6-6-05 Sharktrip

Our last day in NC.
While we were checking out I asked the people behind the counter where they had gotten their wooden rocking chairs out front. I forgot to mention in the post where we rolled in the hotel, how great these chairs were. They are very solid well built rockers that could definitely hold grown-ups like us comfortably without the worry of shattering them into kindling. Anyway, they said they got them right up the road so we decided to head up to the Discount Furniture Shop about a mile up.
They had a lot of nice looking furniture in there but when we asked about the chairs the proprietor said they were out of stock at the time and didn't make them locally. She got them from Lexington, NC that they were made from poplar and came unfinished. Oh... and shipping would be about as much as the cost for the chairs themselves. So, we bailed on the idea of getting four of them for the cabin.

Anyway, I took the first leg out and it was an absolutely beautiful day for a drive in the NC mountains. Had a lot of fun driving through the hills back out to the mail highway. At one point I wanted to see if the vibration went away at speed. I only took it to 99 or so and still felt the vibe to which Dan comments just a few minutes ago... "We were at 99.6, we had to get into triple digits at least once during the trip"... Only Dan can throw one down like that. I had to chuckle. And, btw... we still had the vibration. :-)

Well after my first shift, we decided to look for petrol and food since we hadn't had breakfast. Filled up and tried to head to a subway which turned out to be a gas station subway so we decided to head down a bit to look for something else. So... I'm gonna say right now... Don't hit exit 407 on I40 West at lunch time. we tried the subway and it was packed with minimally dressed gum-poppers and chimps behind the counters cranking out the pressed meat at a whopping 1 6" sub an hour. With the line 40 deep decided to head across the highway to the Wendy's. Luckily they had 6 driveways for us to choose from to get across the highway. Unfortunately, whoever designed these mini-roller coasters didn't space them very well and we couldn't cross and still had to pop a U'ee. So on to Wendy's we went... Only to find this place was packed out the ears with oldies. Dan was thinking they all fell off the bus to Dollywood, I thought it might be the casino. That or the Cracker Barrel caught on fire. Or, wait, I think it was double senior discount days if your hair was blue or you wore terminator sunglasses. Anyway, while I'm sure that line was moving faster than the teeny-bopper-hut across the street, it was still going to be a half hour line. So we decided to forge ahead, our poor little bellies swollen like starving Ethiopians (and no it had nothing to do with that 8" lobster tail and cups of drawn butter sitting low from last night, either...), foraging for somewhere that we could sit and eat. Down the road we went and finally found another Wendy's a few miles down the road.
This Wendy's was very UN-crowded. We found out why... Little did we know when we went in that we needed our ice skates. Despite the air conditioning being out and the VERY noticeable "Caution-Floor-Wet" sign, I almost did a header getting to the line. Makes sense now why there were so many ambulances just waiting outside. The burger-flippers had to have been bored out of there minds and the Ortho's at the local sew-em-up were putting more kids through phd's with neck and leg injuries from falling on the Teflon/moly coated floor.
Luckily the manager decided it was time to mop the floor right at lunch hour, fine Tennessean three-tooth that she was.
I got my food, tray in hand and gingery slid toward the ketchup dispensers when I found another 'sweet' spot. And boy did I deserve a 10 as my leg swooped out, tray dropping, biggie fires, drink and double cheeseburger trampolined into the air. With deft, fat defying speed I had my tray up caught my drink and sammich but alas most of the precious taters went on walkabout. So all I lost was a half fry, an ACL and the 3rd lumbar vertebrae. No problem. They gave me another fries... I was good to go. Except when I reached the can and LO AND BEHOLD... NO APPARENT CAUTION sign as I almost went down again. I would have except the lil old guy crawling on his hands and knees trying for his life to get out of there forewarned me. I decided to forgo the splints and gauze and we hit the road.

Oh... It's freaking HOT in Kentucky right now. Finally reached 95 degrees.

Dan's next turn was fairly uneventful, aside from standard knuckleheads getting in his way.

On my next go round of course, hit rush hour at Louisville. The heat was fairly oppressing so we had the air on and Dan had said that was the hottest he's ever seen the shark run, running about a needle below red line. He turned off the rear air and that dropped it a little but she was still real warm. It was around then that someone who's not used to stop and go rush hour with 2 accidents and other multiple vehicles pulled off to the side on the I65 North ramp decided to let the clutch out too fast and stall the car out. Imagine this embarrassed buffoons reaction when he tried to relight the mill and there wasn't even a click to turn it over. So... I tried multiple times to get it re-fired to no avail. Dan jumped out and pushed the car and I steered it off to the side of the road. Meanwhile traffic was stop and go for a couple miles behind us.
We checked all we could, tried swapping relays and got nothing. When I turned the key, Dan could feel the starter relay kick but the starter solenoid never engaged. So... we waited for things to cool down, especially since it's a fairly common issue when solenoids overheat. Meanwhile, we were trying to go over anything else it could be; any other relays or fuses, any temp sensors or switches. Dan wasn't sure if there was a clutch switch so he got down there and nosed around and found one. Then decided to try the key and the motor lit right up.
Off we went.
So, I took the wheel again until our next pit. By then the ambient temp had come down to about 85
Dan took next shift right out of Indy.
We decided to stay in Kokomo, Indiana for the night as it's getting late and its been a long day.
Wonder what the night life is like there????

Mike