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It wasn't surprising when disaster interrupted Whip It!'s travel plans. That's nothing new. What was surprising was that it wasn't Whip It! that caused the problem: it was the RV that Burford had borrowed from his bro-in-law.
Driving behind the RV I saw billows of smoke begin pouring from the undercarriage. When Burford finally noticed it & pulled over, I looked underneath & saw flames. |
| Fortunately, Whip It! never travels without a fire extinguisher -- though I'd never had to use it before. It was the first time I'd ever fired an extinguisher in anger. |
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The oil trail brought up unhappy art car memories, of the ill-fated Lucky / Santa / X-mess / X-country trip of 1995.
 What had happened was that the line going from the oil pressure gauge to the block had broken free. The RV had dropped pretty much every drop of its oil. Fortunately, Whip It! never travels without a full oil change's worth of oil. |
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Unfortunately, Whip It! does not typically travel with any spare RV parts.
What was needed was a cap nut to close off the hole in the block, so we could drive into Needles. We hunted around, checked through toolboxes, nothing fit ... |
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... except a screwdriver, the end of which twists off to reveal two smaller screwdrivers inside. (It was a gift from a friend of mine at whose family's auto parts store I used to work). |
Turns out the screwdriver was not made to stand the kind of torque required for a snug fit on an engine block nib.  However, another cap nut was finally found on another part of the RV, & we limped the RV into Needles.
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W kibbitzes while Burford attempts to plug the hole with the screwdriver. |
