Travels of the Not So Common Man: October 2009

Been back in Indiana for a couple of days now. Cam back to mainly 1) do some repairs on my Jeep and 2) take part in the season ending ASGA outing down in Sellersburg, IN. It's raining now so I thought I let you know the ups and downs of the past few days; overall though its been a good week. Hopefully the rain will clear out before the weekend.

The repairs consisted of the 100,000 service, finding out what that 'noise' is I keep hearing and getting my brakes serviced.

Took the Jeep into the dealer to get my 100,000 service and seems the Jeep is doing quite well. Everything seem to check out except for one major item - my drive shaft. Yep! Len, that noise I kept hearing wasn't the wheel bearings; it was the front u-joints which on the Jeep is one and the same with the drive shaft. Seems that can't replace one without the other. Good thing I have that 'Forever Warranty'. $100 out-of-pocket for me. Yippee! Except that the warranty company won't honor the contract. Seems there is a clause in the contract that I was to notify them each and every time I get an oil change or really anything done to my car.

At least the Jeep dealer feels as bad about it as I seem to feel. No, really. They are working with me to get it replaced at their cost. So it's going to end up costing me around $500. A lot less than I'd anticipated. Working with the warranty company to void my contract and get reimbursed. If I remember I'll keep you upon how that goes. The drive shaft is now scheduled to be replaced mid next week.

On to CarX to get my brakes fixed - whatever that might mean. I was bracing myself for another big expense, not that I'd been having any problems but when I bought the Jeep the guy told me I should probably have the pads replaced in 10,000 or so miles and I'd had gone almost 20,000. Come to find out that the rotors and pads are practically brand new and have plenty of life in them. Cha-ching!!!

This Indy stop isn't turning out to be as expensive as I'd thought it would be.

Now if the rain would just go away!!!

Anyone who really knows me knows that I am a huge Dallas Cowboy fan. That being said I did take the time to take a tour of Lambeau Field in Green Bay. As a football anyone you should really want to see Lambeau Field first hand. And I believe it was well worth the tour. And I have to admit there is something unique about the Packer mystique that probably no other team can match. Just the fact that the team is owned by the townspeople puts the franchise in a category that can't be matched. That and the fact that it is one of the older franchise and one that has won so many championships doesn't hurt either. A definite must see for any football fan. Enjoy the pics.

Another neat venture that I took was to take a tour of a submarine. In this case it was the USS Cobia docked at Manotiwoc, WI. Manotiwoc was one of the major submarine boat yards during WWII. I can't imagine having to live in one of those submarines for months at a time. Kind of makes my Jeep feel roomy!! lol