My daughter once again asked me to drive her to work at 5:30a.m. and so instead of waking at my leisure and then getting on the road, I jumped up to take her to work.
Returning to her back yard and my truck, it was still dark so, until it the sun rose, I decided I might as well cut up the watermelon I didn’t have time to do yesterday. Watermelon is among the best road food, as long as it is cut into strips or chunks.
As soon as the sun rose, I set about doing the last minute actions: like making fresh black coffee, checking the motor oil dip stick – still full from recent oil change; washing off the windshield, mirrors, and windows; checking propane levels – low but I’ll get on the road; doing last minute check of inside camper including checking my veg oil level – 7” which gives me almost 1000 miles of road so I should make almost it to Philly.
My last task was to change my veg oil filters, as the truck had been sitting for a couple months and veggie oil does clog when not hot and sitting for a long time. Thank the goddesses I made that decision, because when I began to change the pre-filter, I noticed an oil leak. The hose on one side of the filter had a huge crack in it so I had to fix it.
First I tried cutting the hose all the way through, tossing that piece, and reattaching the remain piece of hose, but the brass fittings from either side were too long, making it impossible to push the fittigs in far enough to close the hose. So I had to figure out if I was going to search for where I could cut a piece from another hose under the hood, until I remembered I might have a little piece of hose saved.
So back into the rear of the truck to search the multitude of drawers until I found a piece. It was long so I was able to cut the right sized small piece and successfully reattach it to the filter connection.
Disaster avoided and competent ego inflated, so finally, I’m ready to begin my trek north. Philadelphia is my first destination. After that, I will decide after I take care of my business in Philly. I am early awaiting responses of people on the highway and at wherever I stop.
