Hot, in more ways than one

As usual just keep reading until there ain’t no mo to read:)

The temperatures are expected to be in the high 80’s for the week and 91 today. UGH!!!!!!!

So this morning around 7:45 we pulled out of the campground on our way further south yet. The total drive was only about 60 miles, I wanted to get here early & get here before it got too hades HOT.

We’re here, in Northern Milwaukee WI, to get some work done on RUBY. Back in Shipshewana IN I called a repair shop in Grand Rapids MI because the power steering was acting up, while they had her I had them t0 go ahead and change the oil and filters to. I was hopping the power steering issue and ( loose belts) temperature issues were related. Unfortunately, not the case so we have been slowly making our way to here.

There is a guy here who knows a good deal about Bluebirds and works on them, this is kinda where we were headed before the oil change and a couple of new belts, the power steering issue was getting worse and that’s the reason I had things looked at in Grand Rapids MI.

Anyway the shop in Grand Rapids strongly suggested getting the radiator looked at and we still had higher than normal operating temperature so here we are. Anyway, at the end of day one 1 the radiator drained, removed and at a shop being looked at and tested. Other parts are being removed examined and replaced as necessary. The thermostats, it has 2, are being replaced and a few old looking hoses and other parts are being replaced as needed.

Apparently the fan was the getting hot problem, I don’t fully understand how it works but it has some type of magnetic clutch and was not engaging, coming on, because of a broken wire. The bad news is I may have let the motor get a little hotter than recommended a couple of times, only time will tell if we have done any damage. Found out today that there is an upgrade to the fan and Mike, the guy doing the work, strongly suggested we do the upgrade, we said go for it.

7/7/2020

Just found out the upgraded fan assembly won’t be here until one day next week. Apparently the radiator tested and looked ok by the shop. That’s going to save us a big bundle of $$$$.

7/7/2020

We took a drive to a couple of light houses this morning the WONDERFUL GPS took us through Milwaukee………….. and I thought people driving in downtown Louisville were crazy…………….. That’s all I’m going to say on the subject except no one hit us or caused me to hit anyone or anything.

North Point& Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouses

7/8//2020

UGH. It’s going to be a week from Friday (the 17th) until the new fan assembly gets here. We have electricity here, thank goodness, couldn’t stay with the heat other wise. But that’s going to be a LONG stretch for the black & gray tanks. I think the owner might have a solution, he said if that was the only concern about staying it was not a big deal.

7/10/2020

Let me start by saying the weather chumps really missed his target with the tempemptures. Remember reading earlier about the highs in the high 80’s welllllllllll except for today, we have broke hades HOT 90 every day. UGH!!!! Anyway some storms moved through last night and today was only around 82, still to hot but much better.

This morning we took a drive to see some more light houses. First stop was Wind Point Lighthouse in Racine.

Then we made a stop at Racine Harbor Park.

 

Then rounding out the light houses we stopped at Kenosha North Light House, it’s right next to a beach, there were quite a few people out there especially for a weekday.

 

 

7/13/2020

Well that was interesting. I found this place on Google maps that looked like it would be a good walk. It was called Hartland Ice Age, Marsh, I clicked on the little icon and some pictures popped up, so we decided we would go there this morning. Of course it wasn’t in the GPS so we plunged in a business near there. Got there, started driving around looking for it, parking area. Found it on the phone, followed the directions on the phone, still no parking area no signs – nada. where we were headed is a small part of a long hiking trail, so we looked up another trailhead and ended up walking about 2.5 miles………… Late start, took a while to find place to hike, it was getting warm in the sun………  I wasn’t complaining when we got back to the jeep. The trail was well marked and looked like it had a lot of use. We met 3-4 people over the time it took to do the 2.5 miles. There was nothing special about the part we walked on.

7/14/2020

This morning we drove over to Veterans Park, there are a couple of marinas there also. It’s just across the bay from where we were the other day. All told we walked about 4.5 miles. By the time we made it back to the Jeep the humidity was cranking up. When we first got there it was kinda overcast and a slight breeze near the water, I carried my hat, near the water,  because of the breeze, I didn’t want it to go swimming. As the morning wore on, the clouds disappeared and the humidity was cranking up. We were both glad to get back to the Jeep when we did.

As we were walking back from the LONG pier, it was really wide with a row of waist high concrete blocks in the center. On the other side from us this 20 something guy on a skate board didn’t notice a lip on the concrete walkway……. the skate board stopped instantly….. he didn’t. He took a few seconds to check himself over before he got up. I know he was embarrassed because not only us and the others on the pier seen him wipe out he was even seen by a fire department boat and their were 3-4 guys standing at the rail waiving to people walking on the pier. They asked if he was ok, he was and skated off.

7/17/2020

Well rats, the new fan clutch didn’t arrive today and with it being Friday, it won’t be delivered until Monday………… Fingers crossed that it arrives then and we can hit the road Tuesday. FYI originally we were only going to be here 3-4 nights………… that was a long time ago not only that but hades hot at 91 ( inset bad order choice) degrees.

7/18/2020

Well it’s going to be hades hot today with high humidity so they have issued a heat advisory. Anyway we’re here in Germantown WI, basically a Suburb of Milwaukee, in the parking lot of ATD, Automatic Transmission Design. Mike the semi retired owner, the guy working on RUBY, he borrows help from the shop when necessary. He built the business up around his house, the main business here is transmissions obvisually. They build a lot of racing transmissions for street or drags strip. They seem to be pretty busy & have 4-5 full-time employees. The other day they filled up an entire dumpster of old transmission cases to be recycled. I don’t know how long they were saving them but it was kinda obvious that was not the first load they had hauled off.

Like I said he built up the business around his house, which we are parked beside. Opening the door we are looking at these, guessing, 5 X 8 windows covered with a reflective material, so looking out all we see is ourself, looking out other side, we see an L shaped garage & doors, dumpster, a few pallets and various stuff that can set outside. Looking out the front we see a large red ,main, garage, behind us is another corner of the L garage and a storage container.

We’re on 50 amp electric with access to water. Mike bought a small portable dump container the other day so we can fill that and dump it in a sewer drain in the garage. Except for the heat we have no real complaints with staying here, there are parks and stuff around but on the hot days we just hang out inside, neither one of us really cares to be out in the heat all that much.

We have considered doing a little shopping, walking around in some of the box stores on the hot days but just didn’t feel it was worth the health risk.

Again hoping for the delivery of the part on Monday so we an head out on Tuesday. We offered to take RUBY and leave for a couple of weeks and come back later but he said that since we had no place we needed to be he would prefer to just leave her apart rather than putting it together and then taking it all apart again, we left that decision up to him and that’s the reason we are setting her for so long.

NEW NOT PRINTED – – – 7/20/2020 And then, well we hit a small snag. Mike put things back together, without the fan attached we fired RUBY up didn’t find any leaks, did a test of the fan clutch and it worked as it should. The fan he ordered was I think an inch or 2 bigger than the one on there, plenty of room in the fan shroud, the issue came in the alignment. The fan blades were riding to high to fit with in the hole of the fan shroud. And then……………while opening the radiator back open, a fan blade got caught on the shroud and busted a blade, it wouldn’t have fit anyway but I hated to see that happen to a NEW fan blade. At one time they had the equipment here to just cut it down, but they sold it a few years ago. Before it busted Mike was just going to cut one down, he ordered 2 when he ordered ours……………. forgetting that the machine was long gone so that idea went out the door..

Sadly, since it happened AFTER 5:00 he can’t place the order until tomorrow I’m not sure where it’s shipping from, possibly South Dakota.

7/21/2020

Since today was another down day we mentioned to Mike that we were going for a drive today, he suggested we check out an RV lot that he owns a couple of hours away. He said that we could stay there a couple of days when, we leave here, if we wanted so we said we would check it out. It was ok, not really anything in or close to the park to do and we won’t have the time to stay by the time we leave here anyway.

On the way back we stopped at Horicon Marsh Wildlife Area, it’s a big marsh obviously. With binoculars in hand I was trying to spot the elusive Bigfoot. A vast marsh with islands of trees mixed in, looked to me like prime big foot territory. I looked and looked with our puny binoculars from several pull offs didn’t see one anywhere, then I found some real binoculars and looked and looked again, still didn’t find one. Because they are able to hide really well. I’l keep looking. We did fine one Mammoth.

Talked to Mike, he said the new fan should be here tomorrow, he ordered 2 different sizes. Fingers are crossed, one of them will work.

https://rmtravels.smugmug.com/Horizon-Marsh-State-Wildlife-Area-WI-2020/i-4DDk5nb

https://rmtravels.smugmug.com/Horizon-Marsh-State-Wildlife-Area-WI-2020/i-D6kbVcZ

 

 

7/22/2020

The fan arrived this morning, Mike ended up trimming a touch off the shroud, then adjusting this that and the other. Grinding this down bending that. Finally got the radiator to close nothing pinching or rubbing and the fan spinning freely. I’ll admit it took some doing. but in the end we fired ruby up and let it warm up and the fan kicked on as it should. Only time will tell if we let her get hot enough to cause a problem with a blown head gasket……….. fingers are crossed.

 

 

The End