Cherry Blossom Follies
Once again, we decided to sign up for the Cherry Blossom Rally. On Thursday, April 1st (isn’t that April Fool’s Day?) it was time to leave. It didn't go very well. It started out bad. The guy that inspects the trailer couldn't do it until Thursday morning....the day we were leaving. He had a medical problem that made him miss work; so I had to wait. I hooked up the trailer Thursday morning, in the rain, and drove to the inspection station. The inspection went no problem, but on the way home, I had a flat tire on the trailer. It was my new tire that I bought in Vermont last summer ….a puncture wound! I took the tire off ...in the rain ..... and had it repaired. While I was changing the tire, the battery in the car went dead. “Geez ….What more can go wrong”, I asked. (maybe I shouldn’t ask!) So, got the tire off and took it to the tire place to have it repaired. Then I went up to Walmart to buy a battery. That all went smoothly. Then I filled the water tank and discovered a leak in the system caused by a freeze. It seems that my city water inlet failed last summer and my ”temporary fix” last summer caused some water to remain in my pressure regulator …which froze and was now leaking! That was quickly fixed using a plug which I had on hand. . All the while, it's pouring rain. We wanted to leave around 9AM but we weren’t able to leave until after 11AM. Finally, we were under way. We got a few blocks from home …and that’s when Becky remembered that we forgot to put the food in the refrigerator. With all those other problems, it was EASY to forget that! So we went back home and loaded up the ‘fridge ...in the rain.
We finally drove down to Washington D.C. It rained all the way. Well, at least it wasn’t snowing! You never know what it’s going to do in early April in Pennsylvania! We still had piles of snow left over from February! We arrived at Roger’s farm around supper time. By the time we got there, the other trailers had made a mud bog at the entrance to the camping field ...because of all the rain. But, cheered on by our small welcoming party (of WDCU folks) we slid our way through the mud and set up camp ...in the rain. The trailer battery promptly went dead. “Blast it! I thought trouble came in 3’s not fours!” Luckily, Matt Worner had electricity all hooked up and ready for us at the farm, so I didn't need to worry about the dead battery ...I just had to go plug the trailer in ...in the rain.
We had a good supper, a nice visit with old friends, and then settled in for the night. It was cold and yucky outside ….it’s weather like that makes you appreciate having a nice trailer, like and Airstream.
Luckily, the club had rented a large tent ....like a small circus tent ...to use for gathering. It had a heater in it ...which was good because I don't think it got above 50 all weekend. It also kept everyone out of the rain. The tent made the trip worth the effort. We had a great time in the tent!
On Friday we drove to the new Airplane Museum at Dulles Airport. http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy/ . It took about an hour to get there ...it rained all the way. It is a great museum! There were all kinds of planes in there. We were there all day ...and it rained all the while. It was a good rainy day activity, since there was water everywhere and it was nice and dry in the museum. At 3:30PM, however, the building had a problem and they made us all leave. Ironically, they ran out of water because of a water main break. Fortunately, we saw most of the museum, and were headed towards the gift shop when they made us leave. .... So, we went out in the rain and got back in the car to head back to camp. Unfortunately, we ran into terrible traffic on the beltway. There was a 20 miles long traffic jam so it took 4 hours to get back to camp ...it was horrible ...and it rained all the way. On the radio, they said that I-95 was backed up for 40 to 45 miles!! I was glad I wasn’t going that way! I can’t believe people who live in Washington have to put up with traffic like this all the time. Here in Punxsutawney, PA, we complain that the traffic is terrible when we don’t get through the traffic light on the first try! A really bad traffic jam is when it’s backed up more than 20 CARS …not 20 miles! It makes me glad I don’t live in the city.
On Saturday, it was raining early, but the afternoon cleared some, so I went one place to look at some cars, and Becky went and did her geocaching stuff. The weather wasn’t bad for the “open house”, but there weren’t many people participating. I imagine the mud had something to do with that! Later we had a really nice pot luck dinner with a pork roast. After that we played dominoes and even got some use of a telescope to see the planets. They saw the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. Tom Jacobs (the astronomer) said it wasn't so great because of some high clouds. …but at least it had cleared up! Amazingly, after I went to bed, the flapping of the awning awoke me. “Dang!” It was raining again! So out I went out in my P.J.s to take care of the flapping awing and to put the chairs in the trunk of the car.
It rained a bunch Saturday night so that everything got nice and wet by Sunday morning ....so people could get stuck in the mud while they were leaving. Fortunately, Clayton Rogers got a load of gravel on Friday to fill the mud bog created on Thursday ....but a few bigger rigs still got stuck. Tom Howarth’s motorhome did a nice job of digging it’s way down towards China. The tractor pulled them out. As people were leaving in the morning, the sun finally came out.
We left around 11AM. We drove most of the way in partly cloudy weather. I even wore my sunglasses for a little while! It was very windy, however, and I drove many miles straight into a head wind. The old '68 Polara was working pretty hard. When we got to Pennsylvania, however, it started to snow. Near Altoona, the snow was looking pretty serious on either side of us, but it was just a light flurry on the highway we were on (I-99). Above Altoona, however, winter weather really got serious. There were 4 inches of new snow on the ground and it was blowing and drifting onto the road. I've never towed the trailer through snow before. I slowed to a crawl a few times, but fortunately, the road was clear for the most part. It was drifted over only in a few short spots. After about 20 miles of that, we ran out of it and it was still green here in Punxsutawney. There were plenty of puddles because it rained all weekend here also.
Now, the week so far, Monday through Wednesday, there wasn't a cloud in the sky ...Isn't that just typical !!!
On the bright side, my old ’68 Dodge Polara tow car ran beautifully all weekend. The trailer has a few problems, but they will be easy to fix.
All in all, if it hadn’t been for that wonderful tent with the heater in it, and the great friends we have in the WDCU, the weekend would have been a disaster! Then all I would have been able to say would have been, “At least I got away from work for a while!”
I'll let everyone know when we are going to go camping again ...so you'll know when it's going to rain again.
MARC WEIMER #15767
Well, a couple of months have gone by since the ill-fated Cherry Blossom Rally trip. The old '68 Dodge Polara is still running OK, but the engine developed a miss at idle speed that has me concerned. It's done that slightly before, but since our trip in April, it's more noticable than it has ever been. My gas mileage isn't as good as it had been either. It's time to investigate the cause.
So, I got out my compression tester to see how the old 318 V-8 engine was doing in the Dodge. It has 137,000 miles on it (as far as I know), so I figure there has to be some wear and tear on it. It doesn't use much oil, however. The compression test indicates that I have zero compression in one cylinder, and less than 50 pounds in three others. The other four are a more normal 130 pounds or so. So, my motor has a problem. I poured oil into the cylinder that was zero. The compression test still said "zero" after putting the oil in. That means I had a bad valve. It's time to remove the cylinder heads !!
Soon, I had the cylinder heads off the car (about two hours, I think). Diagnosis? The exhaust valves got burnt! 1968 engines were designed to use leaded gasoline. I was towing my trailer against a head wind while using unleaded fuel. I had heard that valve seats could get burned if you work an old engine too hard. Now I can tell you that this in fact, true! I had four bad exhaust valve seats after I took the engine apart. (This disassembly was pretty easy since it's an old car). I took the cylinder heads to a machine shop where they replaced all 8 exhaust valve seats with modern hardened valve seats. They renewed the cylinder heads and did a nice valve job. This all cost around $400. I got it all back together and now my engine runs better than I've ever seen it run before.
Anyone contemplating using an old engine to tow a trailer should be aware that engines made before the early 1970's need to have lead in their fuel, or some kind of a substitute. Auto parts stores sell bottles of lead substitute since lead is no longer available in gasoline. The lead lubricates the exhaust valve seats and keeps them from deteriorating quickly. According to what I've read, this problem probably won't occur in normal driving ....but towing a 1971 Airstream to Washington, DC with a 1968 Dodge is probably not considered "normal"! I believe my old '68 Dodge Polara had a bad exhaust valve seat long before I used it to tow my trailer to the CBR in April. Previously, it has made trips to Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, and all over Pennsylvania while towing the Airstream (without any problems, I might add). In retrospect, I should have had the machine shop work years ago. The new valve seats should provide many miles of service.
Ok. Now I think the problems I had at the CBR are done now .....