Fire

Forgive me if I ramble a bit. I've been cleaning up around the burn this morning and am a little addled. As I mentioned in a private message to one of you this morning, I feel as if my spirit is rising from the ashes of this disaster. The kindness and generosity coming my way is a little overwhelming and speaks well of each of you.
I have put out the word here that I'm looking for a van or truck both cheap and reliable with mechanics more important than looks. I may be able to get something thanks to all of you. If I don't feel good about what is out there in my price range then I'll rent something to drive home. Either way, it is thanks to you good people that I will pretty soon be on my way. When I first posted what happened I had no idea anyone would want to actually do something about it to help. I guess I just wanted to tell somebody who would understand that it is a substantial loss. You did a lot more than just understand.
As I worked through the sooty mess this morning I decided I'm going to do a commemorative build this summer or winter of a bike that kind of marks this whole event... the fire and loss and more importantly the coming together of a community of like minded people. As member Mke Snyder put it, we are "brothers in the wind". It certainly feels like that to me, brothers all. I've never experienced anything like this coming my way and it is something else, something which makes me feel good about people and the basic kindness out there we hear little about in news reports of a world of war and terrorism, environmental disasters, economic collapse,governmental ineptitude and crime... all of that is not most of us. I told my four children each when they were young that my greatest wish for them was to grow up with a good heart, that there is nothing more important. They did and it is something you all did, too. I'm awfully glad to know you all. Many thanks. I'd better get back to clean up work.
SB

Venice Motor Bikes said:

Buy a Chevy this time!!

*edit* I just hit 2500 posts!!! I think I'm spending way too much time on here!

Click to expand...

Hey Norm,
Sounds like you must be a Chevy man. I want to get your opinion on something. The truck that burned up was an 87 Ford F350, straight six with manual transmission. I got it mostly to be able to economically tow my 51 Spartan trailer here to Maryland to live in. I seriously doubt I'll be moving it again and if I need to I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, so I don't think I need such a heavy duty hauler. I do need a truck though. I've been watching the area Craigslist and two possibles came up this evening. One is a 71 Chevy c10, six cylinder with three on the tree. The owner wants $500.00 for it and says it needs new tires and to have the brakes gone over before a long journey like mine of 1300 miles. He said he bought it to restore but never did. $500.00 bucks isn't much, but maybe the truck isn't much either. He said he would email me pictures. I'm wondering if you know anything about this engine and if it is a dud or a good one or what. I don't know much about Chevy engines other than a small block V8 I helped rebuild for a weird 4 wheel drive truck I had many years ago... a jeep wagoneer underneath with a 38 Chevy pickup cab on top. I called it my 38 special. And it was until the engine froze up which was my own fault using the old jeep radiator and a pretty tight build. Anyway, I don't know much about the Chevy sixes and although I've done some mechanical work I should not have been allowed to as I'm not a gas in my blood mechanic.
The other truck is a 70 Ford with a 302 engine and a three speed. Looks nice with more details from the lady selling it. I'll try to post the picture of it below. She wants $900.00 for it.
I just got a message back from the Chevy guy...
"I honestly wouldn't feel comfortable with you taking it 1300 miles just cause she has been sittin so long. The motor runs strong. The transmission linkage is worn and doesn't always catch like it should til you get the feel of it. I can take some pictures of it, maybe tomorrow if I don't get off too late and send them to you. Sorry to hear about your misfortune..."
If the motor runs well and the transmission itself is good, I would think the linkage problem wouldn't be too big a deal would it? I know not to expect too much from a $500.00 truck and your not being able to look it over yourself makes giving an opinion kind of hard. I'm just asking if you know if this truck, motor and transmission is a known lemon or was a good runner in it's day. Any thoughts?
SB

Norm,
The Ford lady got back to me and it is a manual transmission with a V8. She said there's an exhaust leak and the ball joints need to be replaced. I'm going to call my mechanic neighbor tomorrow to get a ballpark estimate. Wonder if 2door has an opinion on this... he's a Ford guy, isn't he? Personally I'd buy whatever runs and gets me home. She and hubby haven't had occasion to drive it much over the past couple years. Knows of nothing else wrong with it. Over a hundred grand on the odometer which is no surprise. Which hundred grand? Looks pretty good, so I'm guessing just a hundred something. Thanks,
SB

rockhopper said:

Hi Silverbear. Joe might be on to something here.

Is there anyone out there that can get SB and his hitch going on the first leg of his trip up north?

Please speak up guys.

And SB, can you give us more specifics on where you are now and where you need to go?

Bump.

JC

Click to expand...

Joe's offer was pretty amazing, but seems like a lot to ask of anyone. I don't think Greyhound would work since they would consider Aaniimoosh an alien being and a less than third class citizen. Even though it's a greyhound, no dogs allowed I imagine although the Moosh would be better behaved than most of the children on the bus and better looking than their mothers. Where I go the Moosherator goes. I'm the lone ranger and she's tonto. Or the other way around, I guess.
I'm located between Thurmont and a dinky place without even a gas station or grocery store called Sabillasville in north central Maryland about thirty miles north of Frederick and south of Gettysburg, all old civil war country with many ghosts blue and gray wandering about I imagine although I have not yet seen anybody. My first destination is Marion Ohio where I will stop to see Camlifter, providing I have a ride with room for a beautiful bike. From there I usually head west toward Indianapolis and avoid the more northerly route past scenic Gary, Indiana and Chicago's backside which is a traveler's nightmare. So I stay lower until past Chicago, then head north into Wisconsin until there's no more Wisconsin and go west skirting Lake Superior at Duluth, Minnesota, the frozen Riviera, then inland northwest a hundred miles to heaven on earth which is located midway between Tower and Ely at Eaglesnest Lakes near Bearhead State Park. Home. Sigh...
Passing me and my Moosh along 1300 miles might be kind of hard to manage. I'm looking real hard at Craigslist for a truck and may have found something. Renting a vehicle I think would run at least $400.00 not counting gas, so that seems less appealing than finding a truck if I can manage it since I need a truck anyway. And I have some tools to take with me even though they are a mess. I had to remove the tags from the owner's blazer this morning before it was towed away and found it challenging to use a screwdriver with no handle. None of my screwdrivers have handles. Tough to get leverage that way, so I used a pair of vice grips to serve as a handle. Took three vice grips before I found one that works. Fire is not real good on your tools, even the metal ones. It's going to take some oil soaks and effort getting things to work again. New handles for the hatchet and hammers, watch yard sales for screwdrivers, the fancy ones with handles. It is amazing how many things are lost or wrecked. I went to Goodwill today and got a some pants, a jacket and scored two pair of shoes. Woohoo! I have the beginnings of a new wardrobe. I'm very glad for what I have and also glad that I don't need a whole lot. unlike Barely, I am no slave to fashion. I'm going home one way or another. G'night good people. Have to finish cleaning up at my truck tomorrow as it gets towed away on Friday, so off to bed and early up.
SB

Crazy Horse,
Thank you for sharing the Tsalagi prayer with me and with all of us. I read it over slowly a number of times and will again for it is balanced and wise and speaks from the heart of our ancestors. The one thing I had not packed as it is always last when I travel is my prayer pipe, what the dominant culture knows as a ' pipe' since it was something they saw while signing treaties they later broke. (No recriminations here as my ancestors were on both sides of the treaty making.) It was not understood by the Europeans that the pipe is a portable alter for offering prayers to our Creator in the spirit world. Tobacco is like wine in the church which becomes sacred by its spiritual purpose. It is not inhaled in ceremony as that would be giving something used. The tobacco is material and of this world and through fire becomes smoke rising into the spiritual dimension. The pipe carrier's prayers rise with the smoke from this world to the next. The pipe itself represents the duality of life, the union of the male stem with the female bowl. It also represents the kingdoms of nature, as the bowl is mineral, the stem is wood, usually there are feathers and leather. The colors of the quill or beadwork are also meaningful and different with differing tribal traditions. So I was very glad that the sacred pipe was not lost in the fire as it would have been the greatest personal loss of all, of greater value than the truck or the bikes or personal possessions. I was made a pipe carrier many years ago by an Ojibwe medicine man of the Grand Portage Band along Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota and consider it both an honor and an obligation to carry it well. He told me he had been directed in dreaming that it was a gift from nisaaya mukwaawug (our elder brothers, the bears). Before I leave on my journey to the northern forest I will do a pipe ceremony of thanksgiving for the kindness which has come my way through you good people, also my brothers. Miigwetch (thank you) and miiew (that's all).
Silverbear

A new day comes as coffee is making and I put on my already sooty work clothes. My mechanic neighbor, Harp, will come in a few hours to haul off the what used to be my truck, so anything in or on it has to be gone through for tools, bike parts to save what is worth saving. Still can't find the blade of the hunting knife I made from a file when I was a much younger man. It had been over the driver's side visor and seems like it should have been found already in the cab. Maybe when things exploded it got sent flying. Something like that one should not be bothered by, but it seems like that blade wants me to find it and make it whole again.
"Making things whole again" is an interesting phrase and is something which I have dealt with before. Probably many of you have too, in your own setbacks in health or marriages, loss of loved ones, loss of jobs. In a private message someone asked me to someday talk about the lighting strike I experienced some 15 years ago and I said I would, perhaps another time in the Tavern part of this forum. What is appropriate now is to say that it was a major turning point where many things were lost and other new things filled in the void. I lost on a physical level and gained in the spiritual dimension of understanding and finding balance between the inner and the outer. I know that many of us discover that in the course of our lives, passing through difficulties and coming out survivors. With a lightning survivors group I subscribe to I have always advised people to make the choice between self pity and picking yourself up... being either a victim or a survivor. I chose survivor and I continue to make that choice because it is who I am and it is what brings better results. It is an attitude which has served me well through four near death experiences. As George Harrison sang "All things must pass". Sot it is with everything here on earth. We came in naked and leave the same way. All we can take with us is our spiritual treasure. I don't mean to get in to religious stuff or to advocate a point of view... just sharing my own and saying that this experience can make me a victim or I can survive it. I made my choice before it ever happened and you folks have helped give me strength. Enough of this talk.
Th journey is still on hold as I find a means of getting from here to home. The Chevy pickup is cheap but needs a lot to make it road worthy and I now understand that the shifting linkage problem is not a small thing, along with replacing tires, going over the brakes and dealing with whatever else has happened as it sat makes it a poor candidate. The 1970 Ford truck looks good, but new ball joints replaced is somewhere around $400.00, so even though it would make a neat vintage ride and is a pretty good deal it is over budget as I have to do the registration, tags and have gas money to go 13 hundred miles. So I keep looking. Not long after my last post and after reading over Crazy Horse's Cherokee prayer he shared with us I looked again at Craig'slist for Frederick and the most recent listing was an 87 Jeep Cherokee in very nice condition, apparently ready to roll for one thousand dollars... right at what I told myself was the most I could manage between what I had and what has been given. Perfect. So I emailed the seller and am waiting for a response... hoping to see it this weekend, the soonest I can borrow a vehicle to go take a look. Wouldn't that be an interesting kind of synchronicity if I read a Cherokee prayer and a little later a Cherokee "iron horse' appeared snorting and ready to go? It's something to think about anyway. I'll keep you posted on what happens. Gotta go sort through stuff and say goodbye to the carcass of my dead truck whose body will be recycled just as mine will someday. I sure could use a nice motorbike ride today, sigh.
SB

Oops, one of those pictures ain't a jeep.