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Wednesday, 06/11/03; Rapid City, South Dakota, Day Four
Back in Commission!
That’s right! Olson’s car is ready to roll! The parts arrived as advertised and Willie and the other guys at Quality Transmissions worked hard in getting the job completed by quitting time today.
Our heros.
We all really appreciated it. Dennis brought the car back to the motel and finished the job by cutting the hole in the floorboard for the overdrive shifting lever and installing the floorboard. A test hop around the block and the job was pronounced, “Done!” It looks as though we will be on the road in the morning!
The Mitchel in place; Dennis inspects the job.
Joann had her nails done at Wal-Mart this morning and Keith fixed the brake light in the back window so that it works and re-wired the turn signal blinker module so that it isn’t hanging in front of the instrument panel. Then Joann did the week’s wash. Joanie did the Olson’s while the Smiths were at Wal-Mart.
Keith had a long talk today with Jay Burbank relative to computer viruses and sundry other things. Jay gave us a tip on the web site for the Model T’s driving from Southern California to Dearborn. This afternoon, Keith found a couple of sites and checked on the status of our friends on that tour. It seems that they, too, have had their problems, but have overcome them and are on the last leg of their trip. We wish them good luck and hope they have a good time in Dearborn.
While having lunch, we were entertained by a sudden hail (Keith wants to say “storm,” but Joann says it wasn’t a “storm!”) so we will say, “hail fall.” The sky was clear overhead and pea-sized hail started pinging on Clara’s hood and fenders. It lasted about 10 minutes and then disappeared. All that remained were puddles in the parking lot from the melted ice.
The Olsons had lunch in a nearby restaurant. Dennis was wearing a T-shirt denoting his Model A Ford interests. Some fellow came up to him and began talking Model A’s. Turned out that this fellow has a brand new Mitchell overdrive, which he purchased in 2000 at the Kansas City Convention – and he hasn’t installed it yet! Dennis asked, “Where were you on Monday?”
If things go well for us, we should be home in about eight or nine days. It depends on weather, road conditions and our ability to find motel accommodations in the “boonies.” If motels aren’t available, our daily mileage will be considerably reduced to the distances between the few major cities on our route. This could cause us to have only 200-mile days instead of 250 or 300 mile ones. Thus, our days would increase. For example, Sheridan, WY is 240 miles away. This is an easy day if there are no sightseeing stops; however, the next town with motels (to the best of our knowledge) is Hardin, 85 miles farther down the pike. This might be too far if the weather or the roads aren’t good. We will play this by ear. The computer has been handy in figuring routes and mileage, but not too reliable on the availability of motels. For this we use the AAA Tour Books (they only list AAA recommended facilities, for the most part) and the directories put out by the various motel franchises. We don’t have any info on the mom and pop operations, except by word of mouth and what the computer indicates. Usually we only find out as we drive through a town and we say, “If we only had known that motel was here, we could have driven more miles yesterday.”
Even though we have been on the road over two months, we aren’t getting “antsy” to get home. We are enjoying the tour, except for the breakdowns. We manage to grit our teeth and grin when this happens. The Smiths admire the fortitude and good humor of the Olsons through all their trials and know that there are no better traveling companions.
The “Ready to Roll” Four
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