We
got up and did our usual daily rituals..work on the website, load the
trailer, stop for breakfast at Taco Bell, go to Napa for some Lucas
T-case oil and fill the t-case before we get on the road. We added
another one to the list today which was to take off the soft top. This
is the nicest day we have had in awhile so we thought that it would be
better to finish the road trip topless.
While
we were driving last night we realized that our lights were just as
bright on dim as they were on bright. Pretty much every oncoming
vehicle that we passed flashed their lights at us thinking that we still
had our brights on. We weren't making many friends and we didn't
want to try and adjust them on the roadside in the dark so we did a
quick-fix using some duct tape...worked like a charm.
If all goes well, today will be the final day and we should be in Snow
Flake some time tonight. We didn't get on the road today until 1:30 pm
and we have 250 miles to go so it will probably be 7:00 pm local time
(we go back an hour somewhere between here and there).
We have been going through Cibola national park and have already climbed
4,000 ft so our average speed has been only 25 mph.
Mile
2,055 at 4:07 (PST) we arrived in Arizona and tried to stop to
get pictures of the welcome to AZ sign and realized that we didn't have
brakes...at all! We rolled right past the AZ sign, which just happened
to be on a downhill stretch of hwy. We geared down as much as we could
and bailed into the ditch until we came to a stop. We turned around and
went back to the AZ sign to check things out. The slave cylinder was
very comfortable where it was and we couldn't get it off to check the
fluid level, which is what we believe it to be. We decided to carry on
to the next town which is only 8 miles or so. When we got back in the
Jeep we realized that we had no clutch which meant that we were totally
immobile. We weighed our options and determined that we could carry on
without a clutch, but without both there was no way possible to carry
on. We decided that we would have another go at the brakes. With a
little more motivation, Will managed to get the cap off of the slave
cylinder and confirmed that it was dry. Guess which was the one spare
fluid that we didn't have with us?
Luckily
Wills dad met us on his Harley so he could ride with us for the last
hundred or so miles, so he jumped on his bike and rode to the nearest
town and got us some brake fluid. While he was gone we figured that we
might as well try to troubleshoot the clutch. Will adjusted the linkage
and managed to get it working enough for us to limp home. Things were
getting a little mundane for us anyway so we needed a little excitement
at the tail end of our journey. It would have really sucked to have had
to get towed for the last hundred miles. Especially considering we have
an interview with the local media tomorrow.
5:30 pm we are back on the road again, with brakes AND clutch...Yeehaw!
After
2,000 miles our GPS holder thingy (black thing in top right of picture)
broke so we had to do a quick zip-tie rear view mirror fix to get us the
rest of the way home. I was delighted that I got to use some duct
tape and zip-ties at some point throughout the trip.
We made it through NM without a ticket. Oddly enough we saw more
highway patrols driving through nm than in all the other states
combined. They all gave us a good look (but then again everyone does)
but left us alone. Maybe they felt sorry for us...or maybe the guy at
the gas station was just yanking our chain?
mile 2,072 at 6:00 pm we stopped at Springerville, AZ for our last tank
of gas. Although we still had half a tank we topped it UP just
to be safe.
Mile
2,147 at 7:45 pm we pulled into Snowflake, AZ
