Road Trip ...

Got up bright and early Saturday morning and hit the road out of town. I had planned earlier in the week to visit my friend Denny Self who has recently relocated to the getaway destination of Salton City, California. For those unfamiliar with the area it’s a little south of Indio. Great big lake with a recreation area and miles of undeveloped desert lands. Pretty desolate but with little communities surrounding it. Sounded like a good opportunity to get out of the city for a day. That and the fact that Denny and his hound Junior are somewhat new to the area and are still getting acclimated. I figured he could stand a familiar face around the place for a day. Being the handy guy that he is he hooked up with a friend of one of his son’s who had a place out there that needed some work. Well, “some” is a relative term and being as the property is more of getaway residence than permanent. It’s in a stage of disrepair and neglect. Additionally since there are only a few permanent residents in the park and it butts up to the desert area, some folks have a tendency to borrow things from the site. The side door entrance to the mobile home for instance. He’s been there a couple of weeks now and has managed to clear almost all of the dead brush from the lot (3/4 acre or so) and has the home in livable condition. Once he gets his tools down there he can get crackin’ on the outside of the home and maybe even do a little landscaping. The lot is prime for a modular home. Salton Sea Beach has quite a few properties closer to the shore that are run down and even some that are burned out. I’m sure there’s a story surrounding that section of the park but I’ll let Denny figure it out through the local network and I’m sure he’ll tell me about another time. May have something to do with the “weekenders” that go out there to ride their bikes, quads and sandrails around the desert. Saw some really nice buggies out there Saturday. Quite a few parasail rigs further down by the boat launching area as well. I saw as many as 6 all up at one time. If that keeps up they’ll be needing and air traffic control center before long.

Truck ran great all the way to and from with no issues whatsoever. Part of the reason for my excursion was to deliver some supplies that had been gathered for Denny by Phyllis and Anton. They’re friends of ours from Lake Forest Lanes. Denny is going to be the live in handyman as it were for the next year or two while he’s whipping the place into shape and until all the utilities and such are up to snuff it’s going to be a somewhat bohemian existence. So Phyllis and Anton were kind enough the throw together a few staples and I ran them out there. Can’t thank them enough for this kind gesture. I’m pretty sure I arrived at about 8:30 or 9am and started unloading the truck. Denny greeted me and lugged the boxes inside. Just sat and chatted for a bit until I could coax him to start opening the boxes. I was probably more excited than him. Felt like Christmas morning to me and couldn’t wait to see his reaction(s) even though I had no clue at all what the contents were. I won’t go into detail as to the contents but will say that he was flabbergasted by Phyllis and Anton’s generosity. He should be set up for months to come.
I think I’m going to get him a wristwatch and maybe some waffle knit shirts or something for the upcoming cold season. I hear it can get pretty nasty out there. He should be okay though as Phyllis and Anton (hereafter referred to as P&A) hooked him up with a nice 20 degree rated sleeping bag. Heck, I use one here in the city when it’s gets colder. I love sleeping in that thing.


"Hey, I know that van!"

We spent the morning at the Lion’s Den in the park. A little Bar & Grill that the locals run. Great burger and I polished one off along with a beer or two. Met the staff, Darren the day manager and Lindsay our server and just kinda took in the place. Interesting décor. From there we headed south on highway 86 and just cruised some of the more populated areas. Spotted another little pub down the way and decided to check it out as I spied a satellite dish on the roof. Good call as the USC game was on the big screen. I was afraid Denny was going to get shut out on seeing his Trojans. We stayed there for the second half and met some of the staff there as well. Most everyone in the area are pretty nice folks and very hospitable.


"Flying Deskfan"


"Sandrail parked at Capt. Jim's"


"Wide open spaces off of the 86 South?

Denny appears to be networking and getting to know people in the neighborhood just fine. Once his tools are in place I’m sure he will be able to pick up side jobs in and around the park and he’ll always have the current digs to work on. Given his talents in cabinet making and general skills as a craftsman, and given the time and funding I’m sure he can transform the lot into a little oasis. I’ll keep writing him and checking up on him from time to time and I’m sure I’ll get a phone call if anything really exciting happens out there. God help us if they erect a bowling center out there!


"Nice side project for Denny"

In closing I’d like to state that Mr. Self was and is deeply moved by the support from the Lake Forest contingency and in particular his special benefactors P&A. ( I knew I’d get that abbreviation in there!)

That’s it for now all. Back to the grind tomorrow. I have a hankering to live on a ranch now.

-Scott

What a PITA!!!

So it's like this. I've been riding my Mtn. Bike to and from work and everywhere else for that matter. This because the truck decided to keep throwing the serpentine belt from the pulley system. Now this is really fun because one belt drives every vital external engine component. I heard something funny under the hood last month but couldn't figure out what it was. I found out about two weeks ago as I was driving over to the Bowl for league. I'm cruising around the bend on Aspan over in that area and all of a sudden the following happens in tandem or all at once rather.
"Check Engine" light comes on. "Battery Light" comes on. (not charging) Temperture gauge starts climbing rapidly.(very unusual for this truck) And the power steering ceases to function. Let me tell you it may be a little truck but I really had to put some arm into it at slower speeds. Fortunately I had a pretty good head a steam up and was able to shut down the motor and glide in for a landing in my favorite parking spot at the lanes. Bowled league (average at best) then went out and popped the hood and saw the problem. The serpentine belt has seen better days but wasn't exactly trashed either so I knew it was something else. Managed to limp it home by starting and stopping the engine so I wouldn't overheat and blow it up. Manhandled the steering and parked it on the frontage road at home. Came to find out that the pulley directly behind the fan blades wasn't exactly turning true. This because of the 4 machine bolts that hold in in place were a little askew. As in there were only 2 still there and one of them was backed half way out of the threads. No wonder it threw the belt! Pat Johnson was by that weekend and we cranked down the 2 bolts that were left and it idled okay, but under load it just threw the belt again.


"The Doctor is in"
AutoZone didn't have diddly in the way of these bolts so I had to speacial order them from Ford. Mad props to Martin Huerta in the parts dept. over at Tuttle-Click Ford in Irvine for being able to ID and procure the bolts that were required. He has a wicked cool parts database. Found the time this morning and attacked it. Took a short bike ride over to AutoZone to pick up some loctite and since I was tearing it down anyway I also snagged a new serpentine belt.


Pulled the heat shield and the big tube that runs from the airbox to the intake as it was totally in the way and managed to back off the existing 2 bolts. Didn't pull 'em all the way off but loosened them just enough so I could thread the new ones in the unoccupied holes. I gotta tell you this took some doing as there is little if any space to work with between the fan and the pulley. I had no intention of pulling the radiator shroud and fan for this. Thank goodness I have little girly man hands. Bunch of other stuff in the way as well and with the tight quarters I had to actually use my left hand to start the bolts. I still don't know how I pulled that off. Anyway once they were all in place, (pulled the 2 old ones and replaced) I slapped some loctite on them and torqued them down. Let it set for about 30 min. and slapped the new belt on. Fired it up and everything kicked back in just fine. All my warning lights started behaving again and I didn't have to have Hulk Hogan arms to turn the thing. It was a hassle but 40 bucks in parts and my Saturday morning is nothing compared to what any shop would have dinged me for. Gotta love it.. Here's a shot of the engine compartment stripped of the air hoses and such, followed by the shiny new serp. belt and lastly the reassembled engine compartment.




Noticed a drip from the power steering pump as it was warming up and the fluid is a little low. I think it's time to replace the lines for that unit and the transmission. "Ka'Ching"!! Tires are in the immediate future for sure... Though I've really enjoyed pedaling around town the last couple of weeks I had to get cracking on this with the rainy season about to begin. I like the mini workouts but riding to work in the rain doesn't appeal to me in the least. Have a good weekend all...

-Scott

Check out the kid ...

Here's a great little viddy of my new buddy in the UK... Quite accomplished for a lad of 15 years... and believe me folks there's nothing easy about a Doyle Dykes composition... I give you, well master Philip gives you, Doyle Dyke's "Self Portrait on Acoustic Guitar"... If you don't enjoy this, your probably already dead...



Thanks Phil...

-Scott