50th Class Reunion Weekend

UPDATE: (July 30,  2011)  John made it to Pearl, MS about 52 miles from Vicksburg where he spent the night and left for Jackson only a couple of miles away and the radiator started overheating again.  Will try and get it fixed this week in Jackson.  He was very disappointed as we were and said that he may have to cancel his vacation trip altogether.

This is the weekend of my 50th class reunion at Boys Town in Omaha, NE, and I will not be able to attend because of health reasons.  One of my classmates, John Finn, lives in South Carolina and has been trying to get through Vicksburg for a quick visit since last weekend.  Below is a note I received from him yesterday of all his troubles. Marian and I do hope he can finally make his way to Vicksburg and knows he will not be able to make it in time for the reunion.  This is also his planned 2011 vacation trip and having problems before he can get down the road good. We are hoping and praying that he gets his motor home fixed and can continue on his way. Here is what he had to say...

Well somethings are not really going as planned so far on this trip, after three attempts at leaving my friend Randy's place in Georgia, due to problems created by the radiator flush chemicals that did there job much more than we could have ever anticipated at removing and loosening up old stop leak material that evidently had been used extensively in the 5 chassis heaters before I purchased the bus, so much so that it has been like awakening a monster, so far I have removed the 2 thermostats three times and changed out 32 gallons of fresh coolant and removed cleaned and reinstalled the radiator three times and now I have gotten as far as Meridian, MS.

Today I had originally talked to Clark Diesel in Jackson, Ms about getting the 'Bird in there where they have a reverse flushing tool, but after getting more information, I was told that they would not be able to work on it until Tuesday of next week, so I got in touch with the shops in Meridian where I was very close to and found an independent shop that did more mobile mechanic work and I was only seven miles from there so that is where I am now.

I got in touch with Browns radiator in Meridian and they would take the radiator and reverse flush it as soon as I could get it to them and all I needed the mobile mechanic for was a place to get off the road and I did almost all of the work at removing the radiator, but I needed him to do the heavy lifting, so that is what we did and the radiator will be ready to pick up first thing in the morning. I knew I was physically spent and didn't want to reinstall the radiator and get back on the road tonight, I was already two days behind schedule and now three days, so I called one of my classmates who was already at the reunion at Boys Town, Nebr. which started today and told him I wouldn't make it, there will be a 55th reunion in five years, sometimes the chips don't fall the way we want them to, but that's life.

If you look at the coolant it at first looks good, but with a flashlight, I can see very small brown specks in it and when I removed the hoses the remaining coolant that had not already drained from the radiator petcock was brown in color, so we stuck a garden hose in the 1 inch bypass hose from the radiator and flushed it until we saw clear water. I had already isolated the chassis heaters and motor minder for the water heater, by closing the coolant hose valves to them as that is where I believe the crud is coming from and the brown coolant in the block was from what had already gotten in there during my 300 mile trip from Randy's to here.

I will continue the rest of my 6,250 mile planned trip, so there is still more fun times to enjoy.

John Finn, Hopkins, SC