It’s a reason, not an excuse…

So, the Friday before Easter, I set forth from Palm Desert, and headed north. A quick swing by my sister’s place in Orange County, and then up the 5. I was headed to Oregon, for to help my niece. She’s a mother of three, and wanted to attend her bestie’s wedding as maid of honor. Rather than her husband having to take a week off work, if I was there, he could keep working, and the kid’s schedule would face minimal disruption. Plus, it’s always good to spend time with family.

After facing terrible traffic in LA (even by LA standards) I was far short of my mileage target on the first day, and had to drive an extra long way on Saturday. Still and all, no major issues on the trip up.

And the stay in Oregon was good, overall. Dealing with a teen, a tween, and a toddler is a challenge, and since I don’t have kids, it was even more so. Still, they’re all basically good kids, and no one died or was arrested. Which is pretty much the extent of what I promised my niece in terms of child care.

Said niece and hubby live on was is essentially a small farm. I’ve worked on a farm. And hated it. Thankfully, there was no expectation that I would do the farm work. Still, I felt compelled to make a social call upon all the critters.

They also have dogs. While I love my cat Sox, I’ll admit that I cheat on him and pet every dog I can.

And if a bar cat wants to be friendly, who am I to say no?

Farm life isn’t always pretty, and a couple of the lambs faced serious injury during my tenure. But excellent care from the local vet was on hand, and they’re making a good recovery.

A friend’s dog thought the lamb was an exceptionally cool squeaky toy. Oops.

I did find a bit of time to enjoy the local attractions.

First up was the Tillamook Air Museum. Sadly, it seems to be in decline, with its collection much diminished from when I last visited 7 years ago. Still, it’s housed in an old blimp hangar, as it was a WWII Naval Air Station responsible for patrolling the western shore for Japanese subs.

Since Tillamook was a bit of a bust, I took advantage of getting comped into the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, OR.  Mac is the middle of nowhere small town Oregon, but it has a fabulous collection of aircraft, including its crown jewel, the mighty Hughes H-4 Hercules, better known as the Spruce Goose. It’s so massive, you actually kinda overlook it when you first step into the museum.  From the upper viewing gallery, however, it’s great size is readily apparent.

Niece’s trip completed, I stuck around in Oregon a few days. I wanted to enjoy the tween’s 12th birthday, and simultaneously plan a meetup with long time friend of the blog LT Rusty. So, this past Friday, I hopped into the trusty ‘97 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and hit the road. 12 hours of driving took us from just south of Portland to the small town of Atwater, CA, in the heart of California’s Central Valley.

Atwater’s biggest attraction is probably the Castle Air Museum, on the grounds of the former SAC base, Castle AFB.

And that’s when my troubles began.

The plan was to meet LT Rusty at the museum when it opened at 10am, tour the museum, spend the night at LT Rusty’s house a half hour south of there, and then reach my sister’s Orange County home on Sunday.

Hopping into the Jeep Saturday morning, it immediately became clear that the transmission was trashed. It simply wouldn’t shift out of first, and if it did, it slipped very badly.

Out comes the AAA app on the smart phone. Within half an hour, the local towing service was there. But the auto shop the app recommended was closed on Saturday. And it took a while to find a transmission shop. Which, of course, was closed as well. So, I stashed the Jeep in a parking lot that looked like I probably wouldn’t have the Jeep broken into, and figured I’d come back on Monday to find it stripped. 

Back to the museum with LT Rusty, where we had a great time. You kinda really have to want to see the museum to get there. Atwater (near Merced) is a long way from most tourist attractions, but it has a fabulous collection of interesting aircraft on display. Virtually all the aircraft are simply staged outside, but they have a lot of planes you simply won’t see anywhere else. How many other museums have both a B-18 Bolo and a B-23 Dragon?

How about a WB-50?

Oh, there’s an Avro B2 Vulcan as well.

And to me, the most impressive part of the collection, an RB-36.

Even though LT Rusty is a godless heathen, he subscribes to the theory that Sunday should be a day of rest, which meant we farted around the house, and played World of Warships. Watching Rusty play on his big screen TV was a bit of a trip.

Monday morning, Mrs. Rusty kindly dropped me off at the transmission shop. Amazingly, my car hadn’t been stripped nor looted. I also found out I’d completely forgotten to lock the damn thing.

Got the truck in the shop, and the staff were great, quickly getting to work on it. The diagnosis was a failed governor solenoid and governor sensor. With a touch of luck, they could have the parts that afternoon, and perhaps even have me on the road by the end of the day.

Luck? Oh, we have luck. Bad luck. Turns out, the solenoid and sensor failed because their filters were clogged with metal shavings. The transmission oil pan was utterly full of metal shavings. Clearly something inside the transmission was being ground to bits.

New plan- find a used transmission, and hope we could find one with less that 200,000 miles for a reasonable price. Under the best of circumstances, it was going to be a few days before it would arrive. While LT Rusty kindly offered his hospitality for as long as needed, I had to get to Orange County to care for Sox while my sister was out of town for a few days. And I really wanted to get home. So, off to Enterprise Rent a Car. Finally hit the road late afternoon on Monday. Fatigue meant I only made it as far as Bakersfield, where I grabbed what looked like a decent motel room, but was in fact, quite shabby.

Tuesday, up and at ‘em, hit the road, and it was just a three hour trip over the Grapevine, through LA and into OC.

Unfortunately, I’d only rented the car through Saturday, and it now appears the Jeep won’t be ready until Tuesday at the earliest. So I need to let Enterprise know I’m not stealing their car. Which, it’s a decent rate, but between paying Blue Book value to repair the Jeep, and renting the car, this is getting expensive!

And I get to spend two days on the road next week. So, yeah, blogging has been pretty sporadic lately. And likely will be for a bit. I just thought you should know why.

Comments

[CT II Raven]

The Vulcan is one of my favorite aircraft.

One night while I was at NAS Kef one took off and later climbed through broken clouds backlit by a full moon - one of the most awesome sights I have seen but unfortunately long, long before smart phones so no pictures.

Was fortunate to see the last one fly last year, before it was grounded

If you are ever on the right coast, the 8th AF museum just South of the Savannah airport is recommended.
BTW, there is thing called a "clutch" - might save on metal wear within the tranny ... :)

[Paul L. Quandt]

Thanks for the post, the photos are great. Yes, the Evergreen Museum is awesome. Sorry I didn't know you were going to be in my area; I would have been pleased to buy you a beverage of your choice. Perhaps the next time you are up this way.

Paul L. Quandt

[ron snyder]

Wow, sounds like it has been an Adventure! Makes one appreciate the hum-drum pace of ordinary life. Your WoW opponents probably liked the break....

[Quartermaster]

You're just full of excuses today.

Seriously, I wouldn't mind going to castle, but it's in Kalifornia. I want to get out to see a friend near Durango, CO, and might head south from there to the Pima Air Museum.

[SFC Dunlap 173d RVN]

Sometimes the road rises up to meet you, other times...not so much. You did get to see all those aircraft!

[Vmaximus]

When Xbad said he was going to work on a farm I remembered all those pets that went to live on a farm as a child.

I am glad to see he is still kicking

[LT Rusty]

QM- I'm not a big fan of the Democratic People's Republic of Kalifornia either, but Castle Air Museum is rather nice, and it has the notable advantage of being located in a part of the DPRK that's as close to being in Free America as you can find.

Which, since Mrs. Rusty doesn't want to leave the DPRK, that's a rather convenient aspect.

Xbrad- You're always welcome, any time. 'Twas pleasant--not to mention sommat novel--to have company that I don't dislike. It's almost too bad that your truck is going to be ready so soon... couple more weeks, they'll have that B-58 up and ready.

[CT II Raven]

ohh, a Hustler on display!
might have to put that on the To Do list

[Quartermaster]

Rusty, I've got a former Oregonians dislike of Kalifornia, not mention a number of accretions on that dislike since the early 60s. We drove through Kalifornia when my father was on the way to a new duty station at Adair AFS near Corvallis, OR a bit before John Glen's space shot, and was on vacation when we drove as far south as Eureka. The place wasn't too bad, but the refugee stream had already begun to come up from SoCal.

Only other time I've been in the DPRK was in '11 for a Surveyor's convention and Lex meetup in San Dog. I doubt I'll get to old Castle AFB. I would like to visit old Adair just to look around. The only places my father was stationed that hasn't been closed are Lackland and Ramstein.

[MadMarsupial]

Bummer about the gearbox. : (

McMinnville is fantastic. You are right about the difficulty truly appreciating the scale of the Spruce Goose. It kinda hit me when I saw the B-17 Flying Fortress sort of tucked up the back under the tailplane.

[ultimaratioregis]

So, I MIGHT ask, with that first image, how they managed to get both ends of the horse in the same picture. But I prolly shouldn't.

[LT Rusty]

URR- we could also ask how Matthew Broderick feels about our host stealing his wife life that. But we prolly shouldn't do that, either.

[SCOTTtheBADGER]

So, is the Jeep back in your hands?