Ratdude's Headed to Texas!

[ratdude747]

Well... the Memorial Day car show I was going to is now (for me) called off... because I've been invited to go to Fort Worth, Texas for the weekend instead. A cousin who I've never met in person (whose family I haven't seen in nearly 20 years) is graduating High School. Despite this, the family is close to my family; my mom sends them gifts every Christmas and the mom in the family (My 1st Cousin Amanda) was partially raised by my mom (as her actual mom, my mom's sister, was stationed away in Germany with her husband at the time). In addition, she was around when I was born back in 1992... and among other things saved me from getting strangled in a car seat by my dad!

Anyway, of course I'm taking my Bullnose... this should add Arkansas and Texas to the map. Yee haw!

[BigBrother-84]

ratdude747 wrote

Anyway, of course I'm taking my Bullnose... this should add Arkansas and Texas to the map. Yee haw!

[Gary Lewis]

Road trip!  

[grumpin]

Have fun!

A lot to do in the DFW area!

[ratdude747]

Well, this may have been premature. Work may not approve the time off due to both my bosses being out all week.

The one way it might work out (if my immediate boss can clear it with his wife-o-matic) is I head out Friday over one day instead of Thursday-Friday over two days. 13.5 hours of driving... . Said boss is driving home Friday morning and could potentially be on call that afternoon. If not, this trip is a bust and I just jinxed myself.

But, if it's the only way it will work, I will make it work. Might as well do crazy things while I'm young and dumb?

[BigBrother-84]

ratdude747 wrote

Might as well do crazy things while I'm young and dumb?

40 years ago, Quebec City to Key Largo FL, 1840 miles, 23 hours non stop, Renault 5, two drivers (my girl friend and me).
We're still together.

Being young is the right time to do this kind of "crazy" trip!

[grumpin]

BigBrother-84 wrote

ratdude747 wrote

Might as well do crazy things while I'm young and dumb?

40 years ago, Quebec City to Key Largo FL, 1840 miles, 23 hours non stop, Renault 5, two drivers (my girl friend and me).
We're still together.

Being young is the right time to do this kind of "crazy" trip!

Does your wife know you and your girlfriend are still together?!

[BigBrother-84]

grumpin wrote

Does your wife know you and your girlfriend are still together?!

[ratdude747]

A lot of ado about nothing.

Turns out one of the bosses fat fingered his vacation... he's taking the week of Memorial day off, not the week before. So the original plan is back!

Also, I miscalculated my vacation time at work... so I had one more day that I actually thought. More reason to keep the original schedule.

Yee haw!

[Gary Lewis]

I'm glad you are happy.  

[ratdude747]

Day 1 status:

First, I get to pick up some computer goodies from my buddy in MO on the way back home, so the current plan is this:




Right now I'm in Jackson, TN for the night. This where I (and coworkers) stay when we need to visit our employer's Henderson, TN facility, so it's someplace I kinda know (and had things worked out, I'd have had dinner with a buddy at said facility).

Earlier in the day: My parents (who are caravaning with me on the way out) and I visited Land Between The Lakes. This is a special trip, as my dad, who used to be a semi-professional cyclist (and still is an avid amateur), used to train for Race Across America there when he was stationed at Ft. Campbell during desert storm. He hasn't ridden here in the 32 years since... until today. Since we're around, we crewed for him race-style...

Pictures:

My dad putting out the watts up a hill:



Stopped for the first handoff...





...but of course, I parked in a field of poison ivy like a moron!



Then again, as I discovered, everything on the sides of the road is full of poison ivy out here:



My mom and wife both got nailed by it a bit... . Speaking of them:




As for why we were stopped, like we'd do in an actual race, bottles are exchanged. Here's a later swap I was able to document:











In addition to being my dad's crew, there was another mission... finding the buffalo (Plains Bison) preserve that my mom remembered back in the day. Well, it's still there, and they were out:





I would have gotten better pics, but another family was there and their kid got too close and scared them off. The parents weren't too happy with him!

All done:



Back in the day, they'd start at the south entrance (Dover, TN), ride up to the north end (Grand Rivers, KY), eat lunch at the Rax (blast from the past!), then he'd ride back. Often, he'd ride to and from Ft. Campbell too. Every weekend he wasn't AOD (Admin Officer on Duty). But, that's how you train for the world's longest endurance cycling event when you're stuck in place by Uncle Sam!

If you read this far, I award you an electronic cookie. I have 8.5 hours of driving tomorrow... all in the name of good family fun!

[Gary Lewis]

I’d like my cookie to be chocolate chip.

Looks like a fun trip, save for the poison ivy. Have fun, but be careful!

[BigBrother-84]

Wow, super trip!

ratdude747 wrote

Right now I'm in Jackson, TN for the night.

I understand you are doing this tour clockwise.
So, the buffaloes were somewhere between home and Jackson TN?

ratdude747 wrote

...but of course, I parked in a field of poison ivy like a moron!

Don't worry, I surely would have be the one who parked there too, without knowing what it was.  The morons are the ones who let this thing grow there, mowing it and and taking care or this nice and clean lawn.


Be careful on your way, and congrats to your Dad, he's an athlete!

[ratdude747]

The buffalo were in one of two buffalo preserves within the Land Between the Lakes recreation area. Specifically the southern one that has no admission fee (or access) and also has no Elk.

[grumpin]

Cool! Funny We just drove near Land Between the Lakes, and I have relatives near Henderson Tennessee.

My aunt worked for Buford Pusser!

[ratdude747]

I work for Arvin Sango. We make exhaust systems and body parts for Toyota (and a couple other smaller customers). We have a facility in Henderson that supplies Toyota Mississippi (Corolla), Toyota/Mazda Alabama (Corolla Cross), and Nissan (misc. vehicles/engine platforms). Our fastest growing facility... I got to drive there last fall to fix an issue (and due to being last minute, I took my F150... and it smoked a cruise cable on the way home!).

---

Made to to Texas. All sorts of fun. I'll post more later when I have inspiration and motivation. On the plus side, doing 75 on the freeway somehow yielded me nearly 18MPG at one point (Arkansas-Texas leg).

[ratdude747]

One day away from making it home (hopefully)... and I finally have the downtime and decent (enough) internet connection to post things (the hotel wifi was 56K speeds or less most of the time... I clocked it!).

Right now I'm in Rolla, MO for the night. The route changed... as the "optimal" route became a simpler path of taking I35(W) to I44, which ran me through OKC and Tulsa. Worked out, but will add miles to the trip.

Pictures:

I won't (unless there's legitimate benevolent interest) be posting more family pictures without a bullnose connection... But, one picture fits the bill, one of the graduate (my cousin Kate) with Jenn (my wife) and I:



(this was the best one... I can't smile on camera!)

This was after we had a family lunch at Pancho's, a really awesome Mexican buffet. I mention this as it's a place my parents sought out due to having ate at one in San Antonio 39 years ago when my dad was in Officer's Basic Training with the Army. Of note was that my parents were fresh newlyweds then, and my dad was roommates/partnered with a vegetarian; my mom took a greyhound bus down to meet him for a weekend and such was his only meat he had the entire trip!

Anyway, there have been a few mishaps with the truck. One was somehow running over what looks like orange silly string at some point:





But then there was this morning. As I was pulling out of the hotel lot, my mom screamed at me because the truck was making an awful racket, which my wife narrowed down the passenger front hubcap. Sounded like a rock stuck there... but nope, a bit worse:



Turns out my cotter pin sheared, allowing the pin pieces and retainer piece to float loose in the dust cap. My dust caps are very sloppy, so that quickly allowed the dust cap to pop loose and rattle inside the hubcap.

I didn't have a spare cotter pin, but my wife had found and (for reasons unknown) picked up a hair pin (bobby pin) in a parking lot earlier, which I was able to MacGyver into a makeshift cotter pin:



I haven't noticed any noise/obvious play and I still saw grease gushing out of the bearing, so I'm letting it be for now. At a minimum I'll re-adjust the bearing nut and install a correct pin when I get home. All the pins I have are from Harbor Freight, same as the pin that failed. Maybe HF cotter pins are ?

I'm very lucky/blessed that this was caught before the bearings were compromised or I lost a wheel entirely... this was a wake-up call.

[BigBrother-84]

ratdude747 wrote

(this was the best one... I can't smile on camera!)

Lary, at least, you're admitting!

But you're lucky, the ladies with you have nice smiles that compensates!

ratdude747 wrote

Turns out my cotter pin sheared, allowing the pin pieces and retainer piece to float loose in the dust cap.

This remembers me that, maybe 15 years ago, Big Brother lost such a cuter pin, resulting in the nut tight enough to completely block the wheel (a rear wheel if I remember well).
A chance that I was going very slowly in a school zone. The truck braked and I simply stopped on the side of the street.

[Gary Lewis]

You were lucky!  It could have been a whole lot worse.  Glad your mother noticed the noise.

As for the lack of a smile in pics, I think I have one from the show a few years ago.  Will have to go look...