Be Prepared

My Guide leader always told me to do my best, help other people and be prepared. Specifically, when we left on this trip we were at least mentally prepared for the possibility (inevitability?) of breakdown.

Our object lesson for the day starts when we decided, as we normally do, to wander our way home on quiet back roads rather than busy interstates. This may well have saved our lives, as our power brakes failed as we were pulling over to the side of the almost deserted road to change drivers.

For the last couple of hours, we have had a fascinating time. First we found a man(Doug?) that does wheel alignments in the town of Canisteo NY, chosen by Rob who spotted a couple of antique cars in his yard – thank goodness for his old car radar. His (Doug's) original suggestion? – “go and see “Wild Bill” who lives just north on the 36, he has an old Chrysler in his front yard and may have the part you need.” After consulting with a few people to find out what Wild Bill's actual name was, he was given a better suggestion by a buddy. A man named John in a smaller town a few miles down the road has “all kinds” of old cars. He might be able to help.

Hence the opening picture. We followed John from his shop to his farm and personal workshop. He was in his 1921 Dodge pictured here. She broke down on the way there, and the spotter he brought with him had to tow him home. Rob and John were out in the yard for a while, and have found the parts Rob will need, and Rob is now in the process of pulling something off an even older car than ours.

Since I started this story, I have had to move to a spot in a shed to get out of the rain and hail (which is deafening on the tin roof of this thing), and Rob is still out in the field/yard, trying to convince a 1964 Chrysler to give up it's parts.

The temperature today promised to be in the high nineties, and I know you will pleased to hear that New York weather keeps its promises. The hail storm was a welcome relief (easy to say from my vantage point under the roof of the shed) and has cooled the air way down to the low nineties.

Will he be home today, under the circumstances? Well, your guess is as good as mine at the moment. We prepared. We left a few days at the beginning and a few days at the end for just this sort of emergency – it's all just part of the adventure.