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The LaSalle dash is easy on the eye -- except
when its gauge needles point the wrong way! |
Last night did not go well. We limped into a comfortable and cheap Days Inn in Jefferson City just around dark. At the end of a long, productive, and thoroughly interesting day the LaSalle decided to start running rough and the generator went on strike. Bill increased the point dwell and the misfire vanished, so one problem was quickly solved. Nance walked to gather some fast food takeout while Bill tinkered with Sally's generator. He set the regulator for maximum generator output but no significant energy was forthcoming. He could inspect the brushes and peer inside, no obvious stress or damage could be seen. Removing the generator is a fairly difficult job on this car so Bill decided not to take that on -- especially since we couldn't locate any facility nearby capable of rebuilding a 6V generator. PS: this same generator quit suddenly on Bill's last trip from Ohio and he had it rebuilt. It worked fine for the last two years, tricking us to depend on it.
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| Our hosts from Modern Litho and Nance with LaSalle |
Bill came up with a workaround to keep us on the road: We found the Harbor Freight store in Jefferson City and bought a six volt battery charger. These are not available at every auto parts store. We plan to drive with no generator and just charge the battery every night in the hotel. Just in case we might run out of power during the day, we bought a spare new 6V battery in small town Mt. Sterling IL to back us up if needed. Thank goodness for ag equipment, many old tractors still rely on 6V power. Without night driving, we thought we could manage a full day on a single battery change. It worked OK today, let's see how it holds up.
We visited the Modern Litho printing plant in Jefferson City this morning. Modern Litho prints, binds, and mails our VMCCA Bulb Horn magazine in full color. We got a thorough and informative tour of their enormous plant. It was quite an operation, one that has served our club very well for the last several years. The technology that supports the printing industry is simply amazing, we were both thoroughly impressed.
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| It's tight and narrow on the Champ C |
The plant tour and LaSalle fuss delayed us several hours. We are now officially behind schedule. We motored on US 54, crossing the Mississippi into Illinois via Lousiana, MO. Their massive narrow and ancient truss bridge, called the Champ Clark Bridge, is way older than the LaSalle. It continues to provide a safe but claustrophobic crossing of this enormous river. There is a great view from up there, but Bill was too focused on the road to enjoy it.
Most rest stops with the LaSalle turn into mini social events. The guys want to guess what it is and look at the engine. Others want to know about it, comparing it to other cars: "My uncle had a car just like yours-- only it was a station wagon with wood on the sides". Few can believe we have actually driven the car from New Mexico. The thought that we are continuing on to New Hampshire is met with even more amazement. But all the talk is friendly and relaxing, driving an old car can definitely be an icebreaker.
US 54 ends in Illinois after its long stretch all the way from El Paso. We missed it, but Nance came up with a route including US 24 and US 136 that avoided all the the metro areas around Peoria, Bloomington, and Champaign. She drove quite a bit of these roads, they proved to be rather scenic. Throughout the route huge, specially engineered Ag equipment was at work in the fields, creeping down the road until reaching the next field, or radiating its polished power and efficiency from another farm equipment sales yard. Even family farms here are BIG.
Bill was ready to go further, but with the sun and our battery sinking fast, we decided it was time to pack it in. A modest old Heritage Inn in Rantoul IL rose out of the approaching darkness and we were done for the day.
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