Seals are Pinepeds

About 60 days left before I begin my cross country adventure and I haven't had the truck serviced in about four years. Well  , I had the oil changed but I got really mad at the local Nissan dealer in Walnut Creek. You see some crook broke into my truck and stole my radio and cd and ripped open the console. I went to get it repaired and was told the parts would be in "next week" Next week turned into 4 months and then they called and said " the parts are here, bring your truck in tomorrow". I was over joyed and came in with a smile on my face, just to be told it was a prank by the parts manager who had quit the night before. I was furious. So off to LA and I took the truck in to a dealer in Hawthorne and asked , "how long to get this console repaired?" He responded " one day, the parts are local". right then and there I made up my mind never to use the local dealer again.

Now its four years later and I went to a new dealer and told him I am planning to travel across the country and don't want to miss the family gathering  while being stuck in Upper Armpit, Alabama waiting for parts. The service manager smiled and assured me he would give the truck a complete inspection.  That was Monday morning, by the afternoon the patient was found to be suffering from severe seal failure, bad breaks( spelling error intended), and list of maladies to numerous to enumerate. He let me know the cost to repair everything would be slightly  more than a first class airline ticket to North Carolina..... mmmm what to do? scap the truck? fix it and swallow hard or buy a new vehicle. I chose option two.
Four days later its Thursday night and I still have no truck. It seems they have ordered a seal and it hasn't come in yet. Does this sound familiar? If not re read paragraph 1, different dealer same story. I even offered to go over to Marine world and get them a seal but the fellow laughed and said it wouldn't fit my model. The only silver lining to this cloud is that the trip is still 60 days away and its spring here in California and the seals are all pupping and maybe one of them will volunteer to help keep my transmission intact.

GETTING READY

Last  year we spent a few days in Swansboro, North Carolina with Maggie's cousin Graydon and Melba. They invited the whole Boscoe clan back to their fabulous home on Emerald Isle this summer. We will all be there from May 25th to June 1st.  This blog is dedicated to how Venus and I will get there and back.

We'll drive, yep both ways and Venus will fly along the way, no, not behind my car but on her tethered harness. Flying shots will be available as I get more proficient with blogging.

And if I hadn't mentioned it, we will be letterboxing. If you aren't a letterboxer, read about it on Atlasquest.com. So I am busily preparing to leave Orinda around May 10th, bird in hand without my lovely mate, Maggie who is threatening to go to Vegas for a weekend to celebrate my departure.

Right now I'm collecting all the stuff I need to make the trip successful such as having a poop shroud made for my truck. If it interests you I'll be driving an '04 Nissan Titan PU . Its good for sleeping and has a huge back seat for coolers and bird cages. Venus will ride on the top of the front seat, thus I need a poop shroud. Poop shrouds aren't sold in stores or even on line. The only shrouds I could find reference to  on the web was the Shroud of Turin, so  my shroud shall henceforth be called the Shroud of  Turdin.  There will three of them and if I see the image of the Messiah in the streaks I'll promptly notify the Vatican and nominate Venus for canonization.

I bought a new really cheap HP1000 printer, only for sale on the web for $35. It only prints black ink,doesn't use much power and can be plugged into the lighter socket in the car to print letter boxing clues