Got through the Friday night in my SUV digs in Harrisonburg, VA. I’m waiting to have a new alternator installed, hopefully on Monday, so I can continue limping towards Florida. The girl at the desk of the Susquehanna Auto Service Center said it was okay to stay in the vehicle while it was out in the yard. Saving me about $70 a night. Three night’s savings might cover a great deal of the labor costs I’m going to incur. The alternator itself is covered under warranty, but not the labor. Theoretically. The office girl told me they’ve ordered one and they should be working on it Monday. Hopefully I’ll be back on the road then or at least by Tuesday.
This is the scenery at the place where my alternator got bumped so bad it quit.
Not much for me to do here. There are no fast food joints nearby and since I’m trying to lay low, setting up my stove doesn’t seen like a great idea. There is a 7/11 next door so there’s a plethora of cold drinks and junk food.
I like the quiet of the place. Sure, there’s road noise but it’s really nothing after dark. Just an occasional truck now and then. It reminds me of when I was living on Nancy Dawson, my Kaiser 26.
I stayed at the Derecktor-Gunnell boat yard in Dania, FL, just short of two years back in ’93/’9. After noon on Friday nobody was around. Here everyone went home at 5 pm and won’t be back ’til Monday. More than 3/4 of the cars that were here yesterday morning are gone. This emptiness gave me a chance to do some work on my window screens. Mainly to make them less visible at night.
I’d bought a couple of 10″-high adjustable screens at a Home Depot near Gettysburg, PA, along with some black insulation used on 1/2-inch water pipes. I’d seen this hack in one of the small vehicle Facebook camping groups I belong to. Good way to get ventilation into the vehicle while keeping bugs out. As you can see, from the start the white just calls attention to the installation. I had a can of black spray paint with me and, since there’s no one around I took them out of the windows and sprayed them on the gravel in front of my SUV. Visually it’s a lot better.
The sun is also shining brightly so I set the 160-watt solar panel out on the hood and hooked it up to charge the Bluetti. Doing a stellar job.
More as it happens.
One More Good Adventure 