Friday, July 4, 2008

July 4 in Tennessee

So this past weekend we had our first adventure documented on this blog: a trip to my host family in Tennessee. It was a good-old-fashioned country blowout with 3 grills going, copious amounts of delicious food, beer, stray dogs, cattle, and of course a 30 minute fire works display.

Before we made it there, we ran into car trouble. The Grand Am of Doom apparently had a few clogged vacuum hoses that prevented the engine from breathing properly. This in turn caused the internal pressure to rise in the engine which caused the cam shaft seal to blow out and ridiculous amounts of oil to leak out. Now for those who don't know the Grand Am of Doom, it has always had a bit of an oil leak, maybe a quart of oil per 3-4000 miles, but in this trip alone we had to add about 4 quarts (in 400 miles) to make it to our destination. The GPS Amber bought me for my birthday came in handy when we had to find a Walmart in the middle of the night to buy more oil.

After spending a significant amount of time this weekend with my host dad trying to fix the car, Sunday came around and we still hadn't fixed it. Needless to say, we couldn't drive the car back in the shape it was in, so dad talked me into taking his farm car and leaving the Grand Am of Doom in his capable hands. His farm car is a 1997 Ford Thunderbird, light blue with hints of yellow (bondo) and british racing green (a replacement door), which he uses to haul 500lbs of feed in on a regular basis because it gets better gas mileage than the truck. To quote him "I can almost get 10 bags in the trunk. But it has a big back seat, so I can put what won't fit in the truck there." Amber is so proud...all I need is a wife-beater and I'll fit the picture perfectly. For your viewing pleasure, I have added a few pictures of the "Thunder Chicken of Doom" below.



Notice the British Racing Green door. It's what makes this car so fast!

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