We’ve been making our way from St. Cloud, MN to St. Charles, IL. Yesterday was one of those days. We had hoped to arrive in St. Charles early enough to settle in for the night and kick back. Unfortunately, we stopped in Madison, WI and Kylie heard something “leaking” for one of the trailer tires. Turns out, we picked up a nail and the tire was going flat. As we walked back up the side of the truck, David noticed that our recently repaired axle seal was also leaking fluid again. It was 1pm on a holiday Monday so weren’t sure we would find someone to get this fixed.
We pulled into a diesel repair place – Polk Diesel – and they worked us in right away. Right next door was a tire repair place so we dropped the trailer there and pulled the rig into the garage at Polk. It turned out to be a very long afternoon of repairs!
I don’t necessarily mind paying for repairs – paying for them twice, however, does bother me a bit. We just had this axle seal fixed in St. Cloud and it lasted all of three days! I’m sure there are lots of reasons why it didn’t hold but I believe there was one very significant reason.
As the guy started to pull the tires off and start the repair, he noticed that there were some very important springs missing from the brakes! If you remember, we had a bad experience in West Virginia only a few weeks ago while going down Sandstone Mountain. It lead to having lots of work done to the brakes. They are working great but we noticed that they always seemed a little hot when we stopped. Turns out, they were! The springs hold the brake pads in place so they don’t rub on the drums. Ours were rubbing big time – and getting hot!
Then, as he put the oil back in the axle, he asked if we had done any suspension work lately. Well, we recently had new shocks put on the rig and I guess the mechanics forgot to adjust one side of the suspension. He fixed that too.
We would have not have discovered any of this if this seal had not started leaking again. And, we’re heading to Colorado next month so having these things fixed gives us confidence that we can make that trip safely. I’m taking the rig into see Tommy (our mechanic) as soon as we get home to do the big “once over” before we head West.
We were back on the road around 4:30pm and arrived in St. Charles, IL about 7pm.
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This morning, Tuesday, I had the privilege of speaking to the students of Wheaton Academy in their morning chapel service. Joseph Jones, the Technical Director of the Fine Arts Theatre at Wheaton, had extended an invitation to stop by on our way to Ohio. It was a very difference experience for me. As I was introduced, I stepped in front of about 600 students and performed one illusion, the Torn and Restored Newspaper. This is one of my favorite illusions because it is so visual and unbelievable! And it was a nice seque into what I had planned to share with the students.
We left out of West Chicago/St. Charles and we’re heading toward Indianapolis. I pick up Cindy on Thrusday. I can’t wait to see her!