Friday, October 6^th, 2023.  Nasty’s Sister, Broken Trucker, Carb Install, and a Nice Hardware Store.

Wow!  Today we got a four-fere!

One-Fere:  This morning I ran into the Nasty Lady’s sister.  Or brother. Or whole damn family.  Who knows?  Pulled into a nice large, crowed gas station, headed for the far end, end spot.  Car parked by the far, front pump.  No one in the car.  Figgered the owner was: (a) inside paying for gas, (b) getting a receipt that failed to print, (c) eating a 15-course lunch at the attached fast-food café’ and taking a nap, or (d) buying a cuppa coffee.

Turns out it was most likely (c).  So, I waited, and waited, and waited and left.  I’m beginning to think this might be “A Southern Thing” as in, “The TV’s broke, so let’s go down to the Esso Station and park the car by the pumps!”

BTW:  In my mind I see myself drilling the full-length center out of a bunch of roofing nails and propping one up in front of their right rear tire.  Probably not a good idea.  Too many cameras now-a-days.

Two-fere:  Later in the day we were passed by an eighteen-wheeler and his right cab step assembly had broken free and was hanging loose and about two-feet into the wind.  There was no way for us to flag him as he was already past us and rolling.  I figgered other truckers would CB him and let him know what was happening.  Nope.  We pulled into the next Rest Stop and without trying, parked right next to him.   I got out to tell him and ran into him just as I got to the hanging step.  He was incredulous and asked if it had been out when he passed us.  Answer, “Yes.”

I told him I was surprised that no other drivers had hailed him, and he said that Truckers NO LONGER USE CB’s!!  And that most of the truckers now-a-days are young, not native to this country, have no sense of brotherhood, won’t do anything to help each other or anyone else, and carry “piss bottles” and throw them out the windows of the trucks.  And then he said, “It’s no wonder the hotels and motels no longer want our business.”  Wow!  So, I helped him hold up the steps up while he bungeed the whole unit in place.  (The latches on the step assembly had pulled loose.)

My, my, what a sad state of affairs.  The “Knights of the Road” are a thing of the past.

Three-Fere:  I installed the new carburetor on the generator.  The install went smoothly, the genny started right up, it and it sounds good.  So, the proof will be tomorrow when we leave it running while we drive.  If keeps running, we win.  If it dies, the gremlins win.  Time will tell and so will I.

Four-fere:  I discovered that the “Sound Bar” under the main TV is actually three small Sony speakers, and they are not hooked up to anything.  I figgered I could tap into the audio-out connectors on the back of the TV and wire them to the speakers, but I needed a set of audio jack wires.  Red, White, Yellow.  Now note that we are currently in the Brinkley RV Park, in Brinkley, Ark-ansas, and this is an exceedingly small park in the far end of an exceedingly small town.  But we figgered there might be a hardware store, and they might have a set of wires, and there might be an Uber or Lyft in town, and we might be able to get to the store before they close at 5 PM.

So how often do four “mights” work out?  Well, at least once.  Sorta.

We called the one and only hardware store and they did have the wires!  Seven dollars on the “Old, obsolete, discounted, left over, cheap stuff table.”  Then both Uber and Lyft pretended to have drivers, but they really don’t, and we saw that we couldn’t get to the store by 5.  So, at 4:30 I called them and asked if any of their employees might be going home by way of where we are camping, and could they bring the wires to us?  I offered $20 for the favor.  And yes, a young lady was available, and yes, she brought us the cables, and yes, she was very gracious about accepting the $20, and now I have the wires to play with.  Small towns.  Ya just gotta love them!

That’s it for today.  Four for the price of one.  Not bad.

See you on the flipper,

Rusty Pistons.