couple of hours of visiting, we went into Glendale for a Mexican dinner at Nano’s.
After dinner we visited until bed time.

Okay that was our drive to Glendale, Oregon.

A Visit With Bob.

Bob’s Place.

I got to Bob’s place around 11:00. He was checking out the new peeps.
He recently bought another 13 chicks and just opened the coop door so they could get outside into their pen.

No Camera.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I couldn’t get any pictures of the new peeps. Of course they are all very cute at this age. If you want to see some pictures of the new peeps check out Bob’s blog.
http://www.bobseyes.net/

BS’ing and Watching Peeps.

We spent some time sitting in the shade discussing chickens and mechanics and the general state of the world. After a while we wandered around the yard eating fruit off the trees.
We sat in the chicken yard watching the young chickens cavorting. Some of them are getting friendly. One hopped on my shoe and walked up my leg. It turned out the chick wanted to get to a feeder that my leg was blocking.

Checking Out Tom’s Garden and Chickens.

After a while, we walked over to check out Tom’s garden and chickens across the road. Tom has a lot of chickens and a big garden across the road plus a couple of smaller gardens next door and some plots on Bob’s place, as well as the large garden across the creek from Bob’s place. That is a lot of gardening.

Heading Home.

Around 3:00 I decided that it was time to go home so I said good bye to Bob and the Peeps and headed for Santa Rosa.

Okay that was my visit with Bob.

The next couple of days we will be getting stuff ready for a trip to Idaho. We will leave here Wednesday morning.

Manifold Repair on Hold.

Putting the Manifold Together.

The first thing that I had to do on the manifold, was to put the two halves together.
The manifold has to be tightened on the head before you tighten the two halves together.
I put some blue silicon on both sides of the gasket that goes between the two manifolds. It’s probably not necessary but I noticed that it was leaking so I put silicone on it.

It is going to be hard to get to these nuts that hold down one side of the manifold so I am going to snug it down just a little so when the I tighten the nut after putting it on the head it won’t have to turn the nut very far.

Installing the Manifolds.

Once the two parts were connected together, it was time to install the manifold in the van.
After struggling for a while trying to get the manifold bolted down I realized that the rear of the manifold was warped out of shape.
When I originally put this manifold on I had to cut out the last mounting guide hole to get the manifold on.

It is even worse now. There is a hold down that is supposed to span between the exhaust and intake ports to tighten them against the head.
This is the hold down.

I wasn’t able to get the hold down to work because the way the exhaust port has warped the hold down won’t fit on both manifolds.
I think this could possibly be what was causing the original problem.
It could be that I never got the manifold tight enough the first time.
Here is looking at it from the top. The hold down goes between the two manifolds to hold both down.

In this picture you can see that the exhaust manifold is too close to the intake manifold

The hold down is supposed to span the gap between the manifolds and sit on the flats you can see on the manifolds but the exhaust port has warped up and to the right so the hold down won’t fit.
I tried modifying the hold down but after a while I realized that even if I could get the manifolds tightened they would most likely leak and cause trouble because they are misaligned.

Order a New Exhaust Manifold.

I decided that I needed a new exhaust manifold so I removed and disassembled the manifolds.
I went into the house, got on the internet and ordered an exhaust manifold.
The only one I found was from Summit Racing and it won’t be shipped until 8/17 so I guess the manifold repair is now on hold.

Plans.

We are going to take a trip to Idaho next week and won’t be back until 7/19.

Talk to you later.

Manifold Repair Postponed.

Errands.

Patti and I had some errands to run in the morning. One of my meds has been recalled so we went to Walmart in Windsor to get that straightened out. We made a couple other stops and didn’t get home until around 1:30.

Just Not Into It.

A little while after we got home I went out to the shop to start putting the manifold back together. I looked the manifold over and decided that I just wasn’t into working on it today.
  That’s the nice thing about being retired if you don’t want to, you don’t have to.

Puttering.

I spent the rest of the day puttering around in the yard. I did a little trimming of trees and other shrubs. Cleaned up the patio. It was covered with grape leaves and just enjoyed the day.

Patti’s Car.

Around 4:00 we went to United Auto Repair to pick up Patti’s car. We had them check it all out as we are going to drive it to Idaho next week. They checked it good and found that The car needed new brakes and rear axel seals.
This is the first time we have had to have any major work done on  the Trail Blazer since we bought it thirteen years ago. It has been a very good car so far.

Okay that’s it for now.