Stephen H. Long Trail 1819 — 1820

Day 2: August 25th, 2008 Pittsburgh (Mine)

Despite the jetlag, I have slept just past 6am. I wait until Helen gets up around 7am. Then I also go to the bathroom. After my shower I slowly feel like a human being again. But I am still pretty much wiped out from the journey. After breakfast we leave for the mine.

There the staff has changed and I must show my old contract for the very first time. Amy, who has worked here before, has moved and is no longer working here. Regardless, everything still works out without any issues and I also make my reservation for the next year.

Just when we leave the office, the guy, who will take us into the mine, also shows up. He still remembers us and immediately asks “The white S10 Blazer?!” — it is really impressive that he still recognizes us and even knows my truck!

88 S10 Blazer at Mine

The entrance has changed again and we follow on pretty labyrinthine paths the “pilot car” up to my truck. There I take two pictures of my truck with my new camera. Then he gets my keys. I unlock the door, connect my battery and start the engine. After 5 seconds the truck fires up and runs without any issues. This fascinates my every time. Even after a year of storage I didn’t even need a jump start!

After we have left the mine I pump up my tires first. All are down to around 25 psi. Only the rear tire, which I have damaged while offroading at lava stones, is down to 15 psi. But these are only storage tires, where I don’t really care.

After pumping up we drive back home. While driving back home David calls Helen and tells her that he will deliver all my ordered stuff to her house that I can take a look at them. Then we don’t need to make another stopover at his house. Perfect!

Back home I immediately leave again and drive over to Wal–Mart. The most important thing is a mobile phone. In the meantime all the medium priced mobile phones already have a camera and some of them even have Bluetooth. However, only T–Mobile has a Nokia mobile phone with Bluetooth. Therefore I take this one. There I have the hope, that I can copy all my numbers from the laptop and that also my Nokia Bluetooth headset will work.

Next is also the CD department. As usual I am not able to resist and I must buy some CDs. There are so many CDs which are pretty cheap for around 8 to 12 Dollar. There I really must buy a bunch of them!

Then I pick up my oil and air filter. However, I have my next surprise here: My truck is no longer in the check list. But from memory, the one for the 89 also fits. Maybe I should note down the correct types for next year. Unfortunately they are out of my oil. But this should arrive tomorrow.

Next on my list are the vitamins, beta–carotene and Ibuprofen. Fitted with all these I walk over to the cashier. Around 3pm I am back home and make myself a sandwich first. While Helen drives over to her mother I activate my mobile phone first. Then I take a look at my DeLorme Topo Maps software.

Soon Helen is back and I drive over to my Chevrolet dealer at Wexford. This time Jay is personally taking care of me and notes everything down. While doing this we have a nice talk about my recent journeys. Then I visit the guys at the part store. They immediately recognize me and we chat for almost half an hour until Helen should be there. And indeed, she is already there when I say good–bye to the guys.

On our way back I ask her if we could make a brief stop at Radio Shack for my laptop power cord. Not a problem, but she recommends two other stores, which are usually cheaper. Unfortunately, they don’t have it on stock. Only Radio Shack has it around. But there is already a customer in front who needs assistance forever. But he buys stuff for 600 Dollars. Therefore the sales guy really must take care of him. The two elderly women, who are still in front of me, are so nice to let me pay my power cord first.

Eventually I am back at the car and we drive back home. When we arrive there I first start installing my software. This takes some time and in the meantime dinner is ready: We have steaks with baked potato, the perfect dinner for starting my adventure!

Then I continue my software installation work. Around 10pm I am so dead tired, that I definitely need my bed. All in all, I am still not really recovered from yesterday…