No One Left Behind

Posted on | October 13, 2008 | No Comments

While still in Ann Arbor we watched Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? (done by the same dude that did Supersize Me.) It was really well done and I made a mental note: “Reel to Real Talk (link) has to see this!” Get it through your Netflix or Blockbuster subscription!

We took Sugarcube to get the Clankity Clank fixed. A beautiful spirit of a man, Abdul, took our bus in with a short period to work on it. We stayed at his shop for at least an hour in the cold with it being test driven. Someone mentions our steady swerve and he goes under the hood, tightens something and says, “There, you should be fine.” The ladies celebrate, “Yay! No more swaying!!! Yay!” I hate to be the one to bring folks spirits down… okay, no I don’t… but I didn’t celebrate. After all of our getting excited mechanic after mechanic I wanted evidence before getting happy. So I waited. We get on the road toward Chicago.

We left Ann Arbor without the Clankity Clank – a replaced flex plate, some part of our transmission. We still had a rack of grease attached to the back, a caged tank in our doorway, and now… a NEW problem! Well, let me first say that the swaying wasn’t fixed. As a matter of fact – it was worse! To the point where we had to pull over and “uncorrect” what Abdul had corrected within miles of leaving the shop. But now when trying to pick up speed or slow down the bus made a “grrrrrrr” sound and shook. It also wasn’t going into first and second gear without flooring it. It’s funny now. It was funny to me at the time. But to the crew… it was a sad state of affairs. How were we going to make it to Chicago like this?!!!

Before we’d gone on tour I lost someone really close to me in a car accident. I haven’t driven since. And I for sure wasn’t going to help drive Sugarcube on any part of this tour until every kink was worked out. So, as Pippi’s job got more and more stressful (she’d taken on the role of tour mechanic, a promotion from grease acquisitions), I got more and more skeptical about our future with Sugarcube. So to cheer us up, I shared this video with the ladies, and of course Huey comes up with a new shirt idea – Remember K-Ci & Jojo, No One Left Behind.

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