I saw a PCV installation on a Chevy 235 at the Wheelin Walla Walla car show last September. The road draft tube that vents the crank case has always bugged me – covered in oil acting as a magnet for dirt and road debris, and the inevitable drip of condensed oil from the tube.

So I instantly knew the PCV system (piping the blow-by and crankcase fumes back into the intake to be burned) was the perfect fix for me truck.

Installation took about an hour and a half, the most time consuming part was getting the stainless piping in the right position, which ended up requiring loosening the coolant hoses to reposition a few hose clamps.

While I was in there I tightened up a loose oil pressure tube fitting that was leaking.

For years I’ve been running Little Red with the door handles removed since the set screws kept coming undone, I’ve now installed them with threadlocker so that should no longer be a problem.

I also removed the old custom cut carpet remnant. It was absorbing that “old truck” smell, and I think the thickness of the carpet has been preventing the pedals from fully depressing resulting in less throttle range, reduced max braking force, and most importantly preventing the clutch from fully engaging (it’s always had a little gear grind every shift since I’ve had it).

Luckily the rubber floor mat was underneath and still in usable condition.

The problem with flying into Walla Walla from JFK is that the arriving and departing flights that I usually get are either late at night, or early in the morning. And of course once I’m in town, I need a car to get around, and I prefer using my truck.

In the past that would mean I’d have to arrange for someone to pick me up, take me to my truck in storage, take the battery out of the truck, charge the battery overnight, and then have someone take me back out to replace the battery and start it up.

I now rent a mega-size storage unit ¼ mile away from the airport terminal that I can easily walk to. Inside my truck waits for me, connected to a battery tender.

I recently flew back in on the midnight flight, and the plan worked perfectly. However I didn’t have to walk, as I knew someone on the plane, and they gave me a ride. The battery was at 13.1 volts, and a squirt of starting fluid had it turn over in just a few cranks.

A few of my original pizzas…

The Marietta

Named after the NY hamlet from Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned.

Honey mustard tossed chicken, fresh mozzarella, fire roasted tomatoes, spring onions, Parmesan, and thyme.

The Westfold

Named after the region in The Lord of the Rings.

Cream sauce, fresh mozzarella, meatballs, asparagus, petite peas, finished with fresh dill, a hint of black pepper, and a squeeze of lemon. (Bad photo of this one ☹️)

Unnamed

Fresh mozzarella, fire-roasted pork belly, hot honey, sprinkled with toasted coconut and fresh thyme (trust me it works)

After doing some work in the morning, I left Walla Walla around 10, and swung through Waitsburg to give Lisa and Jade one last hug. Originally I was going to take I-90 to Montana, but the weather forecast improved so I decided to take Highway 12 up Lolo Pass. But when leaving Lewiston, just over an hour after starting my five day road trip I got pulled over for speeding.

Once I got past Missoula the roads became dry, so I set the cruise control to 80 and headed to Bozeman. There I met Sarah and Trent for dinner and drinks. After I checked into my room at the very cool retro motel “The Sapphire Motel” and went to bed.

Day 2

I had concocted this plan to get up an hour earlier each day, so that by the time I get to New York I will have adjusted to the time change. This plan failed immediately as I slept in. But once I woke up I went into town to a breakfast place called “Jam!”. I had the granola, and a crabcake eggs benny.

Bozeman has a lot of young people and a really great energy. There is also a common fashion among the guys of Bozeman that consists of a medium beard, with a soft front baseball cap with a cord. At Jam! at least 6 patrons were sporting what I have decided to call “The BozeMan”.

The snow stopped falling, the sun came out, and I hit the road to Rapid City, SD. This selfie was taken outside Gillette, WY.

After checking into my hotel, I got back in the car and headed to Mount Rushmore. It’s really quite close to town, and I was one of the few cars on the highway, which made for some fun driving and cornering.

Once there I parked, got out of the car, and walked straight up to the viewing area. That’s when I realized that I was the only person at Mount Rushmore. It was dark, windy, and frigid — and I was completely alone. Just me and the presidents.

When I went to DC in middle school, we did a tour of the presidential monuments there at night via limousine. And by the time I got into Rapid City, it was dark. Apparently I’m destined to only ever see the presidents at night

It was challenging to get a decent selfie with the presidents, but I think I managed haha

I jumped the roped off areas and sat down on the amphitheater top row bench, and looked up at the monument for another five minutes. That South Dakota cold started to get to me so I decided to go back into town, I ran at the gym, and came back to the hotel to write this blog.

Took a solo walk up the east moraine of Wallowa Lake

Since my last stint in NYC (18 days in August) I’ve felt a pull to go back (or perhaps a push to leave Walla Walla behind). So I messaged John about coming to visit. It turned out that he needed me to come, as much as I wanted to. And when he explained his circumstances, I realized I had to go.

I texted him Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon I was landing at JFK.

The next day I finally completed the full East/West Drive loop, and set my 10k PR at the same time.

For election night dinner, we ate Mama’s TOO at a sidewalk picnic table on Broadway. On the left is their buffalo chicken style “Bufalina”, and on the right is their “bruschetta”. That crust is unlike any other pizza crust I’ve had. And when we got home, we drank whiskey until our collective resignation forced us to sleep through the announcement we knew we’d wake to in the morning.

The next day was 79 and sunny, summer’s last stand, so that night we met a friend for apps, and drinks at the Empire. It was great to relax and connect with “the boys” at an iconic rooftop bar. After he left, John and I had some really deep conversation about life, women, and each other. On our way out, I spoke some Spanish to the waitress and she unlocked the staircase so we could take this incredible photo.

Like running a 10k through Central Park, friendship is long and challenging, but every time you show up for your friends it builds you up too.

This is a great climb, but until today I had never done it this early in the season. I came under-prepared. The hike starts easily enough, and you come up along the aptly named Falls Creek.

About 2,000 feet higher we hit our first snow

It was still pretty hot at this point, wearing t shirts and leggings. We had this big boulder gulley to ascend, however with the snow field intact it was a lot easier.

At this point Rob put on his crampons and his ice axe setup, I just continued with my regular hiking boots and a stick I found.

We hiked on snow almost all the way to the summit, which is a right turn at the top of the gulley and another 300 vertical feet roughly. Here is the view of Twin Peaks from the summit:

I’m reading Lord of the Rings right now, and just got to the point where the fellowship had to turn back after encountering too much snow, and not being well equipped for it. I could relate, the descent ended with ice and water squishing around in my boots, as the snow pack had softened. In fact, it had softened so much that in one place I was post-holed up to my hips.

Overall the climb was 8.5 miles, 4,171 feet of elevation gain, and it took us 4 hours and 34 minutes.

We also celebrated Grandad’s 82nd birthday

We started my last day in New York with breakfast at Russ & Daughters. I had two bagels, a sesame with chive creamcheese, and the “Shtetl” which is smoked sable with goat cream cheese, and is a delicious salty treat.

After breakfast we took the B train uptown to see John’s new apartment in the upper westside (manhattan valley). We couldn’t go inside because there is still a tenant in there, but we did get to checkout the neighborhood.

His apartment is 100 feet from Central Park so we went for a walk across it, to the upper eastside. Mother and son:

Once we got across the park we walked down 5th Avenue for a bit, entering a movie shoot!, and then crossed over to Park Avenue. It definitely felt like Gossip Girl

We just kept walking until we found a lunch stop, grabbed some salads, and headed back to Jersey so I could catch my flight. I was the last seat on the plane. Ironically the five hour flight to Seattle felt longer than the five day drive.

Got back into Walla Walla at midnight.