Eggs!

Whatever went wrong in your day probably wasn't this.

This morning on the tour of bookmarked news sites I followed a link on Time.com to an article on "The Best Campsites in Every State." I was particularly interested in seeing the parks in the states where we've lived: NV (Pam's home state), WA (my home state), CA, MI, AZ, and now OR. The NV park is great if you like barren rock outcroppings, but that's about the best they can do in a state that's 95% desert and 5% neon. In Arizona it's a park on the Havasupai (have-a-SOUP-eye) Indian reservation with req'd permits that are almost impossible to get. It's up by the Grand Canyon, so just go there. It's easy to find; the really big hole in the ground.

In Michigan it's a park in the Upper Peninsula, which means there's a 3-week window in August when the place isn't buried in snow. California was another park that requires a special permit that's drawn at random for one of 10 camping sites, so you can forget about that one, too. Washington's best according to this article is a state park on the far west side of the Olympic Peninsula due west of Tacoma. I'm sure it's lovely.

For Oregon they tagged Cape Blanco State Park. The accompanying picture showed a picturesque lighthouse with a sandy beach and Pacific Ocean in the background.
Do NOT believe it.
We learned by experience never to camp at a place with the word cape in its name. We stayed at Cape Blanco S.P. for two nights a few years ago before checking out two nights ahead of our scheduled departure.
Could. Not. Take. It.
I never thought about it, but by definition a cape is a promontory, a piece of land that juts out into a body of water, in this case the Pacific Ocean. That means the wind blows hard 24 hours a day almost every day, and even in August it's a COLD wind. That lighthouse is beautiful and the tour is fascinating. Once inside you don't want to leave because it means going back out into the freezing wind. The state thoughtfully planted hedges between campsites, but it didn't work. It's still like standing in a 40-degree wind tunnel. Now I'm wondering who chose that park as OR's best, and why!

Free advice (trust me on this): drive right by any campground named "Cape anything" and proceed on down the road until you get to one with the word Bay or Port in the name. In our case we retreated to Port Orford State Park 20 minutes down the coast and a world away in terms of weather.

You're welcome.

The weather was better today so I worked on Sally. Because I have spray paint left over from the truck I decided to detail the engine bay. Improvement at no cost.

< Before.
This doesn't show the air cleaner or oil filler cap, but they were the correct Ford blue. I bought a can of that blue to fix the incorrect orange valve cover. Note the blue head underneath.

After >

After I painted the valve cover I decided the air cleaner and oil filler cap also needed painting so it would all look fresh. That meant removing the decal off the front of the air cleaner, but for $5 I can get a reproduction decal, and will when I've got other things to order.

Now I'm working on a fresh coat of black paint on the sides and firewall. It won't look as good as the truck does because in that case I had the engine out and could do a better job of prep and painting. It will still look better than it does. (The side you can see in the background had already been painted when I took this pic. I'm doing the other side today.)

I ordered a manual choke conversion kit from Summit Racing for all of $10 and it will arrive tomorrow. It's a universal kit, so we'll see if it works on this somewhat odd carb.

In the 1800's the Netherlands had laws requiring a separation between the nation's Protestants and its Catholics that included separate cemeteries. This couple, married 40 years, couldn't be married next to each other so the Protestant husband and Catholic wife got grave sites on opposite sides of a wall between their respective cemeteries and had stone hands carved to link them. Awwww.





THIS JUST IN!!!!

The truck auction is now LIVE. You can see it here:
http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1959-chevrolet-pickup-truck-3200-longbed-fleetside/
BaT has a system that eliminates sniping (last second bids put in by a 3rd party computer program that games the system). Any bid within the last two minutes extends the time out another two minutes, meaning the auction can go on well beyond its published end point. I watch the ends often - it's fun to see how they go - and most show the most increase in bid price after the close point as bidders work against each other, each bid extending the time another two minutes.

We are selling this for financial reasons; I can't justify having this much money sitting in the garage when we live as close to the belt as we do. So we're praying for solid bidding that takes it up to what I  think is a fair price, well above the reserve BaT agreed to. Feel free to join us in that. And if you know anyone who might be interested please point them to the auction page. Thanks!