Monticello Weather:

Partly cloudy, high expected around 60, lows around 40.  A change is coming to the area with a 30% chance of rain beginning tonight.  Light winds.

This weather sounds about right for this time of year.  Looking ahead a few days they have some snow in the forecast also.  More on that as we get closer to those days.

Had a bummer deal hit us yesterday.  Weasel took his truck in for a fix on a mystery problem and that got remedied after nearly $1,000 of fixes.  So, he was test driving it toward home trying to get it to do what it was doing before he took it in and everything seemed to be just fine…he looked down at this dash panel and saw the check engine light was on and the temp gauge was almost red lined!  He pulled over immediately and the engine died.

He called the repair shop and a mechanic showed up very quickly.  He checked the radiator and there was no fluid to be seen.  So he dumped in a gallon of fluid and it disappeared into the radiator.  They both looked under the truck to see where it was going and then it dawned on them that the fluid was probably going into the crank case area.  Weasel pulled out the dip stick and sure enough, it was full of oily water and foam.  DAMN!

So, back to the shop it went and the prognosis came back as a bad head gasket and assorted ugly stuff that comes when radiator fluid gets into the crank case area.  The shop owner recommended a new engine, $4500 installed, with a new radiator!  Weasel paid $3200 for the truck three years ago, is it worth this much more to be put into it?

Well Weasel made a command decision to forgo any more work on the truck and to call for salvage measures.  I went with him yesterday to retrieve it and I was able to drive it home…stopping periodically to make sure it didn’t over heat to the point of seizing up.

So, that was going to be the truck of choice to use on the elk hunt and the one to drive us around in the mountains.  Things are going to change now and I’m not totally sure what direction they will go.

Tracker and Bones have offered their truck as the replacement and it seems like the logical choice.  Not knowing the roads down that way I sure would not want to get that truck all scratched up…it’s nearly new.  Weasels was a tried and true “who cares about the paint job truck”, with numerous Rocky Mountain pin stripes down the sides.

We will see what comes of this as we get closer to the day of departure, 14 days from now!

Bears Butt

Oct. 24, 2013