Robert Stuart Trail 1812 — 1813

Day 2: August 13th, 2007 Pittsburgh (Mine)

Around 6am I wake up and start to repack my suitcase. All in all, I don’t want to drag the additional trolley with me when I am on the road. Around 7am Helen gets up. After she is finished I walk to the bathroom for a shower. Breakfast is around half past seven and at eight she leaves for her “exercise”, which is fast fitness walking.

Around 9am we leave for the mine. There I learn, that there is a new law out, which allows you to only have half a tank of gas. Therefore they were forced to remove gas, whereas they refunded me the money on my account. This money is now used to make a reservation for my return.

88 S10 Blazer at Mine

Then we drive into the mine. My car has been moved and now they must move another car in front of me. But they are not able to find my keys and the car in fron of me needs a jump start. After a long time of waiting, they were able to find a jump starter and they also found my keys. My truck fires up after a couple of turns. I am definitely glad to see that my leaf springs have not given in under the weight of my tires in the trunk!

When we are out of the mine, I fully pump up my tires. When the engine started, the “Check Engine” light turned on, which is now off again. Hopefully there is nothing serious developing. We drive back home and I continue straight to Wal–Mart to get oil and filter.

At Helen I have a quick sandwich. Then I ask at the hotline of my provider about a refill for my mobile phone. There they explain to me, that I would need a new card and not just a refill card!

So I drive once again to Wal–Mart. There an employee talks almost an hour to T–Mobile. But it is all in vain. Either I buy a new SIM card, which I can only get at a T–Mobile shop or I buy a complete new Tracfone Motorola mobile phone for the same amount of money. Because I am running out of time, I buy the Tracfone. Back home I activate it and send a quick text message to my Line Dance friends back in Germany.

Then I drive over to David and change my tires first. Then it is time for oil, filter and air filter. There is no time left to do more, because I must already leave tomorrow to New Jersey for the installation of my lift kit. Around 8pm I drive back to Helen and pack my car ready for departure. Because I do not know, whether I will return to here before I start the big trail, I must now pack everything for the big journey. Then I have a quick dinner, finish packing of my suitcase and around eleven I fall into my bed dead tired…