And the hits just keep a'commin'.
The left strut that holds the Blazer tailgate up froze at some point. The next time I tried to close the tailgate something had to give and that something was the ball part of the ball-and-socket connection that held the top of the strut to the back of the car. The ball was a "permanent" fixture that now sits in the cup tray while the strut sits in a trash can at O'Reilly's. I didn't buy a generic strut because there's no way to mount the top of it. When we get home I'll work on a way to reattach the ball to the Blazer. There's enough tension on the strut that I don't think JB Weld will work. I may see about getting it welded on. Yes, I have a welder but it's new and I haven't welded a thing with it. This seems a poor choice of projects for entry into the world of welding. So I'll take it someplace and see if they can reattach that ball. If not.....
a stout stick?
I got a hot shower this morning, so there's that.
The great State of California hires idiots to do their plumbing. If the shower faucet is turned to cold you get scalding hot water and if you move it to full blown hot you get ice cold water. Apparently figuring out which line supplied which temp water was more than the plumber could master. But now I know why the water never got hot yesterday.
We went for a .8 mile hike yesterday through a redwood grove. It was beautiful, very impressive. and fascinating. I may go back this afternoon and do three or four laps running to get in some exercise.
Oh, and we're sitting at a Starbucks in Santa Cruz. We came down for the auto parts store and so I could do some searching for parts online. This 'bucks has outlets so we're both charging everything.
Without electric at the campsite I was also in some serious need of a cup of hot black coffee.
So the camping trip hasn't been a complete bust.
At this point the plan is to come back to the campsite after church and the picnic, get everything packed up and ready to roll, sleep for a few hours, and then hit the road in the middle of the night. The rout goes through San Jose and on the way south it was traffic chaos with the northbound lanes a parking lot. If we leave in the wee hours of Monday morning we should be well north of that before the commuters are out of bed. And we'll also be doing the hottest part of the drive in the cooler a.m. hours which should help assuage any overheating.
I'm still not sure it isn't normal behavior for this vehicle.
I was thinking about heaven at 3 a.m. this morning when I couldn't sleep. I made a list of people I want to look up, family and friends who have gone before and whom I miss. Some are family but others are people who had an influence on my life in one way or another.
Then I thought about people who have gone on before I do not want to see. Those who, in my opinion, did me some serious dirt.
Of course that will not be part of the eternal good God has prepared for his children. I think that's interesting in an odd sort of way. And I'm not even sure it works like that.
Will I know and remember those who blessed, discipled, befriended me and their gracious role in my life while at the same eternity forgetting the dirt?
If it were important he would have explained it to us.
The campground is on Graham Hill Road just outside of Felton, CA.
Me: Do you know who Graham Hill was?
Pam: Yeah, he was a basketball player.
Me: No, he was a very famous British race car driver.
Pam (smugly): No, he was a basketball player.
This went on for awhile, Pam insistent and me wondering why my wife, who can barely spell the word sports was so confident I was wrong about a race car driver and she was right about a professional basketball player.
When we got to the coffee shop yesterday she furtively looked it up online. She didn't say anything until we got back in the car.
Pam: OK, I'm only going to say this once and then we're never going to talk about it again. You were right, Graham Hill was a race car driver and Grant Hill was a basketball player. There, I said it.
Me: Absolutely. I'll never mention this again as long as we live. But I think my next blog post is written.
Pam: Don't you dare!!
OK, you have to understand this was all in fun, we laughed through the whole thing, and - as is always the case in "disputes" like this - we had fun with it.
You should also understand that I pointed out the drive back to our campground took us up Grant Hill Road. Or not.
So I looked it up. Isaac Graham was one of the early settlers of this area back before it was a state. He was wealthy and had, among other income producers, a timber business. He cut down redwood trees and hauled them down the hill to the docks in Santa Cruz on a road now named after him. Hence, Graham Hill Road.
And Graham Hill the British racing legend is the only driver ever to win racing's triple crown: the Indy 500, the 24 Hours of LeMans, and the F1 championship.
I think we'll go find a park to eat our lunch sandwiches and maybe walk the beach a bit. It's a cool day here in Santa Cruz where the marine layer is still covering up the sun. But that should clear soon and make for a nice day in a really crazy town.
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