During my final stop of last year’s Odyssey III the temperature was rather cold. Unfortunately the cold caused a crack to propagate from a poorly repaired rock ‘bullet’ ding acquired in Alaska during Odyssey I. It was one of several that had been repaired by the widely used super glue technique.

I could have lived with it, but I decided to get that half of the windshield replaced. Now, I hope that it does not pop out or leak in rains.

This was a long day, mostly searching and driving. Searching for antifreeze and driving long distances to get it.

The day started innocent enough. I had an errand in town, so off I went about 9:00AM. Ran the necessary errands and then went by the truck shop to check on the cost for a round of maintenance on Barth that is needed before this years trip.

I did not like the costs. A very rough estimate for coolant flush and renew, oil change, oil filters and lube for the engine and generator, plus a brake job is going to cost around $1000, excluding the fluids.

From there I went on a quest for oil, antifreeze and a round of filters for Barth and Barth’s sidekick Kohler. Kohler bails us out occasionally when 10 Kw of electricity would be handy to have.

The quest expanded to a 45 mile radius before an adequate quantity of the desired types of antifreeze and oil could be acquired. Filters for oil, water, fuel, and air dryer will be ordered from the web, as they were not readily available locally, and the cross-reference attempt seemed a little less than certain.

So my garage is adorned with about 18 gallons of antifreeze, 14 gallons of motor oil. The five filters adorn my coffee table.