I went up to see my mom on Thursday. Spent the afternoon/evening with her. Saw my buddy with the river outfitter business and planned to do a raft trip on Saturday. My brother was to come for the afternoon Friday with my two nephews. He's not a mechanical type guy at all. As mom was preparing the lunch, he calls and his truck was broke down along the road. At least he got off the interstate onto old US40 when he heard a rumbling and felt vibration. U-joint went real bad at the axle yoke. I stop and pick up a couple u-joints since he couldn't really say if clips were inner or outer. I get there and it's an aluminum shaft with the yoke all boogered up, wasted. I dropped the shaft, trimmed the top of a Styrofoam coffee cup to fit snug on the nose of the transfer case, slid a second one (he had these) over to make it stronger(?), and taped it on with Tyvek tape. Then I took a heavy plastic shopping bag corner and taped that over all that. That got him home on front wheel drive, no visit with mom.
My sister called while I was out helping my brother. She misunderstood and thought I was going to be at her place to install a wooden countertop I made last year for her. I have no other work, so I told her she was next. I guess she missed the part where I said I was going up to mom's. To keep the peace with her further lack of understanding I decided to skip the river trip, take mom around to some places, and rive home last night. I think that was my vacation
. My sister and I, and brother-in-law, will be taking some R&R time while I'm down there. He has 3 kayaks and we'll paddle the switchbacks of the S. Fork of the Shenandoah in Page Co. VA and do some hiking if it isn't real hot.
This was going to be my second half of a vacation. I hope it doesn't go like the first half
. I have a couple truck friends in that general area I hope to go visit as well. One has a treasure trove of parts that he is known for not ever selling any of. I'll at least be privileged enough to at least see them
. Both are great guys I really look forward to seeing.
I wake up real early, so Friday I headed out for a coffee at daybreak and ran up to the top of the hill to watch the sunrise and enjoy the view while I drank it