Back to Uwharrie

Ahh what a welcome!!

As I pulled into the crowded field full of Rovers and tents a great hurrah went up from all my good Uwharrie friends. It was truly moving. In moments I was parked and enjoying the moonshine that is the hallmark of this event, oh and Land Rovers,...

I didn't take many pictures as I was just so glad to be relaxing and enjoying their good company.

In the photo at the right I'm being presented with a gift of two mason jars of shine. Utterly heartwarming!


Even more amazing was that great numbers of these nutters bought kilts to wear at the event after last years foolishness.


Yes there was off roading too, and perhaps some late night riding on a roof rack but it's the people that I come here for, and will again, and again,....


Sunday came all too soon, and with it the realization that I was heading north again, banished from America.


Thank you to all my Uwharrie friends!!
See you soon!


(all pictures snagged from Facebook, thanks!)

Truck go boom!

Sorry, Rover tech post,...

Well regardless of my being kicked out of the country, I'm still going to the fall Rover event in the Uwharrie National Forest. That's in North Carolina, A hell of a long way south for a weekend trip.
Ah hell, I'll pop by Dave Bobeck's place in DC on the way back up, all in all it'll be a great week.

So I swung through Brooklyn to pick up the coach and headed down to North Carolina.
To be fair, "swinging by" Brooklyn to pick up a travel trailer is a project in itself, but I'm getting so used to bombing along these crazy highways in the Boston - Washington corridor that's it's actually becoming rather mundane. Except for the tolls, ouch!

bout 200 miles north of Uwharrie I had to climb a steep grade pulling out of a gas station so I used low range to ease the burden on the clutch. Well, I gave it too much oomph and BANG!
And I had no more drive....

Now if this were a standard Land Rover 109, I'd know I'd broken a halfshaft in the rear axle, but as I have the bulletproof Salisbury rear end I knew that couldn't be.
Therefore it must be the transmission or the transfer case. I knew it wasn't the driveshaft aster crawling under to check.
Rather than jump to conclusions I pondered for a bit, played with the transfercase gear levers and found it made a horrible grinding when trying to drive. I left it in gear trying to drive and had a look under to see if the driveshaft was spinning, IT WAS!

Yay, or maybe boo. well at least it's not the transmissions.
Maybe it is a bust halfshaft? or s stripped drive flange.
To confirm that it wasn't the actul differential I engaged the differential lock which will force the power to the side that isn't broken and wow we moved!
OK, halfshaft or drive flange, great, but I have neither in spares.
So I engaged front wheel drive and carried on to Uwharrie, carefully, stock front differential, heavy, heavy load!

Once at Uwharrie I removed the axle dust cap and with the truck running in gear the halfshaft was spinning in the drive flange, great, just need a good welder to weld them together and I'm all set.
After the weekend of not moving the truck at all I found a welder an hour north who did a lovely job for $20! good as new.

Homeland Security.

Hmm, bit of a snag,.....

Upon re-entering the US after visiting my daughter in Montreal I was denied entry at the border.
They told me I didn't fit the profile of a snowbird. Too young, too poor and too smart, their words.
Although I was able to show them the lease to my apartment, my travel insurance and my healthy bank account, it seems I couldn't convince them I wasn't smart.

He insisted that I wasn't allowed to "lollygag around the USA".
Isn't that what being a tourist is?

It seems entry is completely at the discretion of the officer you end up with.
As he discussed it with his supervisor, the supervisor said "I don't see a problem, but it's your call"
And it was, no reasonable argument would sway him. I did manage to get him to give me a limited entry to collect my coach.

So no US road trip this year,.......

Quick Montreal trip.

I ran up to Montreal for the weekend to see my youngest daughter and celebrate her birthday.
She turned 18 which is a big year in Quebec,......
We had several days together including a wonderful big group supper hosted by a friend.

For some reason I neglected to take many pictures other than a batch or touristy ones while touring around with an old friend.

The fall is certainly lovely in Montreal.

Back to New York and then south!

Bill Caloccia

The day of our walk across the Brooklyn Bridge a great Land Rover mentor slipped away.



Bill Caloccia, Most notable for having essentially created the on line community of Land Rover enthusiasts, at least in North America. But he was so much more to those who knew him or even met him once.


Bill was generous, knowledgeable and compassionate. His loss was felt the world over, but most acutely in the North East where he had so many friends.


I was very fortunate to have known him well and when his funeral was scheduled for a few days later in Massachusetts I ran up to attend.


The precession included a fleet of Rovers led by Bills own, a beautiful truck he'd just completed restoring.



We sent him on his way with a proper wake and associated good cheer.



Goodbye Bill,....




Photo credits Quintin Aspin.

Back to New York

After a summer of writing software in Nova Scotia I'm going to drop by my client in New York for a quick follow up meeting. It was an easy run down to New York, The I95 is old hat now.


I write software to manage cemeteries and my client is a huge cemetery right in the heart of downtown Brooklyn. Amazingly they agreed to let me stay INSIDE the cemetery in the coach!


The gates to the cemetery are amazing old stone arches.
The only catch to staying in the cemetery is that the gates are locked at six o'clock and I'm locked in.
Very strange,...

The meetings went well and the software works well, I'm done working until next spring!!

They kindly let me stick around to spend some time in NYC.
First we were off to Battery park for a souvlaki and a beer!


Except we walked,......


From the cemetery it\s over an hour to the Brooklyn Bridge and then across the historic span. What a rush walking across the East River with Manhattan in view.


There were thousands of people crossing the bridge on foot, all taking selfies,...


If you've never done it it's one of the greatest New York experiences, and it's free.


Once on Manhattan, we headed south towards the financial district, past the throngs taking pictures of the raging bull, I couldn't bear to.


I did like this juxtaposition between St. Paul's Chapel, built in 1764 and the new World Trade Tower.


It was a lovely day for walking but Geordie was slowing down, and we still had to walk back!
So we slowed the pace a bit, he's 9 years old!


Then on to Battery Park and my favorite souvlaki street vendor. Heavenly, now for a beer in the beer garden down by the water,....

The walk home was much slower as Pup was really tired, we took lots of breaks and strolled back through the cemetery gates just before they closed, about seven hours from when we started,...

A great day!