Revenge of El Guapo: Unbelievable car problems and the Unlikely fix

a hundred miles ago while stopped at a gas station, i heard a queer knocking noise coming from under the engine. similar to the last one, but more muted. El Guapo had warned me that if i didnt give him more money to let him completely rebuild the motor, that he would haunt me and, just maybe, get his revenge. i was scared.

but i didnt care any longer, if my car was going to act up again, then i was done messing with it. we decided to just keep driving it until it broke, then at least i'd know what was wrong with it

while we drove, we wondered what we'd do if the car broke down again. we decided that we'd sell it on the side of the road, buy some plane tickets back home, and blow the rest of our trip money on a flat screen tv and the Planet Earth series on DVD. after all, why travel when you can see it from the comfort of your couch?

we drove another hundred miles and i realized that i should probably have a mechanic take a look at it. unfortunately, it was already past 6 and everyone was closed. oh well, i was looking forward to the flat screen. we were about to get back on the freeway, but jenn needed a little girls room and there was a mcdonalds right under the overpass, so we stopped. while she was in there i decided to pop the hood one more time. this time i noticed a strange thing, this bolt sticking out through the timing bolt cover. when i touched the cover i could feel the flump flump flump. i think i had found the problem.

i pulled the cover off and lo and behold, my timing belt was hanging by a thread. it had been scraping against this bolt that was fused to the cover and was about to give way (later i would try to rotate the motor a hair by turning the cam and the belt snapped right off)

this was great news! this was something i could fix! i called up Bill to make sure this was something I could do with the few tools i brought with me. he thot so, and i went at it. jenn put on her jogging shorts and ran 1.7 miles down to Autozone and picked up a new belt for $10.99. by time she got back i had everything apart and was ready to re-assemble.

the job went really fast with the help of my homeless friends. turns out when El Guapo replaced my water pump he neglected to tighten all the bolts. this one got loose and was flung by the timing belt up through the cover, then the belt scraped the bolt for a few hundred miles til it was just hanging by a thread. another mile and he would have had his revenge. sorry, El Guapo, but not today. in about two hours we were back on the road and my dreams of a flat screen were squished. but america, here we come.

a few hours later we were in the Appalachians enjoying the nations longest scenic road, the Blue Ridge Parkway that stretches 549 miles and passes through four states. it was pretty boring, just look at these pictures

the place was infested with plants

and trees and other green stuff

believe it or not, these are actually different pictures. we wound around this for a few hours and then we got a gorgeous little camp ground and slept soundly.