3 Mechanics: 2 Babes: 1 Rig

Woke up this morning to a big Hallelujah!! The torsion bar is in. Everybody scream....ahhhhhh!!!!! Very excited, J' was off to get it before I even had the bed made. It's going to be a big day! J' walked down to Wayne's to chatty Cathy it up before going to the mail place. The two boys went down to get the part but it wasn't in yet, so they came back to our rig for a bit, taking parts of the van off to get it ready for the big day.

[caption id="attachment_1912" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Getting Joon ready[/caption]

Since it is Saturday, we only had about an hour and a half window before they closed, so we had all our fingers & toes crossed hoping it would get there before that happened. About 25 minutes later, the boys were back in Gigi (Wayne's truck) to get the torsion bar...it will be there this time!

And...it was!

[caption id="attachment_1913" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Longer & Better than the old one![/caption]

J' had a lot of work cut out for him for the day...I try to help but always just end up getting in the way so he lets me sit and take pictures and keep an eye on the 'Bug! Hooray, haha.

[caption id="attachment_1915" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Working Hard & Hardly Working...what a pair![/caption]

J' decided to put the shackles on today too, since we had the rig pulled apart. Also very helpful, was Wayne with his 20 different kinds of jacks...it would have been hell trying to do all of this without those things.

[caption id="attachment_1914" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Jacked up![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1916" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Rusty Shackleford[/caption]

Around 3 p.m. or so, J' started back working on the torsion bar...the shackles took a bit of time, just then we had another visitor approach camp! Looked like we were having a Pit Crew Party! haha Our newest friend, Jim, was coming to say good-bye....little did he know he was about to get down, dirty and closer to the action than he probably wanted!

[caption id="attachment_1917" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pit Crew Partay[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1918" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Next time, he'll call before coming over, haha[/caption]

Jim was pretty handy with giving J' a big hand under and on top of the van, along with having some wooden boards for the jacks. We were very fortunate today...not only for the part coming in on time, but for good friends that stop everything they are doing to help a couple of "crazy kids" out, like ourselves! A HUGE THANK YOU TO WAYNE & JIM for being selfless, thoughtful and so very helpful today. We really couldn't have done half of what we did today without you.

[caption id="attachment_1926" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Daddy's little helper[/caption]

 We finished up with everything right around sunset! Woo Hoo!! After everyone left, we loaded everything up into Joon...only took an astonishing 20 minutes, instead of the hours and days in Shaver Lake, and headed out to see how she rolled and get a bite to eat...for celebration of course! You really don't know how great it feels to have wheels rolling underneath you until you're immobile for 10 days...it's quite the feeling! We went straight to Little Caesar's Pizza for a $5.00 Pepperoni Pizza and chowed down right there in the parking lot. It was definitely the best pizza we had all day! What a great day, a great feeling and great friends! Our bellies are full now and we can go anywhere we want...it feels good to be free again!

Have you freed yourself today?

PEACE

All the livelong day

J' still had some grinding to do to get the rest of the torsion bar parts off and he just went to town on it until it was done...took him a good part of the morning. Now everything is completely off and ready for the new part, whenever it comes in.

[caption id="attachment_1687" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Big Bitch[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1689" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Right side= where it broke[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1686" align="aligncenter" width="225"] The man of the hour[/caption]

 I still wasn't feeling well today but I was feeling the joy of not having to be anywhere else to deal with it. So that was a plus on the day! I made us some burgers for lunch to get rid of the last of the meat before our ice was completely gone. I then made sure to dump my entire plate flat upside down onto the rocks...making Savannah a very happy dog! I was lucky enough to be able to save the burger somewhat so at least I got some food out of it. Like my friend Jim would say, "Those chips would just go straight to your hips anyway!" haha

[caption id="attachment_1690" align="aligncenter" width="300"] You're welcome Nana![/caption]

So you know how, back in Shaver Lake, we were having all of those problems with Yellow Jackets? (Well, if you're not caught up... we were having major problems with them...c'mon catch up!) We were so happy to not have one single Yellow Jacket around us out here. We did have a couple of flies here and there but nothing to bother you too much. All of a sudden in the past few days, these flies have been just as bad if not worse than the Yellow Jackets. See the Y.J's only came out when you were cooking, then they would leave. The flies....they are around all day long. Sure, they don't bite you but they sure do bug the hell out of ya! At this point in the afternoon, it got to be too much to take. After doing some research on easy ways to get rid of them, J' took a walk to the store to get some peroxide. Savannah & I hung out, I pulled the bed down...just not feeling well at all. She watched out the window for her daddy the entire time he was gone and I went back and forth watching for him as well as The Beverly Hillbillies...such a funny show! J' told me I'm a lot like Granny...she's funny as hell so I'll take that as a compliment, haha!

[caption id="attachment_1692" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I love our bed![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1691" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Such a stalker[/caption]

 J' was gone for a couple of hours. It actually started getting dark and he wasn't back yet, so I walked outside to see if I could see him...haha no luck! I can't even see him when it's bright outside, the desert just swallows you up! I went back in to get the flashlight and waved the light around hoping he would see his beacon of light! A couple of minutes went by, I turned it off...took a couple of pictures of the very cool moon and then tried again.

I waved the light back and forth, up and down and waited again. This time I heard my babaa' whistle at me, he sounded close but still pretty far away, I couldn't see him at all! I stood there with the light until he came into camp...all is better now. I can relax, Savannah can relax, he can sit down and relax and tomorrow (please forgive us) we're gonna get those flies!

Mwah-ha-ha

PEACE

Cleaning, Grinding & Digging

I know you are just dying for an update and I apologize for being a few days behind. First things first, the torsion bar... J' ended up walking over to Home Depot a couple of days ago and got an angle grinder to take it out. The darn thing just would not come out or off any way ya sliced it...so he sliced it in half and finally got the darn thing off!

[caption id="attachment_1674" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Grinding away[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1675" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Only half of it![/caption]

Our new friend, Wayne, offered us a couple of jack stands that he isn't using.  He came to check in on us after reading about the torsion bar problems from the blog, how cool is that!? He then whisked J' away to get some fresh water...FREE Water!! He's a super nice guy with a heart of gold.

Thanks Wayne! 

During the day, while J' was walking, grinding, refreshing, grinding, etc. I started feeling not so well throughout the day but figured J' already had a lot on his plate for the day, so I thought I would help with some things. I did my first potty dump ever, probably not the cleanest of all things I could have done but it needed to be done. ..so now it's done! I spent a good hour or so spraying, wiping, rinsing, filling...all of the fun stuff! 

[caption id="attachment_1676" align="aligncenter" width="225"] So fresh & so clean, clean[/caption]

The next morning I would find out that I did a few things wrong:

1&2- I twisted off the wrong cap to pour deodorizer & water into the wrong area! 3- When I twisted the cap back on, it actually didn't twist back on but crossed the threads, so it leaked a little (good thing we have the mats like we do, they got taken out and washed). 4- I didn't put any water into the top of it. Well, all I can say is, at least I tried to help. It did get a very thorough cleaning AND all the gummed up T.P. was taken out, so I did do some good! I also cleaned the inside of the van up, it looks so purty!

 I hung curtains on the outside of Joon to make it cooler on the inside...it sure heats up in here during the day. A big thank you out to SoulRaven for the curtains!

The rest of the day, when J' wasn't gone or grinding, he was working or reading on the torsion bar. I moved from one spot to another moanin' & groanin' and Savannah dug herself into a frenzy trying to get a hold of one of those Kangaroo Mice...poor things! She sure is a good digger though...she's bound to strike oil out here!

[caption id="attachment_1679" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Digging to China[/caption]

 We all know what she would do with those little mice too...exactly what she does with everything of hers... saves it for later!

[caption id="attachment_1683" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sha-Sha's all locked up![/caption]

Let's just hope for everyone's sake she never catches up with those scared little mice but it is good exercise for her! haha

PEACE

 

Things that go BAM in the night

So...we're laying in bed last night. I had been tossing and turning and staring at the stars through the window. J' was in sleepy land.

BAM!

It shook us both up and alert. It felt like we were just rammed by, a, well... Ram! We both looked out the windows, watching for movement. We put on the headlights...nothing. We laid back down after a while and going through different scenarios. We figured maybe we fell off of the rocks we were leveled on...went back to sleep.

A sleeplessness night later...

We got out of the van to investigate what had happened last night, as we came around the driver side we saw something that didn't look so right. The frame looked like it was sitting right on top of the tire.

[caption id="attachment_1599" align="aligncenter" width="300"] What's wrong Joon?[/caption]

Running through what might have been the problem, nothing looked broken, ripped, cracked, popped... nothing. J' opened the hood to make sure nothing popped up and through something in the engine compartment. Everything looked fine.

After some research and talking to some peeps on a forum about it, J' found out it was most likely the torsion bar. For those of you that don't know what a torsion bar is or what it does, here's a quick lesson:

The torsion bar is a suspension component.

It twists ever so slightly to adjust ride height. 

[caption id="attachment_1600" align="aligncenter" width="300"] That's not right![/caption]

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to break it free. It's just too wide one way and too long another way (yeah, yeah...that's what she said).

We needed a contortion bar! haha ka-dink-shh...Get it?

Anyway, we're not too worried about it. We are close to town so that's a plus, for walking or short trips if we decided to go that way. It's nothing we can't handle, we're in a good place. I'll let you know how it goes and how it goes down!

Catch ya' on the flip side, yo'!