Another long day on Saturday (fortunately, we spent lots of it talking and very little of it driving), so no updates on Sunday. Rusty has a new home. After a short visit with Merlin Hansen to see his new place, we are heading home. We should make it to Champaign, IL, by Sunday evening, where we plan to take a photo with Roger Ebert.

This April 22, 2013 photo provided by Thompson-McClellan shows a bronze statue of Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert giving his famous ‘thumbs up” sign in Champaign, Ill. The statue will be unveiled Thursday, April 24, 2014, outside the Virginia Theatre in Champaign where Ebert held his annual film festival. Ebert died in April 2013. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Thomspon.McClellan)

Here’s the latest info from Bob Christy about his September jeep event.

Chuck shared this pre-jeep video about how Dodge tests its trucks to make sure they are tough.

Patrick spotted this story.

The Ridgecrest, California, earthquake resulted in a one death. The man who died was working on a flat fender when (they presume) the quake knocked the jeep off of the jack and blocks and onto him. I couldn’t say if he was an eWillys reader, but none-the-less my deepest sympathies go out to his family.

There’s more information here: https://people.com/human-interest/nevada-man-killed-earthquake-working-on-jeep/

Be careful out there!

No updates today. They’ll resume Thursday morning.

We spent all day yesterday driving. Thankfully, the skies were beautiful and the temps moderate. A perfect day for towing.

Rusty awaiting his chariot .. he had to wait longer than we anticipated.

Let me start by saying that I’ve rented U-Haul trucks, trailers and dollies in the past without issue. So, I guess it was my turn …

I picked up the trailer in Pasco at 8:00. They were quick to get it hooked up for me, so quick that they didn’t hand me any damage sheet. Just in case, I figured I’d take a quick look at the trailer to see if there was any damage. It was good that I did, because I saw a bent light.

To be honest, I didn’t check it all that closely (I figured that’s what U-Haul is supposed to do when a trailer it turned in at a U-Haul location). So, I snapped a pic to record the damage just in case.`

Apparently, the Pasco location does NOT check their trailers closely, because when we arrived in Renton (3 hours later) Ann took a closer look at the light and found it was broken. We thought about just zip tying it in place, but felt that, given the length of the trip, we ought to get it properly repaired.

After a couple calls and a visit to the U-Haul website, I finally got through to a U-Haul rep. He was great. He promised someone would arrive in an hour. To U-Haul’s credit, a tow truck driver named Richard from Lynn’s Towing arrived on time, but he didn’t have the parts to fix the trailer. Richard, a forty year tow truck veteran, said I’d need to swap the trailer. He suggested I call U-Haul and tell them I needed a new trailer.

Well, after a couple phone calls, I found myself transferred to a dead phone line. Sigh.

However, while I ran into an awkward call system, Richard didn’t waste any time. He got himself connected with a local U-Haul to explain what happened. Then, he organized another tow truck driver to pickup our trailer, take it back to U-Haul and bring back a new trailer. This was all done as I was holding on the phone with U-Haul. Soon, Richardhad it all taken care of and he told me to hang up the phone.

So, instead of spending the night in Spokane, we spent the night in Renton, then headed out early this morning.

U-Haul’s slogan used to be “Adventure in Moving”. Yesterday, the company lived up to that for sure!

This is pretty cool. An M-151 Pencil sharpener.

View all the information on eBay

“Vintage Miniature Enesco Die Cast Military Jeep Willys Pencil Sharpener”

Longtime readers remember that we purchased a DJ-3A that we named Rusty in September of 2016 in anticipation of our Alaska trip in the summer of 2017. A buyer on the East Coast recently purchased that DJ-3A and has paid us to trailer it to him. He’s getting a good deal on Rusty, while we are getting our costs for a road trip covered. It’s a win-win.

Unlike our normal tours, we plan to drive straight to our destination, then pretty much turn around and head back, though our return route will take us north with a goal of stopping at Glacier National Park, a place I’ve yet to see. Our goal is only to be gone about two weeks (rather than our usual 6-8 weeks).

Rusty right after we picked him up in Montana in 2016.