Matilda...

Lovely weather in Rapid City so we stayed an extra day. What to do....???

I know I'll start on something that I've been meaning to do for a while. This is one of the long list of jobs that I need to do. You'd think overlanding (and not working) would be easy....not so.

I noticed the other day that there was "thin" oil below the intercooler. It was dripping on the steering damper. So I have a hole in my intercooler. Could this be the reason my fuel consumption is up? Maybe? Anyhow a hour to get it out and then clean off all the oil I noticed a very small crack in the side. Luckily its in the side...I mean if it was in the middle it would be a PITA to fix. (Google PITA please Mum, Dad etc. It will tell you what it means). So I cleaned it up and used JB Weld to cover the hole. We'll see in a few days if its fixed. I'm not to sure that such a small hole would cause the fuel consumption. Maybe its the new gearbox or maybe its something else. Hope not. I tried to solder it first but that didn't work. I would have needed to use the full size blow torch and I was scared to start that on the intercooler as I could have ruined it. The gas soldering iron wasn't man enough. Hopefully JB Weld will work. 3 hours to get it all fixed....Washing up liquid used to find the hole.

Did I mention that Walmart had a clearance of coats. Its warming up here and I was missing a nice little Jacket. They had a down jacket for £5.74. Now that's got to be nearly as good as the FREE RAB jackets. So very sorry to RAB but my BIG coat is too big for the warm weather so I've now got this. It will be cold enough for the big one soon enough....to be honest for the price ($9usd) its excellent. It was reduced from nearly $50usd.

Talking of oil leaks. What is it about the cars in the USA. I'm going to take some pictures of the oil slicks that leak from the cars here. You think Land Rovers are bad but the are poor comparisons to the cars here. Watch this space for pictures (and my parking place fro no oil leaks !).