Daily Archives: June 8, 2019

A Two’fer Weekend . . .

Didn’t get to sleep in like I usually do on Saturday. Or like to do, anyway.  But it was for a good cause.

Our good friend’s Janice and Dave Evans, who recently got off the road and now have a really nice place up near Trinity, were on their way down here to visit family and wanted to get together for breakfast at the Texas City IHOP about 11:30.

IHOP and good friends? No problem!

And of course last night we got together with Chris and Charles Yust up in Conroe at El Bosque.

You can never have too many good friends, or too much good food.

So a Two’fer Weekend.

I went out about 8pm tonight to take a look at our truck’s coolant leak. I had gone out earlier, but it was so bright outside that it was just impossible to see anything under the hood, even with a bright light.

The first thing I noticed was that as I poured water into the radiator it was just coming out the bottom. I finally crawled underneath and it looked like it was coming out around the output shaft at the bottom of the engine. This shaft drives all the accessories on the front of the engine, like the AC, Alternator, Power Steering, Water Pump, etc.

My first thought was – Rut Roh!

Depending on what it was, a bushing, a bearing, or even a cracked block, it could be major. But I was not leaking oil from the engine, and I did not have oil in the coolant, nor did I have coolant in the engine oil. So I was still hopeful.

Then looking down from the side of the engine I saw that the water was leaking out from around the water pump bearing, and then running down onto the drive pulley right below it.

So right now it looks like I might just have a bad water pump. The only thing that’s kind of strange is that normally when this happens you can wiggle the fan around because the bearing  is shot, but this one is rock solid.

So maybe the pump housing is cracked. But we won’t know until they take it apart.

This pump was replaced in 2013 while we were on a gate down in Whitsett, TX, so it’s only six years old. But then the first one only last 9 years, so not a big difference I guess.

I’ll have to call around on Monday to find someone in this area to take it on.

Yesterday we got one last European trip-related item in the mail. When were visiting Westminster Abbey in London I found this St. George and the Dragon Roundlette that was going to buy in the gift ship, but our tour was leaving before I could purchase it.

St. George Roundlette

So I ordered it when we got back.

It’s about 3” in diameter, and it ‘s hand painted onto glass, and looks like a stained glass window.

One last memory of our trip.

And according to Jan, it will be our last trip. About 8 hours into our 10 hour trip home from London (plus the 2 hours sitting on the tarmac before we left), Jan leaned over and said, “If you ever surprise me with another vacation like this, I’m going to rip your arm off and beat you to death with it.”

Turns out that Jan is just not a happy flyer.

dhdg