Road Closed?? 5/1/1997

Well, Julie and I had just finished our weekly Thursday night Confirmation Class for our re-introduction to the Catholic Church. We had decided to go grab some coffee before we went to our seperate homes. Previously, Frontier Pies was were we went.. last week, and this night, we opted for Country Kitchen. I, being a bit absent minded at times, promptly turned into Frontier Pies, walked inside, and found no Julie.. Oh yeah, Country Kitchen! So I backed out and left. Interestingly, F.Pies is located in the strip of town that's next to the mall, this is important, because two one-way streets run East/West on the N/S sides of the mall. So I needed to get back to the South side, and go east. I'll take a shortcut through this alley.. D'oh! Road Closed, construction!

I'm in a Scout.. my 1977 Scout II to be exact. 196 4cyl, Dana 44s, 4.11 gears, and some new (prev owner) retread 235/75R15 mud/snow aggressive tires. So I decide to drive around the cones and get back on the road.. Not so! I started around, but there was loose dirt (no prob), with a concrete strip running right up the middle.. kind of like the edge of a sidewalk. I was doing fine until I tried to go over this strip (which I hadn't really paid much attention to anyhow) and promptly bashed my front Dana 44 differential and spring perches on! OK, back-up... spin those rear tires and dig a hole! Get out. Lock the front hubs, slip 'er into 4-lo and try it again.. spin the rear tires into the dirt, the front tires in air! No amount of twisting the steering wheel helped. Back out again, look and see the '44 sitting on the concrete, and then it's time to grab the Hi-lift (I LOVE that thing!). Jack the front up pretty high, and back right off that mean ol' concrete thingy. I then drove *around*.

This particular story isn't all that funny or spectacular, but it does show my own stupidity from time to time (NO, I'm not stupid *all* the time!), and it's good for a chuckle..

-Tom Mandera

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