Modball Rally- Day 1(Minneapolis to Chicago)

Day 1

We left rainy Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon and headed to Chicago for the start of the Modball Rally. As an adventure like this always starts, I dropped my phone and shattered the screen that morning. It’s now held together with shipping tape, which makes it useless since it’s half touch-screen. From that point forward, I knew it was going to be one long-ass trip, and all signs pointed to how this trip would go…

We got on the road only an hour later than planned, which is amazing for Tristan and myself. For once, I didn't have anything major to do with the car beforehand, other than change the oil and check it over. I knew I was using a little oil, but wasn't too worried at that point. We got on the road, arrived in Eau Claire, and the throttle on my car just disappeared. It turns out that the plug for the throttle body was soaking wet from the rain. Once I realized this, I started to assess the situation, and think about what I had along with me that could get it running. I happened to have some penetrating oil, and always have plenty of towels with me. The oil helped to dissipate the moisture, and we all know what towels are for. I dried the throttle body plug as much as possible, so we could limp to the next exit. We stopped at a gas station, where I continued to dry and Tristan ran to find some dielectric lube. Once I put the plug back together, I covered it with a JKRATE sticker from my tote in the back of the car.

After the throttle body plug incident, we got back on the road and all seemed well. We stopped for gas before we crossed the Wisconsin/Illinois border, and that's when we realized Tristan would have to turn around and make a run back toward the cities: we had forgotten the vinyl.

We hoped to have it shipped to us in Chicago, but we’d already missed the shipping window. Tristan took the seven-hour detour and met L-train (Lawrence) on the south side of Eau Claire, while I headed to Chicago.

We crashed with Greg and family, and he let me into the garage for the night, so it could dry out since it was still pouring outside. Tristan got in about 5 hours later, to a locked door. we had supposedly left it open, but i guess not. so i ended up waking him up in the car in the morning, and getting him into the house lol. yea, long night and beginning to all of this.