Lewis and Clark Trail Back Home 1805 — 1806

Day 39: September 19th, 2001 Pittsburgh (Storage Preparations)

Today I sleep longer than the others day before my departure. But I wake up in time to see David before he leaves for work. I prepare my usual Kellogg’s breakfast. Then I try to reach Helen to help me in checking out my flights. I have no good memories of doing motel reservations by phone. Therefore I want her to call the airline to be sure I don’t get something wrong.

I have luck to reach her on my first try and I can drive over to her right now. Then we look for the right phone numbers to call. We need a couple of attempts until we reach the right person. They tell us that my flight will be on time. Only my connecting flight in Chicago leaves five minutes eralier. If that’s all I am happy.

They also recommend to be at the airport 2 to 3 hours prior departure because of longer security checks. I am also not allowed to have scissors, tools or cans in my carry–on. All this has to go in my suitcase. I decide to leave my tripods and also the unused cosmetic stuff in my car. This way my carry–on should be getting smaller.

I drive back with all these informations in mind. Next is to wash my car. First I drive to a high pressure wash, which costs me five bucks. Then I drive back and clean the rest with shampoo and towels.

Now it’s time for the interior and the windows. Unfortunately I have nothing to protect the paint. I will take care of that next year. Now my car is ready for storage. I collect all the things together which will stay in the car.

David returns soon. He offers to buy my new battery for his van. His battery just broke down and this removes the burdon of charging the battery during storage. I also planned to only have the old battery connected while the car is stored in the mine. David also has some fuel stabilizer for me to keep the gas from separating during storage. I will put this in before I leave tomorrow. I will also change the battery tomorrow morning.

Next I plan to stop by at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Cranberry. Maybe they can help me out with my Zebulon Montgomery Pike book. First I search in the appropriate store area. But I have no luck to find something. Therefore I go to the counter and ask them. They are able to look up some books on the computer, which I also found on Amazon. Unfortunately they have none of these books in stock and they would have to order them.

This is not an option, because I have to leave the US in two days. When I leave the bookstore it just starts to rain. Ok, yes, I just washed my car. That’s why that happens…

David cooks something for dinner. When I return he is almost finished. This is perfect timing. His son is also there and joins us for dinner. We talk for a while until we go to bed. Tomorrow it’s time for the mine…