The Tracker was ready as promised at about 12pm but the price tag had increased by $150.  The reason was that the junkyard-provided differential assembly had a bad seal.  They replaced the seal and the bearing on that side and charged me for them.  Oh well, it got done at the price I had originally expected to pay and it got done in one work day – split across Friday and Monday ;-),  They combined the good parts from my original differential and the junkyard one – my brakes and wheel cyninders were used on the junk axle.

We are on our way to Dan and Teri’s house.  They are fellow GMCers and have been very active in the GMC community.  We met them at our first GMCMI rally in Montgomery, Texas.  Teri  seemed to be everywhere and did everything and Dan did a lot too but ice cream is his specialty.  I think he was in charge of serving the ice cream or Teri let him think he was. The second time we met them it was the same situation but it was at the GMCMI rally at Pueblo, Colorado.  Dan and I stay in touch via email and the GMCnet.

We left Fort Wayne and traveled south on I-69 toward Indianapolis.  We had found a dish drainer at Crate & Barrel on the web that fit our new kitchen sink perfectly and there is a Crate & Barrel at a shopping center just after where I-69 hits the beltway around the city. We got off the highway, found the store, bought the drainer and were back on the highway in less than 30 minutes.  The idea is to make washing dishes easier and more water-efficient.  The new kitchen setup makes it much easier than the old kitchen and this will help make it even better.

The outside temperature was in the low 90’s and we had planned to spend the night in a WalMart parking lot in the Terre Haute area but the prospect of spending the night in a steaming parking lot did not appeal to us very much. Carol took a look at Streets & Trips for a state, county or city park in the Terre Haute area that had camping.  Carol found Hawthorn Park in Brazil, Indiana, part of the Vigo County Park system.  It had everything that we really needed – electricity.  The water and sewer facilities were available but just not at the campsite and that is fine for us.  The only thing we are missing is the internet and we’ll just have to tough it out for tonight.  At least the cell phone works. The best thing us that it is only $18 per night.

The GMC worked fine today.  Had a couple of “click once then start” episodes but after that scary “click” it cranked like crazy.  I plan to install the new solenoid when we get home.  The fan, on the other hand, is driving me crazy.  The low 90’s temperatures have brought back the issue of fan noise and even though this clutch (Hayden 2797) does disengage eventually, it drives me crazy until it does.  The clutch-engaged vs. disengaged state seems to have no direct realationship to the engine operating temperature.  I am still on the air-flow idea and think that the shroud might serve to concentrate what heat there is on the fan clutch, acting like a funnel.

No photos today.