Whenever I am writing, I often need a break to clear my mind and think. And, today I am writing captions for my forthcoming book.  I needed to clear my mind on this and other things.  LADY RAB jumped to the rescue.  The sun is out, the roads are dry, and it is way above 40 degrees.  Those are my requirements for a sports car run, but LADY RAB is a closed car with roll-up windows.  So, no question about touring today.

I backed her out of the garage, added some coolant, checked the oil and headed off to add three gallons of fuel.  Then we tootled up the little hill in town to Tara’s and aaoogha-ed at her door.  A meeting was just breaking up, and she ran out yelling, “let’s go!”  And off we went.  A busy lady we took a short loop of about 6 miles.  Coolant started bubbling out from the radiator cap so I decided to go home rather than head off to the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham – one of my favorite quick drive destinations.  “Maybe I just added too much coolant,” I thought, “the system will have to seek its comfortable level.”

At the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham, VT

About an hour later I could not take it any longer, so off we piloted to Rockingham.  Ammeter started discharging, and coolant bubbling, so I pulled over to see if I had lost a fan belt.  No, but it was a tad loose, and upon investigation I noted a weak connection on the generator mounting bracket.  (Amazingly you can look under the hood – bonnet for my English readers – and know what you are looking at with a 1931 Ford).  “Start list – bouncing back and forth from charge to discharge – tighten generator, check charging system, etc.)

Arriving at the Country Store (first visit was in 1963 in my 1929 Model A Ford Roadster) and seeing coolant on the fender I opened the hood.  Looks like it is dripping down between the shell and radiator – “add to the list Ray to investigate!”  I saw oil seeping out from under one spark plug – “put on list Ray.”  But then wisely I wiped part of the oil up, and also wiped coolant off the firewall of the cowl.  “That way I can see what happens from here to home,” Ray said to self.

A few minutes browsing and grazing at this destination I headed back south on US 5 to come back across the Westminster Bridge this time.  LADY RAB cruises and holds the road nicely at 45 to 50 MPH, and that is pretty accurate because my speed was clocked accurately on the speed sign as you enter Bellows Falls.

Redundant, all I had was my iPhone with me – just in case!

So, home, open hood and see no new oil around the spark plug and no new coolant splashing.  Still items to watch and correct however.

Our run today was 30 miles — just the beginning.  HAPPY SHUNPIKING no matter what your vehicle of choice may be.  You know mine!  As always, RAY