First Jedediah Smith Trail 1822 — 1824

Day 2: August 17th, 2009 Pittsburgh (Mine)

Even though I went to bed so late (that is usually the time I wake up due to my jetlag) I only sleep until just before eight. During the night I also woke up a couple of times. I get up and take a shower first. This morning I can start quite relaxed, because Helen must bring her Mom to a nursing home. It seems, everything adds up today. Around noon she plans to be back.

Around one she is back and we hurry up to get to the mine. Around two we arrive there and I prepare everything to pick up my S10. Because Helen has an extreme time pressure today I suggest that she should drive back home immediately. Then she can save all the waiting around here until I am ready to leave. She is really happy about my suggestion. But she is worried that I get lost. I am able to ease her and she finally leaves.

After a little bit of waiting, Kevin shows up and takes me into the mine, who also assisted me last year when I got my truck back. But before, he must get a whole bunch of tools away from the seat that I have a spot to sit. Lucky me, I already put on my working pants…

88 S10 Blazer at Mine

We drive to my car and he let me get out of the truck while he is searching for the keys. She is still parking at the very same spot like last year when I dropped her. Also the oil spot is not really as big as I already suspected. The dipstick shows the lower mark.

I connect my battery and the light already works. So it shouldn’t be an issue to fire her up. But this is far wrong. There is only a ticktack and that’s it. It seems that my battery is dead. Lucky me he has a jump start with him. So it’s not a problem to start the engine. I have a brief chat with Kevin who already works here for two years and who is the only one left from the “old” crew. Then we leave the spot.

When passing the entrance gate I forget again how high my antenna is and it clashes heavily. Also Kevin turns around pretty frightened. But he is relaxed when he sees my antenna. Outside the mine I start to pump up my tires. I say good–bye to Kevin and wish him all the best.

Then I need a gas station first. There they currently have a contest from Sunoco. You only must put on a sticker on your car and once you have been found you can get several thousand dollar. But I thankfully decline. However, you receive a real gas station service here. When he is asking me for the correct gas I am getting unsure. I know, my Cherokee back home needs 91 octane. But I am not sure if my S10 Blazer needs now 87 or 89. So I must look it up in the manual. After searching for a while I see that 87 is sufficient, which I also had in mind. Usually I am able to get Regular everywhere, except Montana. There they even have 84.5 octane. This would be completely unbelievable for Germany…

The next surprise comes when I try to fire up my truck. There is again only a ticktack and that’s it. So the battery is now definitely dead. The last test is happening back home. When I arrive there, I just collect my stuff together to get to David to change my tires. But also here I have again only ticktack. But that is not a problem. All in all I still have my spare battery.

So I quickly remove the old battery, which is not easy due to the oil pressure sensor. First I must remove the cooler overflow reservoir. Then the battery can be removed with quite an effort. Unfortunately I must realize that the screw on the positive terminal is already pretty bad. It seems that I will not open this one too often anymore, before it is completely dead.

Next is to get my spare battery out. To disconnect it more easily I lift the battery out — and realize that it is sitting in water! So I quickly put the battery back in the box. But a few drops already fell outside. I quickly realize that this is not water but acid. There were it dropped on my carpet there is within a very short amount of time no carpet anymore…

Now I have a real problem. Nevertheless, the battery must be disconnected first. Then I walk into the house to Helen. She will be picked up by Johnna soon and they drive over to her Mom. But I can have her car. The leaking battery will be deposit within the battery box at the house and I also take the old battery with me. Then I drive over to Walmart. Somehow I have a very uncomfortable feeling driving her nice new car. But I have no other choice.

At Walmart I look were I can return the old battery. I assume the Customer Service is the right place and line up there. The battery must be put directly in a cart next to the counter. No one wants to touch it. Then I also ask what to do with my leaking battery. The employee checks this and says I should just tell someone about this issue. Outside they have a spot where they can deposit the acid. The battery should definitely not be taken inside.

I say thank you and walk over to the battery shelf. There I look for the correct battery. But I must realize, that they don’t have terminals on top anymore! They only have the “standard” ones for the standard connection at the side! Great, in the end all my accessories are build for the top terminal!

Now I am starting to ponder. But all my searching is in vain. Such a battery is no longer available. It doesn’t make sense to search for an alternative forever. So a rework must be done. Therefore I pick some 4 gauge battery extension wires with screw on connections on both side. Some idea will show up in the end.

With my new battery I drive back home. First, I must install the battery. Then I can start thinking on how to proceed. The only possible terminal to hook up is directly at the alternator. The extension wire opening is a bit too big, but it works. I am able to connect it to the positive terminal. However, this wire runs now dangerously close to the metal air filter. Also it runs across the whole engine. Suddenly, I have really mixed feelings having a non fused wire running this close to hot grounded metal parts. If there is a short, it really starts to smoke!

At the current positive terminal, the extension wire can be hooked up reasonably well. Now I must isolate everything somehow. Then I remember the plastic spiral band which must be somewhere. And after searching for a while I am also finding it. I turn it around the metal contacts of the extension wire and the old whole positive terminal. Additionally, I use a lot of insulating tape at the most critical spots.

Now I must fix the wire with cable ties reasonably away from metal parts. Then I am finished with the workaround. Hopefully this will work out. In the meantime it is already eight. Slowly it is getting extremely late. I leave to drive over to David. I see one of his dogs outside, but no one is there. So I directly drive on to the garage.

There I am barely able to get around some trailers and all different stuff to reach his garage. This is getting more chaotic from year to year. To my surprise, a key is in the door! I take it away and check with the key, I still have. This one fits, so I still have the one from last year. Then I must get my car on the lift again.

Now up it goes. But the front lift to lift up the axles cannot be moved enough to the rear. So I must let my car down again and drive a bit forward. Now it fits. But I am almost not able to move the front lift. Therefore I start with the rear tires. Then I am back at the front lift. By moving from one side to the other it goes fraction of inches. And such an enormous exertion after I had almost nothing to eat for two days. Okay, for breakfast I had two eggs out of the pan, at least something.

But I skipped lunch because of Helen’s computer. I just wanted to check my emails which ended up in installing SP3 for XP. And the rest of the time I was busy to get the acrobat reader running. Helen then told me that it is already not working for a while. So it was not my fault.

After I have finished my front tires I quickly check the tire pressure. That one is almost correct, they have only lost a little bit. Then I drive down from the lift. There I hear a wired ticktack sound and I remember panic–fueled that I have not re–tightened the nuts with the torque wrench! This already happened to my last year!

So I quickly stop, turn off the engine and re–tighten the nuts. Then I drive out of the garage, lock everything and take the other key with me, just to be sure. One dog is still outside, the other one inside. They make really a lot of noise. But there is no one to see, even though I am waiting for a while. Well, then I will drive back home and take the key with me.

In the meantime it is 9pm. Helen wants to drop my car immediately that she can go to bed. Slowly I am getting extremely hungry. I can take her car to drive out for dinner later. Okay, then let’s go to my Chevrolet dealer in Wexford.

On our way she stops at the post office to see if my registration has arrived, which is still missing. In the meantime I fill out the paper work to drop the car and keys at the key drop. When she comes back she has my registration and everything is fine.

I drop everything at the dealership and we drive back. There is now not enough time to take a shower. So I just put on a fresh shirt. Then I drive over to Lone Star. In the meantime it is half past ten and to my horror I must realize that they already close at 10pm. They are only open on Friday and Saturday until 11pm.

So I get back in the car and drive over to the Outback Steakhouse. Hopefully, they are still open. But also this quarter of an hour drive was in vain. They are also already closed with the same business hours! Therefore I drive back and follow Helen’s advice to go to Eat’n’Park. They are open 24 hours.

I receive a nice and big table and order a Rosemary Chicken. Baked potatoes are out at this time of day. Therefore I take Broccoli and a salad as side. To my surprise, the food is really good! My server is also pretty quick and nice and so I give a good tip.

I pay and drive back home. In the meantime it is midnight and I am dog–tired. Jetlag, almost no sleep, only little food, at some point it is getting too much. I brush my teeth and fall dead–tired in my bed…