Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Day 5 – Pioneer Village, rain, and bad wheel bearing

TDSCF5311We 5 Model A’s (Bob and Pat, John and Judy, Jack and Don , Will L., and Bill R) and one modern (Sharon and Chris Pelikan) hit the road early yesterday and ticked off 100 miles and arrived at Pioneer Village in Minden, NE just about when they opened. We spent a big chunk of the day there looking at all the collections. Cars, trucks, tractors, farm equipment, bicycles, stoves, washing machines, airplanes, bells, radios, tools, there is one of everything under the sun there.

TDSCF5314When we saturated, we sat down, had root beer floats and revised our travel plans a little. We made contact with John at Speedway Motors and arranged for an early morning tour of their museum, so we decided to stretch our day and get all the way to Lincoln, NE. We bid Sharon and Chris goodbye and hit the road again. In the meantime, it had started to rain, and it rained most of the way to Lincoln. Total mileage for the day, 235 miles. Jack and Don actually got here before us today, since they took a half hour jump start on us.

TDSCF5332While at Pioneer, Will decided that he needed to do a side trip to Kansas (about 50 miles south), just so he could say that his A has been in Kansas. As the rest of us rolled into Lincoln, we got a call from Will, he was in a terrible rainstorm, lost, and had a front wheel bearing squeaking. We offered encouragement and kept our fingers crossed. TDSCF5333He made it to our hotel, but I don’t think he would have gone much farther.

After dinner, it finally stopped raining so we started working and found that the inner race was seized on the spindle. I found an auto parts store that was still open at 9:50pm and bought a couple cold chisels TDSCF5339and a propane torch. In the meantime, the guys were looking in the Model A roster and found Tom Woodman who came down and brought some heavy artillery in the form of a couple large hammers. It took a lot of pounding and chiseling, but we finally got the race off and dressed the spindle with a file. I gave Will my spare bearing and we finished at 11:30pm and fell into bed.

PS: The bad news - rain and wheel bearings, the good news - nice and cool. Today (Tuesday) we'll be crossing Iowa. Click any picture to see a larger image.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

As you cross Iowa, you should be aware of the following laws: (don't want any of you to land in the hoosegow!)
Dumb Iowa Laws
Kisses may last for no more than five minutes.
One-armed piano players must perform for free.
A man with a moustache may never kiss a woman in public.
It is a violation of the law to sell or distribute drugs or narcotics without having first obtained the appropriate Iowa drug tax stamp.
You have been warned so don't call for bail money!
Both of my parents were born in Iowa so treat the State with dignity!
Janet

M3 said...

Wow, you sure had a busy day. You stayed up later than we did last night (and probably got up 3 hours earlier)! Glad everything got fixed on Will's car. Have fun today. I'm thinking you'll need quite a bit of icecream to make up for the late night. *grin*

Anonymous said...

You think you guys are having fun - we're catching 1 or 2 ground squirrels a day and relocating them to Duveneck's (we passed on the Meneely's property)! What fun!
Bob M., it sounds like all your efforts on the coupe were more than worthwhile. Bon voyage!
Al & Mary

Anonymous said...

WOW WHAT A GREAT DAY...WHAT MORE WOULD YOU WANT...A NICE DAY...NICE COOL DRIVE...BEING ABLE TO WORK ON YOUR "A" AND MOST OF ALL MEETING NEW FRIENDS.

Anonymous said...

Way to go Model A mechanic team.
Amazing what you can do operating by flashlight in a hotel parking lot!!

Say Hi to the Iowans for Jane and I.


Bobby-

Anonymous said...

My what a busy day.Hope today is better for all, I think you've had enough rain.We went to pioneer village, it's quite a place. Hey John, Bob is waving his hands so all cars should be Ok today.Good luck to all, Drive carefully.

Anonymous said...

It sure was GREAT to be able to spend some time with the group!! We really enjoyed traveling and visiting with you. I hope your adventure went a LOT smoother today across Iowa. What a night you must have had getting Will's car back on the road. What great mechanics you have with you! Thanks for a fun time!! Chris and Sharon

Anonymous said...

hey dad, hey mom

are we there yet !!!!!!!!!!!!

i got to _ _ _

Anonymous said...

Day 5 ~~~



Well, to get this written and sent…

And since we now have lost two hours on this trip to time zone changes, the day went like this…

Left McCook a little after 6:30 and NO FLAT TIRES!!! We could even determine how fast we were going at all times.

The rain dogged us on our trip to Minden, NE. Went to Pioneer Village with Chris and Sharon, club members from the Colorado Club and old friends and members of SCVC. Sure was nice to see these two special people. Visited the extensive collection of Harold Warp, in Minden NE. for about 5 hours and then had to say goodbye too soon to Chris & Sharon. It was fun to travel with them yesterday…they had a CB that received very clearly, but when they tried to reply, all we got were squeals and whines. We wound up with a code between cars…one squeak for yes, two whines for no…

We departed for Lincoln Nebraska to tour the Speedway Motors museum in Lincoln. Will L., decided to take off a little early and get his car tires planted in Kansas territory. We were going to meet up with him in Lincoln but on his way back, in a Nebraska-style deluge, he began to detect a whine that sounded a lot like a wheel bearing going bad. Caught in a blinding downpour, lost and feelin’ low, he made it into town under monsoon conditions. After dinner tonight, a closer inspection revealed that the right front wheel bearing was welded to the axle. A nice fellow Model A’er, Tom W that lives here in Lincoln, came to the rescue with a torch, and other tools to assist in breaking the bearing free.

By 11 PM, the job was done and everyone went exhausted to their rooms…greasy, wet, and tired. Outside of that, it was a pretty good day…

Lincoln, Nebraska 11:45 PM

John & Judy

M3 said...

Ok, I KNOW there's a story behind John & Judy's "Big Al and his Babycakes" name there... *grin*

Anonymous said...

looking good keep it up. darryl and i may see you in bos. if we can get out of sfo on ual 7-16 larry c

Anonymous said...

Sure is good to hear of all the support and help you all offer and give via the experiance and late night dealing with a bad wheel bearing... Also good to see jacks car there in the picture at speedway motors day... What a great group of people you all are.
"Keep on motorin" Bob S.

Anonymous said...

Wow - I continue to be amazed by the connections that Model A club members make across the country. Or is it just the amazing SCVC members who manage to make friends every where they go who help them out in times of trouble? Or rather, that they invite to roadside and parking lot seminars?