For the few of you who are still paying attention, I'm still here on Chincoteague, and still waiting for my van to come out of the shop. I think this is week 8, and if I didn't have pictures of it, I'd've forgotten what it looked like by now. The shop it's in is an hour away. I'm told that the owner has had some health problems lately and he's not in the shop, so his assistant is there alone. Of course, that would slow things down enough, but after having my van for a week the assistant also got stuck in jury duty. He was out of the shop for at least 3 weeks, and I'm led to believe that he was sequestered. Last week when I called in for an update, he said "chasing electrical gremlins takes time...I can't promise you any particular ready date." So at least it's being worked on and not just waiting in line.
So if anybody out there is still reading, lets have a little fun and start a pool on when the van will be running and all that jazz. No money, but feel free to vote via comments on the following:
- Date the van will be out of the shop
- Date the van will break down next
- Next item to fail
- Date I'll actually sell it (I put For Sale signs in the windows before I dropped it off at the shop)
I'll start it off with my votes. I'm due in Oregon on October 29. The drive takes 5 days minimum (remember, I've got a top speed of about 60), and I have confidence that it'll be ready in time for me to take the drive. I'm really going to let my last little bit of optimism shine and vote for Friday, October 13 - that'll give me about 2 weeks to make the drive so I can swing through and see a few people on the way, though it'll have to be a pretty direct route.
Now since it's going to be ready on Friday the 13th, and since the van is named Christine, she's going to be sneaky and not break down on me again until AFTER I'm in Oregon. It could be the day I pull away from school (November 17), but not before. The next thing to break? This guy is giving it a lot of attention, so I won't say that the same thing will happen again. Knowing my luck, it'll be just absolutely awful - something like a head gasket - something that would require a new engine.
When I had my last van, and even when I got this one (the first day on the road), people would make me offers when I least expected or desired to sell it. So I figure that pattern will hold. After I get to Oregon, after I've dumped a pile of money into it to get it running, and after it's proven itself by getting across the country again - that's when I'll get an offer. I'm going to say it'll happen while I'm in classes at some point - we'll say November 4. And of course, I'll need it to get home and won't be able to sell, and about 2 weeks later it'll break down and I'll be kicking myself.
Other than that, there's absolutely nothing to report. I spend my days reading and watching movies, and occasionally riding my bike around the island (but there are only so many times I can ride the same streets without going nuts). Every time the phone rings, I listen for the caller ID to report the name of my mechanic, but it never does. For those of you waiting on visits, I'll get there, but I have no idea when. For those of you waiting on pictures and stories from my sailing trip - you'll have to wait until spring. We decided to abandon that project due to too many complications.
Keep watching the reading list - that gets updated regularly. And I'm removing the listening list since I never did much with it, and most of what I listen to isn't available through Amazon anyway. I'm also going to remove the sponsorship request since I'm no longer riding. If I decide to hit the road by bicycle again, I'll pursue sponsors on my own - I do have a vision for how I'd like to do another trip in the future, but it requires other people's presence and other people's money.
