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daves kart retrieval adventure - David Luciani - 10-05-2020
so,
ahem
HI GUYS,
Hmmmm what to say.
kinda weird to be finally writing again.
here goes,
as many of you may know , i've been mia these last couple of years with personal issues.
it's been so long i've thought maybe i have lost my mojo vib for writing on the forum.
or maybe it's just the year from heck we are all suffering in thank goodness it's nearly over.
who knows but i'm stalling again.
so aaaanyway.
i was minding my own business a week or two ago.
i decided to take a quick look at the forum.
i have and had zero plans to buy anything.
i actually need to thin the herd but anyone knowing me knows how unlikely that would be.
so what happened?
my dear friend smokey goes and posts ON THIS FORUM about a hornet on ebay.
i love hornet but nice ones are hard to find so i took a look.
oh dear pretty perfect -n guy won't ship and it's fairly close - under 100 miles away.
naturally my serious kart addiction kicked in and i put in a sneaky snipe bid .
i also told my most likely to buy it friend that i was bidding so he dropped out.
i then forgot all about the bid to protect my wallet.
experience tells me i can be incredibly stupid in auction action and overspend.
well the auction came and went.
i didn't look at my email for days .
Then i read the forum thread about who had won and realized from the price i had won it.
happy happy happy
So now it's time to go get it.
it's way down on the other side of new york city.
anyone that knows the city knows better than to try to drive through it.
so i figured out a decent route along the river that had less toll charges.
clever me i decide to go on saturday "to avoid heavy traffic."
at the same time i obligated myself to give a dear friend a ride home from her boat later in the day.
she has her daughters car in the shop and her daughter needed to go home early.
so i said sure this will only be about 5 hours round trip.
i was leaving soon it was around 1 pm what could possibly go wrong.
she was worried aboout me going so far the opposite way, i joked the latest i'd be would be midnight don't worry.
BAD BAD PLAN
i think i woke the gremlins up being so cocky.
i got a late start as the gps was refusing to route me where i wanted to go.
so i cleverly decide to just wing it and turn the gps on when i got to the zillion turn area of the city .
thing immediately went to crap.
17 year old truck + heavy traffic on the parkway + a poorly designed curvey road in only fair condition + me trying to average 70 mph = NEW FUNNY NOISE.
luckily i was slowed down by traffic right then , heard the funny grinding noise under the truck and near a rest area.
all at once , i pulled in and parked.
i suspected the BRAND NEW transmission that's in the truck.
it has a leak issue (repairs scheduled with the shop.) but i had leveled of the tranny before leaving.
i popped the hood and checked tranny fluid levels were fine.
so why the grinding noise?
i decide maybe a hung caliper.
so i felt the front passenger rim rear rim and rear driver rim for unusual heat. nope nothing.
as i was headed for driver front i noticed a black thing under my truck.
what is that i wondered.
it was the gas tank hanging about two inches from the ground.
the grinding sound was the steel strap pushed up against the drive shaft by the loose tank.
repairs were in order.
i got out a brand new 800 pound test strap only the best in my hack roadside repairs!
i wrapped it around the frame under the tank and ran it tight.
to be extra sure i did a second loop with the excess.
ok all better lets go.
time passed doing this.
i lost about 45 minutes but no worries
plenty of time.
of course by then somebody had done something stupid and traffic was now dead slow.
i decide to turn on the gps and discover my route is gonna be a hell ride.
turned out the 195 George Washington bridge was either closed or only partially open.
that dumped everyone onto my route that was gonna save time and toll money.
even MORE time passed
i called the guy told him i was running behind and eventually got through the Lincoln tunnel.
the gps then put me BACK ONTO i95 toll road and before i knew it i spent 35 bux in rip off tolls i was planning on avoiding.
i finally got to the sellers house and he was a cool dude.
had a 65 mustang in his yard we looked at it a little and then went to get the kart.
on the side street there was a nice looking 1930ish model a 5 window with a for sale sign in it.
one of my all time favorite old car and a bunch of Hasidic Jew guys were looking at it.
anyway we get the kart onto the truck and meanwhile a nieghbor comes by to chat.
turns out my seller was also selling the coupe.
so we trucked over to chat to these guys.
they knew NOTHING about old cars but were interested in buying it anyway.
so we chatted about the car
time passed
finally , they walked off with the promise of maybe buying it.
then i got to chatting about the car how much what's been fixed blah blah blah.
MORE time passed .
i probably should've started worrying about that time thing about then.
finally i decided i was insane and couldn't even think of buying it.
though it's priced at 5,000 bux (not terrible start price).
all original, all steel , rusty but fairly solid, and runs really good.
as i was getting ready to go the guy mentioned he hadn't been paid for the kart yet.
i was confused because i'd pay pal'ed him a week before.
so i went online and confirmed i'd paid.
guy was still concerned.
long story short i made a call found out ebay was changing policy again so i became concerned too.
i spent another hour figuring out he was paid but money was on hold.
new seller always get a 21 day hold on big sales thanks ebay.
guy was happy but pissed at ebay said my goodbyes and left.
but now MORE TIME PASSED.
as i was running pretty late i decided to go up 195 and pay the stupid toll.
checked my pocket and realized i had little cash.
went on phone and confirmed tolls are easy pass and cash only.
went to bank found bank card overdrawn.
went to transfer money on phone had issues but finally a mere 1 hour later i was again with cash and rolling.
BUT more time had passed.
i set gps and it kindly told me i95 was slow and sent me on an alternative route.
sadly that route was sketchy for cell coverage and i missed a critical turn.
that sent me a little of course about twenty miles one way.
sooo MORE TIME PASSED.
i had started calling and texting gal about delays and was good about sending updates.
remember gal waiting for ride?
oddly she never answered or texted but i was busy being lost with a gps.
time was now spinning out of control but i had no way to fix it.
finally got back on track direction wise.
i was wondering about phone silence , decided to call her daughter.
daughter tells me was at boat without dinner or means to get some.
i'm three hours away and its 8 pm already.
oh oh i think .
lotta time has passed , maybe i'm in Lady trouble
after all not many gals deal well with GUY hobbies making their life inconvenient .
sooo long story short i finally get to boat at 11.45 my silly joke about midnite had become real.
turns out her phone was in the rental.
so she was really stuck there and was kinda happy to see me late though i was getting there.
gal being not too mad was a nice surprise.
So we just crashed there for the nite , me just a touch nervously.
after all , she'd eaten some canned beans, salsa and stale chips for dinner
aaand i was a touch late.
aaand we were sleeping in a boat instead of her being home at a reasonable hour.
sooooo, i guess maybe i owe her a dinner now?
BUT back to important stuff like kart adventuring!
THE best part of my Little adventure was next day.
i was getting something from the truck when the marina owner came over to chat.
i showed him the load strap/gas tank repair and he noticed the kart in the truck.
one thing lead to another turns out his mechanic used to race go karts.
ding ding ding.
here i go again!
had him text mechanic and mechanic replied with some pix.
all the pix looked modern but mechanic had raced since he was a kid.
upshoot is he has at least one fifty year old kart maybe more stuff.
i'll be meeting him later this week.
who knows what'll happen.
YEP I KNOW, I KNOW , i knooooow i gotta thin the herd.
but instead it's grown by two karts.
a rupp i just got off a picker and a really nice hornet.
and maybe a basement full of interesting things might be coming my way.
but life is either feast or famine and i gotta be me!
like i've always said these things breed like nobodies business.
who am i to stop that!
d
RE: daves kart retrieval adventure - Gary Wlodarsky - 10-05-2020
wow...I have to go to Flint MI,,,bout 3 hrs away..( and yes, to pick up another Hornet) .sure hope it is not that entertaining...LOL
always good to hear a good story.....with a happy ending.....
now if we can just get you to ship a couple little items,,,LOL
yer bud
GW
RE: daves kart retrieval adventure - Blaine Robert Young - 10-05-2020
Hornets rarely show up on ebay. Two back to back are virtually unheard of. If your new sweet spot proves to be a target rich environment you should (secretly) share the new opportunity with Gary an I. LOL
Smokey
RE: daves kart retrieval adventure - Terry Bentley - 10-05-2020
Dave without pcs it never happened. You know the rules.
RE: daves kart retrieval adventure - Bruce Dabney - 10-09-2020
Great story. I've been from Jersey out to eastern Ct. many times, and coming back to north NJ I take the Tappan Zee Br over the Hudson. Stupid GPS always tries to send me from I-95 south on Taconic Pkwy to the GWB- a nightmare way to go.
RE: daves kart retrieval adventure - Terry Bentley - 11-05-2020
Dave if you want to be immortalized, maybe I can work your adventure into a certain story......
RE: daves kart retrieval adventure - David Luciani - 11-08-2020
don't see how but you have my permission.