Out From Under The Wrench

Fredericksburg, Texas
After taking the truck into the shop for the purpose of spending some of my excess money, the leak was the next mess to tackle. We older folks with trifocals know how easy it is to see close up above our eyebrows. Of course it is even easier when you are contorted to fit under the RV size lavatory cabinet as you reach back into a tunnel 6" x 6" to tighten a piping fitting and hold a flashlight steady in the other hand. As the day progressed, so did the leak stoppage. It is down to a very small seepage at the last examination. It looks good for total success.

The truck has come out from under the wrench in great shape. This afternoon they found out that a power steering hose was cracked on the truck and got extremely lucky that the dealer had one in stock for no good reason.

The check engine light was a mystery to the technician. He downloaded the codes and got things like one battery is missing or the rear brakes have failed. From the looks of things everything is OEM on the truck until the two repairs I have had done here in Fredericksburg. Once again the repair shop at Crenwelge GM has done well. Brian and Becky are the service writers and they do a good job. The technician cleared all the goofy codes out of the computer so we have a clean baseline if something causes the light to come on again. With the $237 today and the $180 a couple of weeks ago, I feel like the old truck has done well for having 93000+ miles on it. And it still runs great.

Since I love to have pictures in my blog, I decided that my FAMOUS ALL OVER THIS TRAILER chicken stew needed to be shown to the whole world.

I stopped typing this blog long enough to try the stew and had to have a second bowl of it before I could make up my mind it was delicious. Maybe I need a third bowl to confirm it.

March 19 looks like the day that my travels will continue. My money situation is a puzzle to me in some ways. The rate I spend for diesel can exceed my monthly budget for all other things combined. For now it seems that I must spend more time in a single spot to save on diesel. At nearly $4 a gallon here, I can easily burn $50 a day in touring without the trailer. Towing costs about $.36 a mile and not towing runs about $.23 a mile for actual operating costs. The best choice over going back to “work”( a four letter word if I ever heard one) is to kick back at each location longer. Maybe the adsense ads will attract enough shoppers to make the difference. After all they are averaging a big $30 a month now.

For now my schedule looks like Big Bend next. Then where I do not know, but I do have to be in Garland Texas June 1 for an important graduation. Then I plan on going diamond hunting in Arkansas and into Alabama for Fathers Day with my son, his wife and her family.

A big decision awaits me in the near future. Will I have enough money to continue my travels if I start SSA at 62 or will I have to go back to work and put off SSA until later? Oh my. All the decisions and old fat man has to make while trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.