Day two:

Day two started with a quick trip through Wal-Mart and a trek off into the lost innerlands of Illinois. My brother's house is so far out in nowheresville the GPS can't get you there. Everytime I come for a visit he has to give me directions all over again.

The skies opened up and a drenching storm made the drive an adventure in itself. The roads flooded and visability was zero at times.

The wheel problem acted up a couple of times in the half hour drive and we crossed our fingers and kept rolling.

Once at the coumpound we found Allen putting some fresh wood in his smoker that has been cooking a big ass briskit for 14 hours already.

His buds Stick and Mike were there waiting to tear into my van problem. I pulled the van into the pole barn at Mike's next door and in no time I had the wheel of with the air wrench. At this point Stick jumped in and in a few minutes had the brake and rotor off and the wheel bearing assembly was on the ground and a new one waiting at the parts store an hour round trip away.

The girls hung out with my sis in law Mary in the house and the men went on the road trip. One hundered and thirty dollars and an hour later we were bolting the new bearing assembly back on and faster than we could break the shop light we were done. I got several phone calls later from people wondering what they were looking at on the Ziggycam.

Mike's dad Bill and his wife joined us before we were done and Bill shared his vast auto repair knowledge checking our work. All went perfect and in just a few hours after we limped in with a major problem these guys had us back on the road again in style.

We hit the BBQ real quick and headed south once again to salvage as much as we could of our lost road time.

We shot across the Mississippi River and the Missouri State line then headed off the beaten path on a two lane back road for hours into Arkansas before settling into the city of Cabot north of Little Rock at the Super 8. A long shower and a cold beer later and here I am sitting in front of the AC typing this up.

Tomorrow will take us into Texas where the adventure takes a left turn and the fun begins!