01-23-2022, 05:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-31-2022, 06:52 PM by Terry Bentley.)
Chapter 94
After our big night at the races working the whole evening, really wore me out. A lot worse than I would have thought. So most of Sunday was spent tinkering on the Simplex, but found myself still very tired later in the afternoon.
I was out in the garage all alone. It was boring without Steve or Chris hanging around. I made a lot of progress, but lost interest after a few hours by myself. If I had a spare hand to help on a few things, may have been able to get farther along.
I headed in early and decided to watch some of the westerns on tonight. I dont spend too much time on the television, but some of the westerns are cool to catch sometimes. So it was Have Gun Will Travel and Wanted: Dead or Alive. I liked watching Steve McQueen with that shortened Winchester model 92. Those are some monster sized bullets on his gun belt.
School took up another week. If I didnt stay on top of that Algebra, my grades would tank. That was not an option, so kept my head in the books. What sucked is also having to put the same effort in Biology and English II.
Not much exciting happened this week until Thursday afternoon when Chris finally called me. No sooner than I had walked in when getting home, the phone was ringing. Mom said that call was for me without even stopping what she was doing in the kitchen.
It sure was obvious that Chris seemed very wound up and more than excited. He told me all of the parts needed for his kart had been rounded up. He was ready to get his kart finished. Well that is just soon as I had some time to help him put it all back together.
He went on to tell me about Fish driving him over to another guys house that races named Pappy Neal. He is a retired dirt track racer and now sells parts out of his garage. He lives in Garland and races with his son at the regional level.
Most of the parts Chris had on his list were picked up from this guy named Pappy. He also said a box of parts showed up at the shop. Well that was at Pauls business. He was hoping the rest of what was needed came in, but had not ridden over on his bike yet to find out for sure. But Chris was confident that everything should be there.
I was surprised that Chris was about subtle as a sonic boom hinting to coming over again this weekend. If it was possible, he wanted to spend whatever time needed to get his kart finished. Since I havent been obligated by either of my parents yet, that should not be a problem.
Then Chris told me he had already confirmed this with my mom, since he called several times already. She told him I didnt have anything specific needing to get done this weekend, that she was aware of yet, but still needed to clear it with me to make sure.
So it looks like Chris is moving in for the weekend and we will be working on his kart the whole time. I was surprised how forward Chris was by already checking on what I had going on before even knowing myself.
Well now it seems that Chris is now committed to coming over tomorrow afternoon. He might be earlier this time, since the kart was already here, but didnt know for sure since he was relying on Fish to drop him off again. So I decided to spend what little time I had after all of my homework was finished, to clean up the garage.
With the work we did last week, well lets just say I dont have maid service, and am not good at picking up after myself. So the garage was a complete disaster. Well not totally, but a big enough mess to put off cleaning it all up so far. This is something I should have made sure Chris cleaned up last week, since it is his kart and his mess.
This got me to thinking. Should I make sure Chris clean up the mess out here in my garage? I mean I am helping him, but the mess we made is all from working on his kart. Should I just accept that since it is my place and Chris is a guest, that I take it upon myself to clean up after we are finished?
The down side here is that Chris has limited time to spend at my place to get any work done. It would be very considerate of me to use my time to clean things up after he leaves. This allows more time for us to get work done on his kart. But Chris does not know where all of the tools go to get put back up anyway. I dont know what to do about this.
After pondering on all of this while sweeping up in the garage, I thought how cool it is going to be getting his kart finished so soon. Well hopefully finished this weekend. This is so much quicker than me and Steve have ever been able to accomplish anything. Especially something like this type of major upgrade before.
Well thinking about it a little more, any of our projects that required a serious amount of cash to further it along, would have been a major set back to doing much more until we rounded up the necessary funds. So much as I liked a great project, when having to spend hard to come by cash really did slow down some things.
I probably spend a lot more in very small increments than really am aware of. I do have a ton of projects going on all the time. Unfortunately most of them fail due to lack of adequate funding. If I could just stay focused on one project to the end, would likely be able to finish a few of them more often.
Friday afternoon could not get here soon enough. I have been pumped all day with my mind focused on helping Chris get his kart put back together. My last class seemed to drag on forever. I swear the second hand on the wall clock in class was taunting me going around so slowly.
Finally the bell rang and I was free for the weekend. Thankfully, I didnt even have any home work to deal with either. We took the bus home today. Sometimes mom picks us up and other times Steves dad even drops by to take us home. There have been a couple of times we missed the bus and actually walked all the way home.
The first time me and Steve walked home was spooky. I knew the railroad track close to the school runs all the way to our side of town. But to follow the track took some serious guts. It is something guys our age just didnt do. Well not alone without anyone else knowing where we were.
We followed the tracks what sure seemed like forever. This track weaved way back into the boonies. I had no idea the woods were so thick in no mans land. Almost like cut thru an untamed wilderness. Reminded me of the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller. We could have been attacked by some natives living back there and no one would have ever known what happened to us.
Finally some signs of places I recognized. When the tracks crossed over the creek, just down from the White Rock Lake spillway, I knew we were not too far from our destination. Unfortunately at this point we still had nearly two miles of uphill walking left to go.
The big scare traveling thru the unknown here is there are two tressels that had to be crossed. They were long enough to think about the possibility of a train might be coming while we were too far to turn back. And naturally the train was too close for us to do anything but jump. Like you always see in the movies.
Since a train doesnt usually run this time in the afternoon, we were not really in any danger. But we didnt know this when first taking our journey. Both times we did follow the tracks home, it was only natural to stop at the tressels and put an ear down to the railroad iron.
This is what I remember seeing in those movies when train tracks were being traveled on by foot. So obviously that is what I had to do. But what was it supposed to sound like? Did it just vibrate or could you really hear the train coming? Was it rolling around the bend?
Wow, some of the thoughts that goes thru my mind when sitting on the bus waiting until our stop comes up. It took forever, but really not any longer than usual. Just today I had a reason to get home soon as possible.
Steve actually had some homework to do in math class. He did manage to get it all finished before arriving at our pit stop. There was this one problem that stumped him, so he asked me.
I looked at what was not much more complicated than what we had for math the last couple of years in elementary school. Well it was a more complex fractional equation. This equation took a moment to work it out in my head.
He got mad when I told him the answer right off. Man I need to keep my grades up, so dont jerk me around. If you dont want to help me out, then just say so. Oh heck never mind, I will figure it out eventually.
A few minutes later Steve had solved the problem, then looked over at me. Man, you dont even have to try and you are still a jerk. OK, so it was the right answer. Why didnt you say that to begin with?
About this time our bus stopped at the 7-11 where we got out with over half of the of the other students. Hey man, I will try to drop by. Maybe even spend the night if you want the extra help. Later.
One quick visit inside of the store to grab a few bottles of Mountain Dew and one large bag of M&M's. I dont know all what Chris wants to snack on, but this should be good enough for now. He can easily run up here later to get something else more to his liking.
I hurried down the alley and made a quick u-turn right up into the backyard. There sitting outside at the patio table is where I saw Chris. Hey Terry, sure glad you finally decided to get home. I have been waiting for like all afternoon. I was wondering if you would ever get here tonight.
Sorry Chris, this junior high stuff is a lot more of a headache than last year. I am worn out from the weeks work, so dont expect too much from me right now. I also got chewed out by Steve for helping him on a math problem. So my brain decided to go on a long needed vacation this weekend.
Chris sort of chuckled at what I said. OK, well I was just kidding anyway. I only got here a few minutes ago. Your mom is so nice. She invited me inside to watch tv while I was waiting on you. But I said sitting out here would be fine. I got all the parts for my kart. I already checked and made sure everything came in.
Fish took me to that guy Pappy Neals house and we picked up a lot of the parts Wednesday. Most of them are used, but in great shape. He saved a bunch of money on the parts this way.
I went ahead and got all four matching wheels. They are 5 inch Go-Power wheels. The ones that are made out of Magnesium. I think they are so cool looking too. Way better than those stamped out steel dolly wheels like Fish calls them that are on my kart.
Oh anyway, this Pappy guy, well he lives over in Garland close to where I do. He paints houses for a living. He is like a real old guy too. I figure he must be almost 50 or so. At first I thought he was just some grouchy old man because the way he acts.
I was looking at everything and getting too interested, well nosy, checking out all the cool stuff. There are a bunch of karts in the garage. He was real nice to me and answered a whole bunch of questions I was asking him. Fish said I was going on way overboard, but the more I talked to Pappy, the more he seemed to lighten up and enjoyed me being there.
He even gave me a can of Kartane to try out. He suggested mixing with my gas to run in the Clinton. He said it will make the engine fly. I should notice a major big difference. Well until the motor blows up. Just make sure I mix in enough Blendsall castor or it will likely blow up even sooner. I dont think he is a big fan of bushing motors.
He had asked me what class I was running. He laughed when I told him the bushing class. In a deep gruff voice Chris said imitating Pappy, If that damdid engine blows up, dont be bringin it over here spectin me to fix it. I dont allow them in my garage.
I asked him what he thought of that Steens oil you had mentioned about. He said it was good oil, but hard to better how good the lubri, lubricisi, well something to do with how good castor is. If the Steens works for me, then no reason to change. But he didnt know how it would work if mixed with Kartane.
So I never asked you what oil I should be using. The metal engine tag on the shroud says Mobiloil 30wt mixed 1/2 pit to a gallon of Mobil gas. Oh yea, Mobiloil Outboard 30wt is also on that tag. The boat motor oil is a whole lot more expensive. I have run both but couldnt tell any difference. Well the boat motor oil does not smoke nearly as much.
Anyway the wheels, axle and bearings I bought from Pappy are used, but look like almost new. The steering shaft is a new Azusa kit. He had lots of these kits too. Something about a major rule change for next year. The steering wheel, I think is a Covico? Is that right? It is that one like Bug karts have. He runs Bug karts too. They look wickedly awesome. He said they are heavier than some other brands, so might not be the best choice for the bushing class.
I had already decided on the Azusa steering wheel, but this one was slightly cheaper, because it is used. They had flipped the kart it was on and bent the steering shaft. You can see a small scuffed spot here, but I glued it back down and almost doesnt show now. Sure does look a lot better anyway. I like how thick the padding is.
At first I was convinced the finger grooves on that Azusa steering wheel would be perfect. It really looks like something professional for racing. But once grabbing a good hold of this one, I was sold on it. It saved two dollars, and I like it a lot more now after comparing the two together.
Pappy also told me that Airheart brakes are the best he has ever used. He sort of laughed when I told him I had decided on the Bendix drum brake. But that was before he knew I was racing in the bushing class.
He said in the next few years the only brakes anybody will be running is Airheart. They are that good. "So I should keep this in mind before spending too much money on brakes later on". Chris said this again in his attempt at a very deep gruff voice to imitate this guy Pappy. But his high pitched tone trying to imitate deep gruff caused me to laugh.
After I told him about all of the things I was doing to my kart and hopefully getting the engine faster, he better understood some of the choices I made. I like Pappy a whole lot now after hanging out there and getting to know him.
So Terry, can we get to working on my kart right now? Or do you need to do stuff first? If you have chores that need to be done today, I can help out with whatever and much as I can.
Thats great Chris. I sure am glad you are offering. When I asked Steve to help me out, he bailed out really quick. So you will be a big help. My dad wanted me to paint the trim around all of the windows on the house today. Oh yea, make sure to scrape the old paint off first.
Then mow the grass, pull weeds, and maybe stain the fence if there was any time left this weekend. Otherwise I am free to do whatever I want to after that. Oh yea, sweep the driveway too. Maybe I should do the yard work first so nothing gets stuck in the wet paint.
Chris was sort of acting hyper with a big smile ear to ear. He just stopped there staring at me as that smile disappeared off his face. Are you serious Terry? You gotta do all that first? Sure sounds like that much work is going to take more than a whole weekend. What about my kart?
After our big night at the races working the whole evening, really wore me out. A lot worse than I would have thought. So most of Sunday was spent tinkering on the Simplex, but found myself still very tired later in the afternoon.
I was out in the garage all alone. It was boring without Steve or Chris hanging around. I made a lot of progress, but lost interest after a few hours by myself. If I had a spare hand to help on a few things, may have been able to get farther along.
I headed in early and decided to watch some of the westerns on tonight. I dont spend too much time on the television, but some of the westerns are cool to catch sometimes. So it was Have Gun Will Travel and Wanted: Dead or Alive. I liked watching Steve McQueen with that shortened Winchester model 92. Those are some monster sized bullets on his gun belt.
School took up another week. If I didnt stay on top of that Algebra, my grades would tank. That was not an option, so kept my head in the books. What sucked is also having to put the same effort in Biology and English II.
Not much exciting happened this week until Thursday afternoon when Chris finally called me. No sooner than I had walked in when getting home, the phone was ringing. Mom said that call was for me without even stopping what she was doing in the kitchen.
It sure was obvious that Chris seemed very wound up and more than excited. He told me all of the parts needed for his kart had been rounded up. He was ready to get his kart finished. Well that is just soon as I had some time to help him put it all back together.
He went on to tell me about Fish driving him over to another guys house that races named Pappy Neal. He is a retired dirt track racer and now sells parts out of his garage. He lives in Garland and races with his son at the regional level.
Most of the parts Chris had on his list were picked up from this guy named Pappy. He also said a box of parts showed up at the shop. Well that was at Pauls business. He was hoping the rest of what was needed came in, but had not ridden over on his bike yet to find out for sure. But Chris was confident that everything should be there.
I was surprised that Chris was about subtle as a sonic boom hinting to coming over again this weekend. If it was possible, he wanted to spend whatever time needed to get his kart finished. Since I havent been obligated by either of my parents yet, that should not be a problem.
Then Chris told me he had already confirmed this with my mom, since he called several times already. She told him I didnt have anything specific needing to get done this weekend, that she was aware of yet, but still needed to clear it with me to make sure.
So it looks like Chris is moving in for the weekend and we will be working on his kart the whole time. I was surprised how forward Chris was by already checking on what I had going on before even knowing myself.
Well now it seems that Chris is now committed to coming over tomorrow afternoon. He might be earlier this time, since the kart was already here, but didnt know for sure since he was relying on Fish to drop him off again. So I decided to spend what little time I had after all of my homework was finished, to clean up the garage.
With the work we did last week, well lets just say I dont have maid service, and am not good at picking up after myself. So the garage was a complete disaster. Well not totally, but a big enough mess to put off cleaning it all up so far. This is something I should have made sure Chris cleaned up last week, since it is his kart and his mess.
This got me to thinking. Should I make sure Chris clean up the mess out here in my garage? I mean I am helping him, but the mess we made is all from working on his kart. Should I just accept that since it is my place and Chris is a guest, that I take it upon myself to clean up after we are finished?
The down side here is that Chris has limited time to spend at my place to get any work done. It would be very considerate of me to use my time to clean things up after he leaves. This allows more time for us to get work done on his kart. But Chris does not know where all of the tools go to get put back up anyway. I dont know what to do about this.
After pondering on all of this while sweeping up in the garage, I thought how cool it is going to be getting his kart finished so soon. Well hopefully finished this weekend. This is so much quicker than me and Steve have ever been able to accomplish anything. Especially something like this type of major upgrade before.
Well thinking about it a little more, any of our projects that required a serious amount of cash to further it along, would have been a major set back to doing much more until we rounded up the necessary funds. So much as I liked a great project, when having to spend hard to come by cash really did slow down some things.
I probably spend a lot more in very small increments than really am aware of. I do have a ton of projects going on all the time. Unfortunately most of them fail due to lack of adequate funding. If I could just stay focused on one project to the end, would likely be able to finish a few of them more often.
Friday afternoon could not get here soon enough. I have been pumped all day with my mind focused on helping Chris get his kart put back together. My last class seemed to drag on forever. I swear the second hand on the wall clock in class was taunting me going around so slowly.
Finally the bell rang and I was free for the weekend. Thankfully, I didnt even have any home work to deal with either. We took the bus home today. Sometimes mom picks us up and other times Steves dad even drops by to take us home. There have been a couple of times we missed the bus and actually walked all the way home.
The first time me and Steve walked home was spooky. I knew the railroad track close to the school runs all the way to our side of town. But to follow the track took some serious guts. It is something guys our age just didnt do. Well not alone without anyone else knowing where we were.
We followed the tracks what sure seemed like forever. This track weaved way back into the boonies. I had no idea the woods were so thick in no mans land. Almost like cut thru an untamed wilderness. Reminded me of the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller. We could have been attacked by some natives living back there and no one would have ever known what happened to us.
Finally some signs of places I recognized. When the tracks crossed over the creek, just down from the White Rock Lake spillway, I knew we were not too far from our destination. Unfortunately at this point we still had nearly two miles of uphill walking left to go.
The big scare traveling thru the unknown here is there are two tressels that had to be crossed. They were long enough to think about the possibility of a train might be coming while we were too far to turn back. And naturally the train was too close for us to do anything but jump. Like you always see in the movies.
Since a train doesnt usually run this time in the afternoon, we were not really in any danger. But we didnt know this when first taking our journey. Both times we did follow the tracks home, it was only natural to stop at the tressels and put an ear down to the railroad iron.
This is what I remember seeing in those movies when train tracks were being traveled on by foot. So obviously that is what I had to do. But what was it supposed to sound like? Did it just vibrate or could you really hear the train coming? Was it rolling around the bend?
Wow, some of the thoughts that goes thru my mind when sitting on the bus waiting until our stop comes up. It took forever, but really not any longer than usual. Just today I had a reason to get home soon as possible.
Steve actually had some homework to do in math class. He did manage to get it all finished before arriving at our pit stop. There was this one problem that stumped him, so he asked me.
I looked at what was not much more complicated than what we had for math the last couple of years in elementary school. Well it was a more complex fractional equation. This equation took a moment to work it out in my head.
He got mad when I told him the answer right off. Man I need to keep my grades up, so dont jerk me around. If you dont want to help me out, then just say so. Oh heck never mind, I will figure it out eventually.
A few minutes later Steve had solved the problem, then looked over at me. Man, you dont even have to try and you are still a jerk. OK, so it was the right answer. Why didnt you say that to begin with?
About this time our bus stopped at the 7-11 where we got out with over half of the of the other students. Hey man, I will try to drop by. Maybe even spend the night if you want the extra help. Later.
One quick visit inside of the store to grab a few bottles of Mountain Dew and one large bag of M&M's. I dont know all what Chris wants to snack on, but this should be good enough for now. He can easily run up here later to get something else more to his liking.
I hurried down the alley and made a quick u-turn right up into the backyard. There sitting outside at the patio table is where I saw Chris. Hey Terry, sure glad you finally decided to get home. I have been waiting for like all afternoon. I was wondering if you would ever get here tonight.
Sorry Chris, this junior high stuff is a lot more of a headache than last year. I am worn out from the weeks work, so dont expect too much from me right now. I also got chewed out by Steve for helping him on a math problem. So my brain decided to go on a long needed vacation this weekend.
Chris sort of chuckled at what I said. OK, well I was just kidding anyway. I only got here a few minutes ago. Your mom is so nice. She invited me inside to watch tv while I was waiting on you. But I said sitting out here would be fine. I got all the parts for my kart. I already checked and made sure everything came in.
Fish took me to that guy Pappy Neals house and we picked up a lot of the parts Wednesday. Most of them are used, but in great shape. He saved a bunch of money on the parts this way.
I went ahead and got all four matching wheels. They are 5 inch Go-Power wheels. The ones that are made out of Magnesium. I think they are so cool looking too. Way better than those stamped out steel dolly wheels like Fish calls them that are on my kart.
Oh anyway, this Pappy guy, well he lives over in Garland close to where I do. He paints houses for a living. He is like a real old guy too. I figure he must be almost 50 or so. At first I thought he was just some grouchy old man because the way he acts.
I was looking at everything and getting too interested, well nosy, checking out all the cool stuff. There are a bunch of karts in the garage. He was real nice to me and answered a whole bunch of questions I was asking him. Fish said I was going on way overboard, but the more I talked to Pappy, the more he seemed to lighten up and enjoyed me being there.
He even gave me a can of Kartane to try out. He suggested mixing with my gas to run in the Clinton. He said it will make the engine fly. I should notice a major big difference. Well until the motor blows up. Just make sure I mix in enough Blendsall castor or it will likely blow up even sooner. I dont think he is a big fan of bushing motors.
He had asked me what class I was running. He laughed when I told him the bushing class. In a deep gruff voice Chris said imitating Pappy, If that damdid engine blows up, dont be bringin it over here spectin me to fix it. I dont allow them in my garage.
I asked him what he thought of that Steens oil you had mentioned about. He said it was good oil, but hard to better how good the lubri, lubricisi, well something to do with how good castor is. If the Steens works for me, then no reason to change. But he didnt know how it would work if mixed with Kartane.
So I never asked you what oil I should be using. The metal engine tag on the shroud says Mobiloil 30wt mixed 1/2 pit to a gallon of Mobil gas. Oh yea, Mobiloil Outboard 30wt is also on that tag. The boat motor oil is a whole lot more expensive. I have run both but couldnt tell any difference. Well the boat motor oil does not smoke nearly as much.
Anyway the wheels, axle and bearings I bought from Pappy are used, but look like almost new. The steering shaft is a new Azusa kit. He had lots of these kits too. Something about a major rule change for next year. The steering wheel, I think is a Covico? Is that right? It is that one like Bug karts have. He runs Bug karts too. They look wickedly awesome. He said they are heavier than some other brands, so might not be the best choice for the bushing class.
I had already decided on the Azusa steering wheel, but this one was slightly cheaper, because it is used. They had flipped the kart it was on and bent the steering shaft. You can see a small scuffed spot here, but I glued it back down and almost doesnt show now. Sure does look a lot better anyway. I like how thick the padding is.
At first I was convinced the finger grooves on that Azusa steering wheel would be perfect. It really looks like something professional for racing. But once grabbing a good hold of this one, I was sold on it. It saved two dollars, and I like it a lot more now after comparing the two together.
Pappy also told me that Airheart brakes are the best he has ever used. He sort of laughed when I told him I had decided on the Bendix drum brake. But that was before he knew I was racing in the bushing class.
He said in the next few years the only brakes anybody will be running is Airheart. They are that good. "So I should keep this in mind before spending too much money on brakes later on". Chris said this again in his attempt at a very deep gruff voice to imitate this guy Pappy. But his high pitched tone trying to imitate deep gruff caused me to laugh.
After I told him about all of the things I was doing to my kart and hopefully getting the engine faster, he better understood some of the choices I made. I like Pappy a whole lot now after hanging out there and getting to know him.
So Terry, can we get to working on my kart right now? Or do you need to do stuff first? If you have chores that need to be done today, I can help out with whatever and much as I can.
Thats great Chris. I sure am glad you are offering. When I asked Steve to help me out, he bailed out really quick. So you will be a big help. My dad wanted me to paint the trim around all of the windows on the house today. Oh yea, make sure to scrape the old paint off first.
Then mow the grass, pull weeds, and maybe stain the fence if there was any time left this weekend. Otherwise I am free to do whatever I want to after that. Oh yea, sweep the driveway too. Maybe I should do the yard work first so nothing gets stuck in the wet paint.
Chris was sort of acting hyper with a big smile ear to ear. He just stopped there staring at me as that smile disappeared off his face. Are you serious Terry? You gotta do all that first? Sure sounds like that much work is going to take more than a whole weekend. What about my kart?