To read Part I of this blog post go to One Long Day Part I
As stated previously we finally made it to the Costco Food Truck Fest with 30 minutes to spare before the start of the event. Normally we like at least an hour before an event to make sure we have everything setup and tasting right before serving, but today we just had enough time to get all the machinery warmed up, start brewing and hope for the best. We must be getting better at this because we were setup within 40 minutes of arrival, which was about the exact time everyone started showing up thirsty for our caffeinated happiness.
I mentioned in the last post about the “good luck oil” that I used before leaving the house and I needed no other proof of it’s effectiveness then that we were parked directly across from the Sloppi Jo’s food truck. Not only is Jo one of the nicest and attractive food truck owners on the road she can really cook. We were treated to her pork taco’s (and by pork taco’s I mean taco’s made out of pork…get your mind out of the gutter), which were amazing. I think we definitely got the better part of that deal because she had to look at our grouchy mugs all day and all we gave her was iced tea and a Vanilla Frappe.
So in case you weren’t at the Costco Food Truck Fest, it was a gathering of about 15 of the most popular food trucks that have been working the valley for a little over a year now. Besides us and Sloppi Jo’s; Philly Cheesesteak/Italian Ice Truck, Just Chill Sno Cones, Slider Truck, BBQ Boy, Tasty Bunz, SnOw ONO Shaved Ice, and so many more were there. It was a great event and I have to commend Lovette from the Costco Business Center on MLK for getting this together and making it happen.
So now back to the drama of the blown tire….
Even though we made it through the event with no other equipment blowing up or failing on us, it was always in the back of my mind how the hell were we going to get the Command Unit back to base without doing anymore damage, which was still some 20 miles away. To understand why let me explain what exactly we were dealing with, the metal panel of the trailer behind the wheel that blew that if not somehow glued, stapled, nailed, screwed, or removed it would rub against the tire and probably puncture it within a mile. Since we knew that duct tape worked for a few miles of slow driving and that parents lived a few short miles away from the Costco Biz Center we decided it was worth the risk to tow the Command Unit there with duct tape holding the paneling to the frame of the trailer. We made it there with no additional damage on the short trip there and now had to make the necessary repairs to the get it back to base.
Now one of the reasons we decided to go to my parents house is that my Dad has a problem hoarding tools. He has what we call the “backroom” so full of stuff that it’s hard for a man my size to squeeze through it all. So once I got over the immenseness of his “collection” I came across this thing called Quikstel. It claimed to be able to bond metal to metal and dry’s “steel hard” in 15 minutes. Sounds exactly like what we needed and if that worked I wouldn’t be writing this post. As you might have guessed it failed because we could not figure out a good way to hold the panel against the frame for 15 minutes till it dried. We tried to hold it with a C clamp but there was no good way to position it so it would hold and that’s about it. Yeah I gave up on that solution kind of fast but wasn’t too confident in the first place.
So now we have ruled out glue, epoxy, or tape as a solution to this problem and our new plan was to now screw the panel back on to the body of trailer thus making it flat enough that it would not rub against the tire. I would have thought with the amount of tools, screws, bolts, wrenches and such that my Dad has that he would have the supplies necessary to make this happen but he did not and a trip to the hardware store was in order.
With the help one of the employees decided we needed some self tapping screws, a titanium drill bit, a couple of clamps, and a screw driver that could take off the square holed screws that are in the paneling. With supplies in hand we proceeded to the checkout confident that this plan could not fail. While ringing us up the clerk at the register saw the Grouchy John’s logo on our work shirts and asked if we were at the last First Friday. We replied that of course we were and told her to make sure to stop by next month and try us out. So now feeling all good from being recognized we made the trek back to the parents house with supplies in hand.
Listen this post is getting a little long so I’m going to publish what I have and finish it up in Part III.
