Or, go ahead; ask me about my summer vacation :)
First and foremost, there is due a very big "Thank you" due to TYEE
Triumphs, the Portland Triumph Owners Association and the British Columbia
Triumph Registry. They jointing host the Annual All Triumphs Drive In and
this year it was in Olympia, Washington. I would surely forget someone who
went out of their way to make me feel welcome and among friends, so I will
not even attempt to recite all of the names, but suffice it to say it was on
of the very best shows I have ever attended. I was most impressed with the
emphasis on the people and the criteria for selecting winners. This was no
"concourse" show and the selection was based on stories and histories of the
cars. Next year they are having it in McMinnnville, OR. and I would highly
recommend it to any one who can make it.
Oh, where to start? I left Charleston, Illinois on August 12th. The
odometer showed 35,388 miles when I filled up that morning. The original
plan was to travel to Moscow, ID, and then to the west coast, as much as
possible via two lane roads. The first car stop occurred less than 10 miles
from home. An annoying high speed miss (which I thought had been sorted)
reared its ugly head once again. It was not a good start to the trip.
After fiddling for a few minutes it seemed to clear and it was off again.
Of course, virtually the only rain all trip came down in sheets less than 30
miles from home. Once again, the miss came back, but by now I was limited
to stopping under cover. Fortunately, a local Ace Hardware store provided
the needed canopy for a stop and parts. I installed a new set of plugs
(after buying a gapping tool - Do we ever go anywhere with everything we
need?) and bought a turkey baister to vacuum out the carbs. When the rain
stopped the car seem to be running a lot better. It turns out later that
the plugs were probably unnecessary, but in the pouring rain, it seemed like
a good idea at the time.
Wondering through Northwestern Illinois I stopped for lunch at a very small
town called Ipava, IL. I had promised myself that each meal would be in a
local eatery and I was going for the daily "blue plate special." For the
most part I was able to meet that goal.
In central Iowa I stopped for supper and noticed that there was oil all over
my shoes and pooling in the drivers side foot well. Not good :-( .
Investigation revealed a very slight oil leak at the union for the oil
pressure and temp. sender. OK, we can handle this. The first attempt at
tightening up the connection just resulted in making it worse. As luck
would have it, I was directly across the street from an Advance Auto parts
store. They were able to sell me a new connection, loan me a tube cutter
and in less than an hour, all was well, but I was starting to have serious
misgivings about this whole scheme.
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