February, 2006 - Bridge Coast to Coast Saga

February
February 3. Started our temporary jobs at Walmart today, 4 hours of orientation. This afternoon we installed a new carburator on the Suzuki, Mike was the surgeon and I was the assistant, go-fer and tool technician. After 3-4 hours it was in and it started right up. Yeah!!!

February 9. We've been working about 6 hours/day this week except for Dr. and dentist appointments that we are trying to take care of before we head down the road again. I signed up for an online writing course through Barnes and Noble University that started on Monday and its been a bit of a struggle to stay focused. Its been a while since I've taken any classes and it will take me a while to structure my study time.

February 12. The temps today were in the low 50s today. We hung around the house and I fixed lasagna for dinner and baked one of my favorite cakes, a yellow cake with mandarin oranges with topping made from cool whip, vanilla pudding, and crushed pineapple.

Mike worked at setting the carburetor on the Suzuki. It still isn�??t running well and his frustration level is really increasing. We�??re hoping it gets us to work in the morning.

During the night it got really cold, a record breaking 21° at 4:30 am. In the wee hours of themorning, the furnace quit pumping warm air and the fan ran steady. After shutting it off and turning the temp way up, it started to work again.

February 13. Mike went out to start the car at 6:30 am, let it run for 30 minutes. When we left for work at 7:30, it wouldn�??t go. We got a few hundred feet out the driveway when it just wouldn�??t go. After warming up for another 10 minutes, we headed down the road. It couldn�??t get up to speed so we pulled over several times to let traffic by. After limping along for about 3 miles, we decided it just wasn�??t going to work so we called our boss and begged off for the day, thinking that we could use the time to find the missing part. She told me the remodel job didn't really start until next week, so take the week to get things fixed.

After many phone calls to auto parts stores, junk yards, weber.com in California, any possible source, we were out of luck. The mood around here was getting worse. I felt like I had back when we were trapped because of Lucy and no car. The Suzuki was to give us the freedom to move around when we wanted; shopping, jobs, movies, just regular transportation needs, but it hasn�??t been the reliable source we were looking for. We finally ended up taking it to a place that was referred by our good friend John.

February 16, Ben�??s 29th birthday and we had a nice, long conversation.
The Suzuki turned out to be ok, needed adjusting, spark plugs, had the oil changed and the tires checked (all but the front driver�??s tire are bent wheels, not an urgent problem) �?? turned out to be $160. Mike really did ok, just didn�??t know when to stop tweaking.

February 19. Today we put the Suzuki to a test and drove it to the Ocala National Forest, about 60 miles east of here. We took some of the Forest roads, deep into the forest. The 4-wheel drive was tested on a really bumpy road that had big puddles along the route. The road took us through dense forest, along a marsh and lake. We drove until we got to the sign pointing to �??Grasshopper Acres�?� and decided it was best not to venture down that stretch, so we turned around. After finding a nicely shaded area, we parked and had a picnic lunch. It was really fun and it felt so good to have a dependable vehicle that could actually keep up with traffic and didn�??t jump down the road any longer.

February 22. I've given up on the class already - just don't have the time to devote. The Suzuki is back up and running well and we have started our temp jobs at Walmart this week. Full time, 8-5, M-F - its been a long time and we're really tired and sore. I still think it will be ok. Also, we have lost our wireless connection, so probably won't be updating too often.

Created on 02/04/2006 09:33 AM by bridge
Updated on 02/26/2006 07:50 PM by bridge