1/26/07

Happy Australia day! I just went back and re-read the entry for the first of this year. It doesn’t seem like it but we installed the new zorst on Mr. Wiggly back in December. Of course that was five weeks ago now that I think about it. This has been a rather long and drawn out month. I also realized that the lifting blocks I finally installed in Mr. Wiggly had been purchased on the first as well. Those only took three weeks to get put in. Psh! Now that I think about it though, I've got parts sitting in George that haven’t been officially installed but were purchased years ago. Then there are all those bits for Barbecue Bob sitting in the front seats. Ok, so Mr. Wiggly’s blocks were installed in record time after all. In case you were wondering, no we didn’t make it to the shop last night so it will be the butt crack of dawn down there tomorrow. John realized that he was not planning to leave the 210 at the shop and has volunteered to join me at Dick Brink’s for the Tail of the Dragon planning session. I was afeared he wouldn’t want to go because of needing to get home and he was afeared I didn’t want him “horning in” on my other group of friends. I'm glad to have him along because he can be my escape plan if the meeting digresses too far or begins to run too long. Speaking of Mr. Wiggly and the Tail of the Dragon, I found a receiver hitch for a 1978 Dodge van on e-Bay the other day. I haven’t bid on it yet because I'd really like to see if the guys who have installed the last three hitches for me could get one. For some reason I feel like a professionally installed unit would be better. I have no science to back that up though. Perhaps I have laziness to justify it, but no science. Oh, that made it sound like I was considering taking Mr. Wiggly to the Tail of the Dragon. I do not. Well, if Pat backs out and I'm flying solo maybe, but it is a real long shot. I mean a REAL long shot. Ok, if Pat backs out and my sister doesn’t have a truck at the time, I'll consider it. Like I said, a real long shot. I'd have to insulate the thing just a tad more to hold down the droning zorst, which might not be such a bad idea anyway. I do have that swamp-cooler air conditioner I bought last summer when I was first thinking about this. My problem is I'd want to close off the back of the van with a wall behind the front seats. This doesn’t sound that daunting until Juan looks at the position of the passenger eat in relation to the side doors. It encroaches just a bit, you see. I'd have to make a dogleg in the wall to come around the back of the seat. I suppose I could remove the passenger seat or see if it will move forward enough to clear. Option one might work but it would mean flying solo everywhere in Mr. Wiggly. Of course Mr. Wiggly himself sort of makes that the norm. Option two might leave a seat in place but would there be enough room for it to be useful? Again, Mr. Wiggly being Mr. Wiggly I'm not really sure how often another seat will be needed. I suppose a jump seat could be built into that wall for the occasional passenger. Now we’re talking! That might just be the perfect solution. I'm going to have a close look at that this weekend. If I did close off the back with a wall, I'd move the rear speakers into it as well. The next big question is: “Shaggin’ Wagon” or utility/parts hauler? Do I finish out the back as a sleeper or leave it bare for collecting grubby parts and such? I'm leaning towards leaving it bare, but (tee hee, I said bare butt!) tomorrow will be the first time I have actually used the thing to retrieve grubby parts. On the other hand, I do own a tent and wouldn’t actually need to have the back of the van for shelter when “camping.” Of course I could leave it bare and have provision for laying down something to sleep on if necessary. Ooh, it isn’t conducive to the shaggin’ part, but I could always install hooks or something for a hammock. Actually, since I don’t do any shaggin’ anyway, that might be the best bet. A hammock could even be strung over any grubby parts I'm in the process of rescuing. Interesting. Well, I've passed my one-page cutoff point and it is lunchtime. Y'all have a weekend.