Day Seven - Helping Hands Come to the rescue

This morning the weather took a turn for the worse. It was raining and the forecast was for heavy rains and possible tornadoes in the afternoon. Oh, Well, the Model A's won't melt and after breakfast we managed to stay somewhat dry by pulling them under the portico of the hotel to put on an fresh coat of Rain-X. Off we went...well almost, as I came to a stop. A fuse seemed to act up causing the A to quit, of course right at the exit of the gas station. I got it running and headed off again, this time a major short showed up on the ammeter. I pulled into another gas station and was able to determine the high beams were somehow causing the discharge. OK, no Hi Beams today. Off I went again, only to get to the end of the driveway and the A died again. This time it was no spark. As Dick and I were pushing the A so Dick could get a tow rope on it and fella in his pick up offered to tow me over to his car wash and allow me to fix it in a nice dry bay. What a deal as it was still pouring rain. John towed me right inside a bay and closed the door. It was sure nice to be dry. After some diagnostics it sure looked like the coil was bad, but how could that be as the coil was never a problem. Believe it or not, this coil has been on the A for over 35 years. But, the tests didn't lie and when a new coil was installed the A fired right up again. Oh well, I guess a coil can go bad any time. I just can't thank John enough for the kindness he showed me, a perfect stranger. Life was good again.

As we left the car wash heading west we noticed a definite look of clearing weather, so maybe we could dodge all the forecasted bad weather after all.

As we headed to La Crosse to cross over the Mississippi River I could hear a noise, Nan could too, that sounded like a stuck brake. I pulled into a Chrysler dealership and pulled to the back of the lot. Dick and I took a look and what we saw we couldn't believe. The right front wheel didn't look right. When we jacked it up and took off the wheel we knew why. The spindle nut was almost off the spindle and the brake drum was just about ready to fall off. We took off the drum checked the bearings and decided to replace both the inner and outer. I also noticed the brake linings were badly damaged by the loose drum and needed to be replaced. Fortunately I had new brake shoes with me and we were able to replace them without any difficulty. With everything back together, Dick and I readjusted the front brakes and finally off we went again. I was also thinking how lucky we were and that someone must have been looking over us. My only thought was our old friend Bucky must have been looking down from above and held that wheel on long enough to keep us safe...Thanks Bucky.

This time we did cross over the Mississippi and found a nice road that seemed to be heading where we wanted to go. Unfortunately the road was closed after traveling about 10 miles and we were detoured into the back land of Minnesota. All I can say is that it's good to have the modern conveniences of a cell phone and GPS as we finally got on track and eventually arrived in Rushford, MN a little town where we got lunch at Stumpy's Cafe. We all agreed that Stumpy's was very good. We were getting ready to leave when an elderly man (Myron Bunker) came over to tell us about his 1929 Town Sedan he had owned many years ago. He was so thrilled to see our cars he just seemed to light up, but more importantly when I asked for directions he said that the road we were on (RT 30) was a good one, with a few hills, then it would become straight and smooth. Old Myron knew these roads well, we followed his recommendation and it turned out to be the best roads we've been on to date, no traffic and great scenery.

Even though we had a rocky start we were now making good time and what's more the weather was now sunny. What more could you ask for.

I am always amazed at how the Model A's break the ice and get people talking. Today was a good example of how nice people can be and thanks to John and Myron what started out to be dismal day turned just great. We arrived in Mankato, MN still doing over 200 miles in spite of our late start.