Beverly Hills or Bust - Sculpture Road Trip Day 4 Loose Bolts and Snow

     We slept so well after pulling our all night drive that we missed the free hotel breakfast.  We tried to walk to a place near the hotel, but it was too damn cold so we drove over to Baker Brothers Deli

One of there Breakfast Specials was the "90210" which fit really well with our Beverly Hills or Bust.

The "90210  Breakfast Special"

      After breakfast we checked the ropes holding down the Swinging Jenny and discovered that the man's right toes were up in the air.

The nuts holding the sculpture down had worked loose

 My original sculpture had two 1/2" nuts welded into the right foot.  One in the front and one in the back.  The left foot is up on it's toes so it only has one attachment point.  The three points make a tripod which is a stable configuration.  The foundry decided that they would only put one 3/4" nut in each foot.  The 3/4" stainless steel nuts and threaded rods are strong as hell, but don't prevent the sculpture from rocking forward and back.  The other thing is that Duncan, who has worked in bike shops, asked several times if we shouldn't be using "Locktite" to prevent the nuts from working loose. We were assured that the Locktite wasn't necessary. 

Turned out the Locktite was necessary

     The winter storm was on its way and overnight the wind had picked up from the north and the temperature had dropped into the teens.  Not the best weather for working with the ice cold nuts, bolts and  tools.  This time we used Locktite.

    Doing the repair cost us several hours and soon after we left Amarillo the snow started falling.

Snow is starting to fall as we leave Amarillo

   It was so cold that the snow was light and powdery and the big trucks blew the snow out of the right lane so the sparse traffic keep moving right along. Then when the snow had reached about 3" I suddenly noticed red brakelights coming on at the top of the hill.  When I put my brake on I realized that we were suddenly driving on ice.  At the crest of the hill we could see several trucks and cars had swerved and skidded off of the road.  For the next couple of hours we stuck in a one lane traffic jam.  It was pretty intense driving. Finally, by the time we got to Albuquerque, New Mexico the snow had stopped as the winter storm stayed to the east of the continental divide.

    We stopped for dinner  at El Cafecito  in a little town of Grants, New Mexico.  Duncan had eaten there last summer on his mountain bike ride from Canada to Mexico along the Continental Divide.

My dinner entry was $4.50

     We bedded down for the night in Flagstaff, Arizona.