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| Closing Thoughts |

 

We went to bed fairly early last night (11:30) so we were up at 7:00 am to get an early start. We didn't fill the t-case last night so we had to do that before we got on the road.  Because the Lucas Tranny Oil is so thick, and we need to run it through a small IV hose to get it in it is a very slow process.  The fact that it was raining didn't help much either.  Will was laying on the wet parking lot (like the trooper that he is) while I stood on the bottle to push the oil through the hose as fast as we could.  Even with all 250 lbs of me on the bottle ,it still took a good 45 minutes to fill the t-case. That is a good indicator that either the t-case was really empty, the oil was really thick, or I wasn't heavy enough.  We hope it was the latter 2, and I am pretty sure that it was primarily due to the fact that I am too light.

We finally got on the road at 9:00 after we got some gas, coffee and twinkies for breakfast.  After 10 miles we had to stop and put on our rain gear and some warmer clothes.  It was raining pretty good and we are completely exposed to the elements in the jeep.  Not having windshield wipers on the Jeep makes the rain that much less desirable.  We froze half our asses off (the left side for the driver and the right side for the passenger) until 11:00 am when the rain finally stopped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is 12:05, as I type this on my phone, we are pulling over so I can drive since Will just dozed off while driving.  That is a real good indicator of how tired he is cause this thing is nothing like a cozy recliner.   I wondered why he suddenly decided to play chicken with a dude on a motorcycle, which I immediately thought was quite unfair, and then I saw him do the "head bob" and realized that he was sleeping.  If it wasn't so noisy driving down the highway I'm sure I would have been clued in a bit quicker by his snoring, which he has demonstrated quite successfully for the past 6 nights.

 

While I drove Will had a well-deserved snooze (in the passenger seat this time) which is quite hard to do considering the fact that the seat doesn't recline, it's noisy and windy as hell and bumpy but worst of all is the fact that if you doze off and tip to the right you will be abruptly woken by the pavement at 45 mph.  Did we mention yet that there are no seatbelts in the Jeep?  This is just another component of the thrill and adventure.  We are relying purely on the airbags, cautious and careful southern drivers, lack of speed, 1948 safety features and our finely honed driving skills.  Thank god the brakes barely work or we'd be really screwed.  Not having signal lights on the Jeep poses another challenge (they didn't put them on the old Willys Jeeps) and we are getting really good at our hand signals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 680 - 11:30 am so far we have gone 105 miles which given the conditions is not too bad at all.  Another 150 or so miles and we will be looking for a hotel...hopefully by around 4:00 pm if all goes well.

We have a new challenge to deal with today; for some reason the Jeeps exhaust is blowing into the cab of the jeep. Either the wind is just blowing the wrong way (there is a good chance that we are going with the wind and the wind is faster than we are) or we may have an exhaust leak somewhere towards the front. Unfortunately, it is probably the latter and not much we can do about it anytime soon. Our eyes are burning and we both have headaches because of the exhaust fumes. Yet another challenge to add to the list.

 

Mile 695 - 12:45 pm stopped for lunch at Wendys in Jackson, TN. We were back on the road by 1:15. Our goal for today is to get as far into Arkansas as we can. Our main objective is to be in a hotel by 6:00 pm and in bed bed by 9:00.

Mile 701 - Will got his second wind after lunch and wanted to keep driving so that I can keep writing today's journal as we go. The last thing we feel like doing when we check into the hotel is to sit in front of our laptops for a few hours.  Maybe this way we can have our daily journal done before we even get to the hotel. I am sure to have blisters on my thumbs by the end of the trip because I am typing this on my phone which has a tiny keyboard. Ya gotta love technology.

Mile 715 - highway 412 turned into interstate 155 so we were forced to take the Interstate for the first time on this trip.  It wasn't too bad, we pinned it and kept her at a steady 52 mph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 770 - we nearly ran out of gas so we pulled off the interstate and added 5 gallons from our spare gas can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 809 - we hit Arkansas and stopped for pictures at the state sign.  Will took over driving again because it was Vance's turn to get tired.  It is 4:30 pm and we have decided that we will stop for the day at the next nice hotel...which hopefully is purdy soon.  It has warmed up a bit, but it is still kinda cool, probably around 70F so we are still wearing our jackets.  The sun is out and not a cloud in the sky so we won't complain...too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We figured out what was causing the exhaust fumes.  When we have the air conditioning off (the vent door on the windshield), like we did this morning, the air circulates from the back to the front which brings the exhaust fumes into the cab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 836 - Will's ass is sore.

Mile 845 - 5:43 pm we stopped in Walnut Springs to ask directions to the nearest hotel.  While we were out of the Jeep we noticed that the t-case was leaking alot more than usual.  Since we were parked on an angle, we hoped that it was just dripping off of the skid plate where it had collected all day.  Since the nearest hotel was 40 miles away we thought that we should top it off just to be safe.  We found the nearest Napa and bought a bigger hose to use for the IV, since it took so long to fill this morning.  The bigger hose ($3.59) was our best purchase so far on this trip...other than the Jeep obviously.  What took us 45 minutes this morning took only 4 minutes this time.  After adding 3/4 of a bottle of Lucas we were back on the road by 5:52 pm.  We are now praying to the hotel gods that we find a hotel soon, let alone a decent one.

 

Mile 886 - 7:05 pm we checked into the Days Inn at Hardy's Arkansas (870) 856-4241 which is a fantastic place if you happen to go to Hardy's.  When we checked in, Jane gave us a discount which we really appreciated.  Right after we checked into the hotel we walked across the street and went to Cozumel (Mexican food) and had a great meal.  We were back to the hotel by 8:00 pm, took our laptops outside and started working on updating the website while we enjoyed a big fat cigar.  Our plan was to get finished early tonight so we could get a good nights sleep.  It is already 11:00 pm so it looks like that isn't going to happen....again.

 

 

 

 

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