Monday, September 5, 2005: We went up to the farm for a Labor Day picnic. This was Luli's (Juri's) first opportunity to see Benton County and it was a very good thing he went along. We took our van and just past Lafayette, the car started vibrating so bad I had to pull over to see if we could determine what the problem was. The tires looked fine, but Luli said it was the brakes. We limped our way on up to the farm and I could tell he was right. I had some brakes, but the pedal was going all the way to the floor. Once at the farm, Luli said he could fix it so that's what he set out to do. He jacked up the left rear and showed us how the brakes had seazed....he couldn't spin the wheel by hand. So he took off the tire, asked for a hammer, and started beating the living daylights out of the brake drum. Soon he had it off and started adjusting the brakes. In about 15 minutes, he had everything put back together and said it was fixed ... at least good enough to get us back home. He repeated the same procedure on the back right wheel and pronounced the patient cured. Nothing like having a good mechanic along on a family outing! And we didn't have a bit of trouble driving home. Luli said those brakes would need some more work once he could get back to work and get some new parts.
Aside from that excitement, we had a beautiful weather day. Kentucky Fried Chicken with all the fixins' for lunch. Dad called from Florida while we were taking our group photo (notice Sally on the cell phone). We told him to smile. He said he'd be real surprised if he was in any of them. Well, dang! If he didn't make it in one of them! Be sure to check out the photos to see for yourself!
We went over to Earles Park for the Labor Day parade and festivities, but no tractor pull. Jim was very disappointed. I think we were all glad to get back to the farm.
Movies:
(Remember to right click over the movies and save them to your own hard disk before viewing)
* What the Hell? - 6,395 KB
* Breaking the brakes - 5,239 KB
* Supposed to be a day off - 3,576 KB
* Big parade at Earle Park - 3,451 KB
* Drums Not Drugs - 9,336 KB
* Horse drawn wagon - 2,811 KB