Thanks to "free" wireless I can post this message to the Brickboard. This should be the first of several updates on my summer vacation in the Amazon.

Here I sit in Marion, VA at the Best Western. These are much better digs than the Kings Inn in Muscle Shoals, AL; where I spent Wednesday night. I don't know it for a fact, but I think I could have got that room cheaper. Maybe even by the hour.

It's 04:30EDT on Friday June 1. I've just had the first decent cup of coffee since leaving the house Wednesday about this same time. Man I do love a good cup of coffee.

I'm about 1000 miles into this trip. I've been taking a meandering path utilizing a combination of US highways, the Interstate system, the Natchez Trace, and some state roads. The Trace has not changed much in the dozen or so years since I was on it last. That is a good thing. I like constancy.

I really should be about 1300 miles from home (Jacksonville, TX) but I had to stop early last night. I had been breathing gasoline fumes since the first fill-up yesterday morning. For whatever reason, the sending unit gasket in the gas tank started leaking. I tightened the screws and I think it has stopped leaking. But the carpet got wet with gas. Carpet makes an excellent wick. I had to stop to let it dry overnight. I'll know pretty quickly when I get in the car if it did dry.

I think I've got a broken U-joint too. Rythmic vibration that changes intensity with changing load. An occassional shudder. And, the most scary noise you can imagine when taking off from a stop. A very loud POP that I first thought was a defective bushing on the torque rod but now I'm not so sure of that. It may be a broken arm on the u-joint at the pinion yoke. I'll let ya'll know when it finally breaks completely. ;-)

Another small problem has been the starter solenoid. The problem is worse when the car is cold, like overnight parking. It spins but doesn't engage. I tried to fix this before I left the house. I installed two other starters; both of them had their own problems much worse than this starter. I've just been parking on slight inclines so I can roll-start the car in the mornings. Maybe I'll run across a PICK YOUR PART yard and try another starter.

The point of this little jaunt in a 1966 Volvo is to attend a wedding in Connecticut. I could have taken a newer car or even my motorcycle. One would offer more comfort, the other better economy. Naw. It wouldn't have been nearly the adventure I'm having now. ;-)

I'll update this little adventure if anyone asks me to. Otherwise, I'll drop it here; I could be doing other things. Like driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

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Mr. Shannon DeWolfe -- (I've taken to using Mr. because my name tends to mislead folks on the WWW. I am a 51 year old fat man ;-) -- KD5QBL