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I’m bummin’ in a big way. After leaving a drizzling rain in Richmond VA early this morning, my girlfriend and I were happy to see sunny skies for the rest of our trip to ZCON. Unfortunately, my car had a less sunny disposition. Half way through Pennsylvania, we noticed a slight grind coming from the front, left wheel. I pulled over to a quiet side street to see if I could find what was causing it. Nothing visible. And the grind was only intermittent, so we motored on. The grind got worse, and by the time we had to stop for gas, it had revealed itself to be a disintegrating bearing. We were at a Mobil station in Hazelton,PA, just south of Wilkes Barre. As it turns out, that’s not a convenient place to be in need of a 300ZX wheel bearing. I called 8 (eight!) garages (every brake shop in both phone books – Hazelton and Wilkes Barre) and found only one of them that was still open for business. (This despite the fact that the phone book – three phone books, actually – were dated February 2005!) Anyway, the ONE place that still had a live phone connection (Monro Muffler & Brake, near a mall in Hazelton) checked every parts supplier on their list, and came up empty. They wouldn’t be able to fix it until tomorrow. So we called around in Wilkes Barre, and got the same thing. So, throwing caution to the wind, we decided to see if we couldn’t hobble our way to Syracuse. We KNOW there must be Nissan parts (not to mention working phone lines) in Syracuse. Talk about white knuckle driving! I was wondering whether the wheel would seize at 80 mph, sending our fully laden Z into a whirl between the 18-wheelers all around us. Or whether the hub would just get so hot that it burst into flames. I didn’t care for either scenario. But I also didn’t want to miss the TwinTurbo.net banquet/party. Any way, we made it as far as Cortland, NY before the grinding got to be too much. So here I am, just 30 miles away from the party I’ve been looking forward to for the last six months. I’m still hoping to get the car fixed early enough tomorrow morning to make it to the Glen for the warm laps I’ve signed up for. I hope the banquet is a blast for all those in attendance, and for those of us who bought tickets but – for one reason or another – couldn’t attend, I hope we make out like bandits with door prizes! ? (Or do we have to actually pass through the door to qualify for them?) With luck, my girlfriend and I will cath up with the rest of you tomorrow. Sorry we missed you tonight. Best wishes,
Mark
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