The Adventures of the Space Cowboy

Ok so a few of you out there have encouraged me to get a blog going so that you may look in on me a little more effectively.  Fine.  I will try to keep this thing more or less up to date.  So first a summary.  Left June 7th a few days later than we had expected.  Showed up on Jmes and Erica's doorstep and let them lead us out for dinner in Saskatoon and church the next morning.  Onward through Alberta with a quick stop at Vegerville for a photo op with the Egg.  Found that driving at 90-100 really makes for a longer trip.  Lost looking for Xisra north of Edmonton and met up with Pat and Kathleen in the same predicament.  HUng there for a couple of days before heading south to find our good friend Becky!  Only a day there before moving on.  Spent a night in Losegun Campground!  Only in Alberta.  10 miles of really crappy gravel road but a pretty little lake.  On north to search for Pascal and Meg.  Overshot them in Dawson and had to backtrack to their place on the border.  Ended up spending quite a few days with them going to horse sales, shoeing and trimming horses and finnishing with participating at a branding in Hudson's hope.  North again we make fort Nelson.  A night or two in civillization in a rather expensive RV park.  UGG!  Notrh to Watson Lake!  Yukon Finally!  Spent 48 hrs in the camper in the rain with the mosquitos.  Horrid.  Decide to push on and not stay in the town of signposts.(Never did find one from Kamsack)  Next night we stopped at Mukluk Annie's Salmon bake outside of Teslin!  Fantastic fish and a beautiful little area.  Boat ride with Chuck to feed that seaguls.  Lots of fun.  Met a few 'Maricans heading various directions with all kinds of great stories.  Now we're here in Whitehorse and settled in to look for work.  Rita already picked up a job at a hotel and I hasve a few good leads too.  With the wages up here we'll be making more money than we have in a while! 

  It has been quite a while since I added anything to the "Lada Report".  This was partly due to cold weather preventing me from doing any further work and also to the fact that I had not been driving my car much.  The Ski Hill has a Staff shuttle and I was the primary driver.  So other than bombing around town and a few short trips the Lada had a lot of off time. 

 

  So I was finnally doing one of the things that I set out to do at the beginning of the season.  I was going to audit a Level one Snowboard course and get my evaluator's cert.  Then I could spend the real time on the snow I meant to this year.  As with most of my best laid plans this one too was a little behind.  Took the Precourse in December but never got a free weekend until March.  I needed to attend 2 courses to see how other instructors ran the course and to get a chance to see a course in action.  I took my level 1 about 12 years ago.  A few things may have changed in that time.

 

Anyhow, this was why I was on the road.  I was on the third day of a 3 day course and had to be there for 9am.  Which was 8am Sask time.  Which meant that I had to leave at 6:30am to get to Asessippi on time.  No problem really. 

 

  It had been a warm weekend and Saturday night the wind had picked up and some snow was falling.  So the warm hwy and the cold snow made for an instant bond.  So the road was snow and ice covered and very white.  I was driving south and the wind had been from the east the day before so there were many little finger drifts across the road.  I underestimated these little drifts.  I thought that they would not be as hard as they turned out to be.  Most of them were in the other lane and so I was not really thinking about them much.  So when I hit this one that was extending about 2 or 3 ft into my lane I was expecting a little bump and little else. 

 

  The drift caught my driver side front tire and spun me around backward.  I countersteered a bit but quickly realized that I could not recover and braced for hitting the ditch backward.  Ditching is no big deal, just get a tug and back on the road, right?  That could have been the case except for how hard the wind had pounded the snow in the ditch.  My rear passenger side tire was the first off of the road and onto the shoulder.  When it hit the snow it was like hitting a wall.  And I flipped.

 

  It's amazing all of the thought time you have while spinning upside down in a car waiting for the inevitable, horrible landing.  I was thinking of all of the people that die this way every year and how I was about to become one of them.  I even remember thinking, "I really don't want to die like this."  Really calmly too.  Hmm so how would I like to die?  Subject for another day maybe.

 

  The car did a 1 and a quarter barrel roll on kind of an off kilter axis and landed on the passenger side, nose first.  It was quite the ride.  If I hadn't been in mortal danger it might have been fun.  So everything comes to a halt and I do a quick check.  I'm ok.  I'm hanging in my seat with my car on it's side.  I had covered my face expecting flying glass and crunching of metal.  None of that really happened.  I didn't even crack a window.

 

  So I did what most people with a system overrun with adrenaline do.  I was not thinking much.  I reached over and hit the seatbelt release.  And fell into the passenger side.  I had a chuckle at that.  Then I reached up and turned the key off.  I don't know if the engine was still running or not but I was thinking enough to realize that needed doing.  The lada was on the passenger side and happily emptying it's gass tank into the snow.  Crap.  That was just filled. 

 

  So I stood up and began to try to get out.  It was at this late point that I sustained my only significant injury.  I popped the driver's door open and pushed the door up.  And it came right back down on my head.  Ouch.  Good thing I wasn't injured.  The door would have finnished me off.

 

  I climbed out and stood on top of my car.  I had just passed a farm and so I knew what my next step was.  To get help.  I jumped off of the car expecting to sink up to my waist in snow and landed on what felt like concrete.  Wow.  The car was where the middle of the ditch should be and sitting on four feet of snow.  The ditch was full and even with the road.  If I could have tipped my car back up I could have driven out.  It hardly made a dent.  No joke.

 

  There were a few dents in the Lada though.  I walked around it and surveyed the damage.  Not bad considering.

 

  So the nearest farm yeilded friendly results and Mr. Don Walsh got up out of bed an made me coffee before giving me a lift back to town.  My thanks to him also.

 

  So what have we learned?  Ladas can survive a crash quite well.  Seatbelts work.  A properly adjusted seat can really help in a crash.  Doors can be heavy.  Snow is not always soft.  Really it's been educational.

It has been some time since I wrote anything and I'm sure that all my fans in the stands must think that this is because nothing new has happened.  O how I wish that were true.  Just when you think things should be smooth sailing...

 

And so, the Lada has been on the road and always just a little lacking.  It seems that after a little Q&A with a few mechanics my car fires only on 3 cylenders.  This could be a head gasket problem, a valve problem, or a ring problem.  At any rate there is no fixing it right now due to cold weather and lack of funds.  All of those fixes require cash and opening up the engine.

 

In the mean time life goes on and my car still runs.  Until it died in mid stride the other day.  Started up, round the corner and silence.  No cough, sputter or anything.  So I coast to a stop, push it to the curb and shake my head.  It turns the starter Ok but nothing is firing.  Spark or Fuel? 

 

Well after a quick tow home and some tinkering I determine that fuel flow is not the problem.  Note: The electric fuel pump can sure fire a stream of gas when it starts up.  After cleaning up that mess I started checking for spark.  Nada.  Nothing I could detect anyhow.  So now I have reached the end of my expertise and must seek professional help.  I do not like to take my car to a mechanic any more than I like going to the Doctor.  Less even.  But I can tell when I don't have the equipment to figure out the problem.

 

Long story shorter, turns out that the ignition modual, that replaces the coil on carberated cars, had developed a crack in it's housing and had chosen that day to let me know.  And the best part!  It's a GM part!

 

So, too much money later we are back on the road.  But as I'm leaving the Mech mentions that my battery seems to crank a little low.  What!!  this is just the kind of thing that keeps me away.  Always one more thing with a shop.  Besides, that battery is not quite 3 years old and has a 60 month warrenty.  So off I go.  After a boost.  And one the next day.  And trouble starting all the time now.  I'm becoming quite good at praying.  Downright penitant if I do say so.  So after being stranded in a snowbank that should never have presented a problem.  Bought a new battery.  The shop now owns part of my soul.  I almost had some savings there.  I was almost not fearing Christmas and the yearly draining of my savings during the end of the year materialistic blowout.  So much for that.

 

Now you might think that I now am set up for a few days peace.  I thought so.  Ha hahaha!  I get my new prize home and set to work changing the battery.  It seems that the modifications that I made while installing my remote starter solinoid includes no extra cable.  Who knew that different batteies had their posts in different spots.  Two inches short on the positive terminal.  Shit. 

 

So back downstairs to my bag of wire.  I knew that there was a reason I grabbed all that extra at the wreaker's.  Found a Long piece and rewired a few connections.  Boy I am glad that it isn't really cold right now.  It was downright pleasant working on the car outside.  And the moon was shining.  I could almost see.  Maybe God does like me.  Hmm best not to tempt him further.

 

Back on the road again...

Once again I have been out for a while.  Had a few minor Lada Adventures though.

 

I always had a few electrical glitches that I didn't understand.  As the weather turned cold a few gremlins reared their heads.  My signal lights were starting to malfunction.  By malfunction I mean fail to blink and take most of the dash guages with them.  Asked Tyler his opinion and he reccommended that I look for loose connections and grounds.  Seemed a simple fix.  It was even easier than that.  I decided to start by checking the fuses.  Sometimes I'm smart by accident.  The fuse for the blinkers is the same fuse  that runs most of the dash guages and lights.  Explains the drain from everything else too.  Inspecting the fuse I found that it had corroded a circle around the tips right where it contacts the leads.  Sandpaper to the corrosion and voila!  Back in action!  I love easy problems.

Pat challenged me to post five things that I found to be universal truths.  You know those things that seem to you to be little gems of the greater understanding.  I challenge anyone who reads this to do the same in their blog or my comments!

 

5.  A friend is someone who knows all of your worst faults and likes you anyway.

4.  You can get blood from a stone.  You just have to hit who you're aiming at.

3.  The best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse.

2.  A man with one watch always knows what time it is.  A man with two watches is never quite sure.

1.  Eat, Drink, and make merry for all is folly and tommorrow you may die.

 

and one for bonus

 

Any day the sun rises is one more gift from the creator!