Friday, October 26, 2012

Geocaching Old Man River

This was Nic's day with us Monday. His little sister is at St Jude's and we wanted to take Nic out to see the town. His older two sisters were busy with home schooling so it was just us three.

He just had his 4th birthday and is really a joy to have around. He is hyper with lots of good questions. His dad was not quite as inquizative at this age.

So, we headed down by the river. It was busy Monday and parking was expensive. We found a free parking area right on the river so we were off to geocache and see the sights.

Nic was looking over one of the caches. He is trying to figure out just what we are doing hunting these "treasures" that look kinda funny to him, and no money in them.

We ventured only a couple of blocks from the river.

Seeing these trollies really excited Nic. We did not have time for a ride. So, we are now planning a trip back to get Nic, and his older sisters, on the trolley.


One last picture of Nic next to a new monument. This is a tribute to a fella that saved lots of lives during a boat wreck back in the 20's.
Nic had fun but I think I had more fun. Teri and I enjoy our grandchildren. It is kinda rare to have a day with just one.
Thanks for stopping by. We grabbed 4-5 caches. Was not our primary thing but did help us show Nic areas that he has never seen before.
See ya soon.
Dan

Malden Mo. Car Show

My partner for the day. Tyler and I got around early Saturday and headed down to the Malden car show. Was a little nippy but not bad.

Lots of trucks always show up here. I suppose it has to do with the fact that this is a farming community.

The city blocks off downtown for the event. I think the count this time was about 88 entries.

Super clean. I had a flathead with 3 duce setup a few years back.

I like seeing old cars with modern parts. Disc brakes are fairly inexpensive to add. Got them on the bug. Great stopping power.

Not my color.

Lots of these were on the strips back in the early 70's.

Flames, I think they are a bit outdated but this is not my car.

Very nice, detail driven, 63. It has a nice new 1600 in the back. Love modernized vehicles.

Speaks for itself.

This is a very nice double cab dually.

I suppose it takes a real man to operate this rig.

48 ish.

Our ride awaiting us. Always take the GMC and Vdub but I was not feeling up to par after the wreck and could not get GMC cleaned up for the show.
Tyler and I enjoyed our day.
Dan

Iphone Battery

If you look close you can see hairline cracks in the back of this phone. What you can not see is that the back of the phone is also pushed out, in a perfect imprint of the battery inside. On the screen I noticed somthing that made it look like it had pressure from behind. Was a small area in the middle of the screen.
Battery was swelling up. Still charged and held a charge but this baby was about to blast off.
A friend of our's gave me an Iphone 3 back a few months ago. I love that phone. Tore it apart to see what it was made of. Read up on everything I could find online. Very tedious work but I have the tools and a large magnifying glass.

When I took the last screw out of the motherboard the thing just popped. This is what the flat battery looked like when I got it out.

So, keep an eye on your's. This one is a 3gs 16 gb.
Also, I have noticed the used prices of Iphones falling since the 5 came out last week. If you are interested in an Iphone, and have ATT, you can get one for 100 bux or less if you watch. Buy the 3gs, not the 3g. the gs is faster and does more. I enjoy working on both of them. Everything can be repaired unless the motherboard is bad. Do not buy one that has water damage. A new battery is about 10 bux and takes about 30 minutes to replace. You better know what you are doing though as the battery is in the bottom of the phone. Everything has to come out. You can also replace a cracked glass. Buy the one with digitizer built in. They run about 40 bux and take 10 minutes to replace. Study up before you open one of these phones. Lots or them are for sale that people have tried to repair and did not know what they were doing.
Teri and I love the Iphones.

Mr. Onan

Here is the old exhaust pipe running down to the muffler. There is a hole rusted through near the top. Not good. We rarely use the Onan with our solar. However, sometimes we do use it to run the roof air when traveling in warm weather. This kinda scared me.

Here is another bad spot in the pipe. These have only recently burned through. I heard a noise and this is what I found. I recently replaced the motor mounts on the Onan and that's when I saw the damage.

At Amana, Tom Hampton had the ready made setup so I grabbed it.

Not so easy to remove old pipe from maniflold after so many years.

A better look at the bottom hole. I don't like fire while running down the hiway. Many of you know that we had a fire in the coach and it was not fun.

What it looked like when I got it off.

Not a good clamp. Took it off and decided to use the old one instead. This new pipe has a bushing in it to reduce the size to fit the manifold. Makes it hard to tighten.

Woops, as you can see, not an exact bolt up.

Never fear. My son in law is a machinist. Put him to work on it. He made me a piece so I can use a stainless clamp to hold the thing on. Have been too sick and injured, from a car wreck, to get it on. But, I will do it in a few days.
Oh, I forgot. Got the Vibe really messed up and twisted my back. My son in law is going to fix the Vibe and use it as a car to drive back and forth to work. We don't need it right now and I don't feel like fixing the rear axle. It was pretty much knocked out of it by a Denali doing 50 mph.
Hope everyone is doing ok. Life is pretty good here. I have been sick since Monday and now have a cold settled in my chest. But, will improve shortly.
Dan

A Short Update

We got up to the GMCMI Convention and I was locked out of the blog. Ticked me off. Could not get into it no matter what I did. They continue to make changes and not all of them are good. We had lots of fun and visited with lots of friends, in Amana, Ia.
As you know, I love children. Maybe it has to do with my iq or something. I was blessed to have a grandfather that spent lots of time with me. He died when I was 11 years old, but he taught me a lot. I do my best to share the things I learned from him with our 16 grandchildren. Here, 2 brothers, Colsyn and Rylan, are geocaching with grandpa. We get lots of ticks and chiggars.

Locked up and ready to roll. We drove about 435 miles north along Old Man River. Our first run north of St. Louis on hiway 61. Great drive and 4 lane all the way to I-80.

A shot of some of the 158 coaches in Amana, behind the bug.

Guess who.

Jeff and Jon. Jon owns a GMC. Both own Vdubs and we met in Effingham at the big VW show a couple of years back. They live up in the twin city area of Mn. Came down for the day. Great friends.
I posted all of the Convention photos on the GMC site if you have not seen them yet.

Home and ready to take Spiderman for a ride.

This is one of grandpa's buddies. Nic is 4 years old. He lives just south of Nashville. We don't get to see him and his 3 sisters enough so we make the most of every minute together.
Nic's 2 year old sister has a cancerous tumor and is in St. Jude's in Memphis. She is doing well and we hope they can take it out soon. Teri and I have spent time running back and forth for the last two months.

2 year old Larsyn. He too loves hanging out with grandpa. Guess where we are headed.

Yep, his first visit with grandpa to the local drug store soda fountain. He is no different than the others. Loves that ice cream with grandpa.
So, there is a short update. Sorry it has been so long. I have more to post shortly on the Onan and other things. Thanks to those calling and asking about us. Also thanks for the prayers for our 2 year old granddaughter.
Dan