Today we took off for some time out at the French Quarters and the surrounding areas. Our first stop was at the Cafe De Monde. It’s sort of a tradition that we get our bignettes there and a ice cold drink. I can’t recollect how many times we’ve been here but no matter how busy this place is we always get a seat. There are folks folks from all around the world chillin’.
We order from the takeout window and find seating. This is what the inside of the cafe looks like. Interested there wasn’t near as many workers that I normally see. Maybe it was still early or the timing of the photo taken.
We stopped by the cathedral in Jackson Square so Lorraine could light a few candles for loved ones. After we walked around shopped for a few hours we decided to leave the French Quarters and get a couple of Po’ Boys. Lorraine checked out Siri and found a spot that was close to our current location.
We both decided on a seafood Po’ Boy, I had the shrimp and wifey had the crab. One note about this place it was just a couple blocks from a world famous Po’ Boy sandwich place called Tracy’s. I’m not even sure of the name of the place we went too.
Here we are about to for a stroll along the Mississippi River. I forget sometimes how wide and vast the river is. You can see one of the remaining operating steams boats that still go up and down the river.
Hit one of my old new spots. We used to go this establishment when they were located at the French quarters, New Orleans. When they sold off to a new owner the place wasn’t the same. They happened to open 1.2 miles away from our families home in the Gentily district so we definitely had to give it a whirl!
I think the very original chicken dinner was different than what we had tonight. It was definitely good but not at the same level as my all time favorite Willie Mae’s Scotch House located in the 9th ward district. We had to give it a try for ourselves.
We he a great dinner prepared by our son in law. He cooked up rib-eye steak with a glazed potatoes that were awesome. Our daughter somehow talked me and wifey to go on a long stroll along the bayou, looked for alligators as one was spotted earlier in the day. Our daughter is trying to get us into this Fitbit craze, a way of monitoring various vitals.
It’s almost 11pm and the sounds of fireworks or gunfire is still going strong.
If my thinking is right I have the Cruise O’ Matic three speed transmission. This is an earlier cast iron version that is prior to the more known C4 tranny. I’ll need to get under the car again and try to read the part numbers for verification. When I get back into town I will to see if I can really tell if the tranny is shifting through the gears as the speed increases. It’s been bugging me that there is no distinct change in torque as expected.
I’ll check the following:
Vacuum line from the intake manifold “T” is good all the way down to the governor/modulator or control valve as Ford calls it
Linkage from carburetor to the transmission is there, used for the “kick down” function when passing cars or need of acceleration
Check for the F4 type transmission fluid, while the car is running
I woke up this morning to the sound of little feet running across the hardwood floor. Music.
We took off early in the morning to check out a park near the Authur Ashe school. This is a place that my Grandson hangs out with his folks. The weather here will be in the mid-ninetys all week, you have to get your outdoor activities done early before the blistering heat rolls in.
I picked a SPAL Dual 11″ inch fan setup that had some really good reviews. I was gambling that I could make it fit by having the water pump pulley in between the two fan shrouds. Mistake!..
It turns out the setup is too wide for my radiator and to deep for my long nose waterpump. I had to come up with a plan to still use the dual setup as two singles.
Separating the two wasn’t a problem for a small hacksaw blade. Even with the two pieces apart it was still too wide for the radiator.
I ended up using a dremel tool to remove portions of the shroud near the inlet and outlet radiator ports. Once I had the pieces removed I was able to use a piece of flat metal to mount the two together and secure to the top of the radiator. That part of the fabrication came out nicely. I then had to use the plastic”tie downs” commonly sold with radiator kids. Mine happened to be the DERALE brand. I’m not a big fan of these but under the circumstances I don’t have much of a choice until I can lift the car up and work from the bottom.
My initial temperature test shows that at driving conditions no noticeable difference observed. At idle after driving around the temperature dropped a few degrees than normal. I won’t know the actual benefits until I’ve ridden during the hotter time of the day. All this was going on during the later afternoon hours towards the evening.
I rode into work this morning knowing the ride home would be hell. As expected hell was outside when I got off of work. The round trip ride is typically 110 miles back and forth but I had to take the backroads home so I would be in constant air movement. I pulled over to take a photo of my ambient air temperature, 108 is getting up there on a bike. I think the hottest temperature I’ve ever ridden was in the Mojave desert. There was stretch that had temps reaching 114F degrees.
