Web Log of Our 2004 Summer in Wisconsin

 

We tried to be ready to leave on the 21st after Jeanne got home from an insipid 1/2 day at school to make up 1/2 of a professional day that had been snowed out, what a joke.  Anyway, we tried to leave on the 22nd but once again Doc Doolittle decided to be in the hospital, just like last year, with heart problems and I refused to leave Groton until he got out and back home.  So, we left on the 24th of June.  We took two vehicles, the new Van and the 99 Park Avenue Ultra.  I drove the Van and Jeanne drove the Ultra. Jeanne had 3 cats and 4 kittens in the Ultra with her and I had 3 cats and both dogs with me in the Van.

It was a very nice trip what with the A/C available in both vehicles right up to exit to Clearfield Pa. that is.  I have the Van going about 50MPH following traffic in a work zone with Jersey barriers along one side and a drop off on the right and damn, all of a sudden I can't steer. Took all my strength to steer the Van through to the exit and get into one of those Chicken and Gas places to investigate. Sure enough the serpentine belt was all wrapped around the fan blades, shot to hell.  It was easy to see that it had severe dry rot and should have been changed a few days earlier at the Ford dealer where I paid $70 for a complete safety check.  As luck would have it, this all happened about 3 minutes after the local NAPA store had closed.  So I got into the Ultra and drove the 25 miles to another town where I did find an open NAPA store and got a new belt. In the meantime Jeanne had called around to the various motels and had booked a room just incase I couldn't get a new belt and needed to wait until morning.

I got back to the Van a little after 7 so even though I was able to get the new belt installed and checked that everything was working just fine it was already to late to cancel the room so we snuggled in for the night.

Both beds were as comfortable as sleeping on a lumpy rock and don't think I didn't bitch about it to the office the next morning. The Days Inn at least offered a very nice breakfast and we had the most delightful Belgium waffles that we made ourselves in just 2 minutes.  I was so impressed that I later bought a similar Belgium Waffle maker for the cottage.