RowdyRebel

No shame.... 1/2 mile behind them was an exit with several restaurants and a gas station. A mile ahead of them was another exit with a truck stop. Nope...they chose to stop on the shoulder, walk through the ditch, cross the frontage road, and do what they did right there on the side of the road for the world to see. Well, I might just make this video "public" on the youtube....give 'em exactly what they wanted....haven't decided yet.

Zoom zoom...

Got a death wish there buddy?

'scuse me. Hey, now, keep it in your lane! Or not...

If at first you don't succeed, try again...then quit...no sense in beeing a damn fool about it...

Terre Haute, IN. I was pretty impressed....enough to click the "save" buton on that there dash cam I've got.

...literally.

Don't worry...prolly won't go viral. I keep all my vids unlisted, so unless the url gets snagged off here and spread around, i doubt it'll get many views.

That was actually from Sept. 3rd...a little slow getting things uploaded to the youtube. More to come...takes about an hour or so to upload each video...then snip out the parts that aren't necessary. I REALLY need to get some sort of video editing software on my computer....20-30 second clips upload uch quicker than 3 minute videos. That scooter was actually 2 scooters lashed together...handlebars spun 90 degrees and tied together as well...definitely a home-made deal, probably someone who lost their license (drunk?) or can't afford a car or the gas to run it (although he DID buy that spiffy helmet...) Not sure what to think, really....besides "WTF?". Got more videos to upload today....we'll see if i can get through them all.

I'm anxious to get it finished, too. First time I ever split a motor from the transmission...PITA, but wasn't too complicated. Fun part will be putting it back together, although with all new parts it ought to be a MUCH cleaner job. Probably do some interior work this weekend, as they are calling for rain...and hopefully in a couple weeks it'll be back on the road.

That's what the guy across the highway said to do...and if it were a "toy" and had picked the transmission out of a scrap yard, I'd have a go at it that way...but this is a brand new transmission for what will be the wife's daily driver. I'll leave the modifications to those who know what the heck they are doing so that I don't have to worry about something not working right. I don't know the first thing about the innards of a transmission. I'm not saying I couldn't figure it out...but would rather it be my own play toy that I do the experimenting on so if it blows up, I can park it out of the way until I get around to tearing into it. Wife is hard enough on vehicles without me causing issues hacking things up. Hell, I did 6-8 months worth of research figuring out what all I'd need, making a parts list, and figuring out the total cost before I ordered the first part. Sure, I could've spent 1/4 as much and just fixed the TH400...and kept the 9.25 mpg. If we can hit 12-13 mpg with gas prices where they are now, it'll pay for itself in about 3 years. Quicker if prices go up (which they probably will). He (guy across the highway) wants the TH400...gonna rebuild it for his boy's mud truck. I just gotta figure out what the core value of a burned up TH400 is. He's also going to swap front drive shafts with me since he'll need a shorter one and I'll need a longer one. New trans is about 1" longer, so my rear shaft will still work. Front won't quite reach, though, so we'll see what he's got and if it'll work that right there will pay for the trans shop's work.

That was a mess to get out...between the previous owner's "mud truck" ambitions and the fact that I didn't drop the pan to drain the fluid, let's just say it wasn't a "clean" tear-down. Hoping to drop the new transmission off at a shop this week for some rework (it is a 2wd trans...needs to have the 4wd tail housing for the t-case) and then put it back together in a week or two.

She's such a cutie! Wish I had got a pic of her with her momma...dang near the same height (although momma was a little more stout). Oh well...she's getting used to her new digs...making new friends and all.

"Thunder". It was the name she had (born during a storm) and it fits with all the racket she was making stomping her feet in the trailer once we got her in there...but we've been calling her "Baby Girl" more than anything else. I still think my other ideas would've been good too, but these work.

I think that'd be a tougher sell than "Daisy" or "Royale #7"...which in case you're wondering, she didn't approve of that one, either. "We can do better than that" she says, but I say they were pretty darned good.

Adopting a new horse today...kind of an "oopsie" deal, where a neighbor of the momma's horse got loose and had his way with the momma horse. It's a bit of a mutt...daddy is a big ol' Tennessee Walker, and the momma is a little bitty quarter horse that didn't quite grow big enough to not be a pony. Baby is 5 months old and needed a home ASAP or off to the orphanage (shelter) it would go...so we're taking her in to give the wife something to do on her days off...we've got about 2 years to work it before she'll be big enough to ride. Anyway, she needs a name. The wife didn't like MY suggestion of "Daisy" (as in "oopsie-daisy")...still haven't run "Royale #7" by her yet (Royale w/Cheese 'cuz the french don't know what a 1/4 pounder is...paying tribute to the part quarter horse, and #7 as in old #7 Jack Daniels...from Tennessee). She MIGHT go for the name until I explain WHY it is so cool... Anyway, picking her up this evening. Gonna be nice having a horse at the house again...makes 4 that we've got now, but the other 3 are borded elsewhere. Anyway, some pics:

...or this:

...at least you didn't do THIS:

Be a good farm truck...pulling a hay wagon, hauling fencing materials, etc...

...and I actually prefer USPS, where my stuff stays securely locked up at the post office until I get there to pick it up rather than sitting on the porch out in the rain until I realize it's out there. Half the time they don't even knock.

...and to think all I wanted was a damn fitting for a 4L80 transmission cooler line. Ordered it from Jegs...they cancelled "backorder/discontinued" and refunded me $18. Called the local Chevy dealer and they found 4 up in NYC...which was fine because I only need 1 of them. $27 for the same damn fitting Jegs was supposed to sell me for $18 plus another $28 to have it shipped UPS because they didn't want to do the $5 "if it fits, it ships" USPS option. Hell, a padded envelope and a first class stamp would probably get it to me...so when I saw that "extra" fee option, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Friggin' corporations buy into the crap spewed by these left wing nut jobs...but then at least it remains an option (for now, anyway). I'd bet dollars to donuts that the extra fee just goes straight to profits. Hell, it really ain't a bad idea...line your own pocket by letting the nut jobs empty theirs THINKING they are "saving the planet". They get to feel good and you get their money. Those who know better can choose not to pay the fee. Now I'm curious how many people actually click that option to be charged more?

I could see myself driving that, but it's a little out of my price range...anyone got $28K they want to donate to the "RowdyRebel needs a cool new ride" fund?

"Climate change" is nothing more than a venue liberals use to push the uneducated and miseducated alike into willingly going against their own well being by yielding liberty, economic prosperity, domestic comfort, and their ability to pursue happiness all in an effort to stop something we cannot stop. The climate has been changing since the dawn of time. At one point, it was warm enough that cold-blooded reptiles ruled the planet. Then it cooled off and much of this continent was covered by ice. And then the ice melted. All of this happened prior to humans placing a very large footprint upon the earth. Who's to say what the "optimum" temperature should be? Ask the dinosaurs and "global warming" would be a great thing. Ask the wooly mammoth and you'd get a different answer. Hell, now they are saying water used to flow on Mars...until some catastrophic change in the climate occurred there. Funny thing is, we haven't been there yet to cause any catastrophic change to the climate...so how did it happen? Same way it has ALWAYS happened here...variations in solar activity. More energy given off by the sun leads to warmer temperatures...and decreases lead to cooler years. It really isn't any more complicated than that. Hell, the weather man has a hard enough time accurately predicting tomorrow's weather...and yet people believe politicians about what the weather will be like 50-100 years from now? Al Gore and folks like him have made MILLIONS off this scam...all the while living it up using more fossil fuels in a single day than most will use in a year, whether they are flying around in a private jet, moving around with their entourage in a fleet of SUV's, or just keeping the lights on in a ridiculously huge estate. If you want to preach about how mankind is killing the planet, then don't be a hypocrite and practice what you preach. I enjoy breathing clean air and drinking clean water as much as the next person...but don't spit on me and tell me it's raining. Mankind has nothing to do with "climate change"...it's going to change whether we're here or not, no matter what we do. Ever wonder how the same pollution that was going to plunge us into the next ice age back in the 70's suddenly was going to cook us off the face of the earth in the 90's? We ain't got a damn thing to do with the climate, so don't ask me to dig deeper into my pockets to "offset" something in order to line the pockets of hypocrites.