Ukraine Refugee Assistance

Did I say "Tomorrow" we're starting that teardown?  I meant "today".

Mrs. Hungary and I meet and chat for a second.  Since she hadn't planned on me being home today, she's got the homestead handled.  And since there's no time to waste, we should start tearing that truck down today!

(and that's what we do)

It was 12:20 when I pulled into my driveway, and I have the spare transmission dug out of the garage by 1pm. 

I'd hardly call things "organized" at this point, as I had packed half my tools for the trip into Ukraine so things are a mess before we're even starting.  Even still, the shift lever is removed from the transmission by 13:10.  Shortly after I get a text:

"New ETA for the diesel generator.  Should arrive the day after tomorrow"

Alright then.  We now have a goal, let's see if we can reach it!

I continue working in the garage, and by 1530 I decide to call it quits.  Here's where we're at:

Exhaust is out (and I only broke one bolt!)

Shifters are removed

Sway bar is out

Cross member is dropped

Transfer case is separated

and the transmission is ready to be yanked.  Right now it's being held in by my floor jack, but I figured I've used enough "grace" for one day.  If I'm home then I still have a house/life balance to maintain so I decide to head in and attempt to fix that dishwasher (no joy.  Electricity is getting to the circuit cards, but nothing turns on when you hit the buttons.  It's going to be a component change, so it'll have to wait until I can give it more attention)

However, of note I did find that one of my brake lines was blistering when I was under the truck:

Highlighted there by the wrench is the spot I noticed.  There will be more later on.  Had I known this was happening, I would have never driven the truck.  In my mind, these things are going to burst any time and when that happens I'm going to lose both of my front brakes

The next day I have scheduled an 8-hour thrash.  It's my hope that I can get this transmission dropped and have one good gearbox made from two.  If I can do that, then I think I can have the reinstall finished by tomorrow evening.  

The day does not go well at all.  If were counting "broken things" then I need to add my garage door closing string to the list (as that just snapped off in my hand)

The transmission doesn't fare much better.  On the removed unit, I was able to split the case and fix the synchro keys.  The sleeve had over-traveled and their excessive protrusion as a result was what was keeping me from shifting out of 4th while I was driving.  The problem is there is a little bean shaped ball bearing on that shift fork shaft that is supposed to prevent exactly this, but it must have fallen out when I installed it because it's nowhere to be found.

bugger

To make matters worse, the shift rod for this gear is REALLY tight when I try to reinstall it back into the shift fork.  I had a ball-peen hammer nearby and gave it some percussive persuasion to get it into place and I guess I was just a bit too enthusiastic because when I did, I pushed that 4th gear synchro sleeve forward and against the synchro key spring and damaged it (thus knocking all three keys out of the syncro).  A decent attempt was made at salvaging the situation, but eventually I decided that things need to be torn apart to fix correctly.  And if things needed to be torn apart, then my efforts were probably better focused on my spare trans.

Ok, so my spare trans was gone through for a bearing replacement recently (which was successful), but when I put it back together the darn thing's shifter was stuck in reverse.  I put this in the "later later" bin because I had no reason to suspect my current trans would have any issues (of note, the current transmission was my first ever attempt at a transmission rebuild so I don't think I did too bad).  The problem is, when I tried to pull the aft housing off the spare transmission things got a bit stuck.  I wasn't in the best of places, so I decided "Bill Smash".

I did get it separated, but I absolutely flattened one of the shifter bolt holes when I did it. (oops!)

Here are some things that happened when I decided to go through and just make sure everything was where it was supposed to be in the spare trans:

1)  Upon removal, the 1-2 shift rod c-clip went flying and I never could find it.

2) The reverse gear rod detent ball dropped and rolled somewhere (never to be found).

Don't work on a dirty garage floor, folks.

By the end of the day, I'm able to salvage what I need from my current transmission and think I've made one good one from two.  Multiple attempts are made at putting the aft housing back on the spare transmission but none are successful.  And I can not tell you how darn frustrating this was. I mean, you get it 90% of the way on, and you get to thinking "ok.  should I slather on the silicone NOW to seal this up and risk it not going on.  Or press forward with a test fit now and then separate it, slather on the silicone, and risk it not going back together...?"

There are no good answers, and I went through a solid tube of silicone trying to get this thing together only to have it jam itself in reverse, only to separate it and scrape the nearly dry silicone off, just to start it over again.

By the end of the day I'm exhausted, sore, bleeding, and out of silicone gasket material.  I decide to call it quits.

Alright, it's the day-after-tomorrow now and the generator is slated to arrive today.  Unfortunately we did not reach our goal of having a good transmission at this point, but luckily this is a day that Mrs. Hungary has off so I'm able to use her Toyota Auris Kombi to pick the darn thing up.

It took me three hours to get everything removed the day before yesterday, so I'm optimistic that with some early success with the transmission, I can still salvage the day and have something I can call "good progress".  First up, I need to scrape all that silicone gasket material off the transmission from yesterday.  I also include the current transmission's housings in this endeavor because what I've decided to do is to use the input shaft cluster from the spare transmission and install it on my current transmission.  The reason is

1)  4th gear is on that spare input shaft cluster.  My spare transmission never had a problem with 4th gear and it's sychro is still completely intact and undamaged.

2) My current transmission never locked itself in reverse when the tail-housing was put on.

So in my mind, mating the best from the two transmissions makes the best sense.  Unfortunately, that means tearing them both about 60% of the way down.

Luckily I had a good supervisor there to check in on me from time to time.

Around 9am, my phone rings and its the donor with the diesel generator.  On a scale of 1 - 10 of importance, this thing is a solid 10.  Dr. Julia has been asking for it for nearly a year now but it's always been out of our reach.  He tells me he's meeting the delivery guy at work in about 10 minutes.  I tell him to stall as much as possible and that I'll be there in 20.  I strip from my coveralls and wash my hands and hop into Mrs. Hungary's car.  I'm about half-way to my destination when I get word back from the same guy:

"Well, he wouldn't accept payment with a card.  It said on the order that card payment was possible, but he couldn't do it"

We chat a bit, and decide that a cash payment in three days is the best option (this thing is $1500, and we're limited to $500 withdraws a day).  I u-turn it and am back to the house by 9:45.  In my absence, our geriatric dog has peed in the house.  Not exactly the way I wanted to come home, but it's not her fault.

Back in the garage, I'm back to wrastlin' that darn transmission.  I have them both stripped down by 10:30  but have to call it quits by 11am.

See, we still have home-life to deal with and Christmas is still coming, I had a HUGE project planned for Mrs. Hungary's Christmas gift.  If things had gone normally I would have been back by tomorrow and the boys and I could have worked on it.  It's a puzzle table the Hungarlings and I are making form solid maple. 

The cuts we could make on our miter saw and table saw at home, but we don't have a planer to make the boards perfectly flat.  So before we glued everything together, I dropped all our wood off at a local furniture maker and asked him to do it.  Well, he finished a day early which means (you guessed it!) I'm again borrowing Mrs. Hungary's car to go run errands.  And since I'm out, it's also time to pick up the kids from school as well.  Short version short, I'm able to get back by 2pm.

So here we are and there's no point in building back UP both transmissions, so I focus on the one I'm going to install.  And boy-howdy, if you needed any idea of the level of panic and exhaustion that my head is dealing with right now then I think the best way I can explain it is like this:

The WHOLE point of this exercise was to put the input shaft cluster from my spare transmission onto my current transmission.  You wanna know what I forgot to put on when I re-assembled my current transmission?

That's right.  The input shaft cluster.  Like the whole assembly is sitting right next to what I'm working on and I forgot to attach it.

If I had remembered to do what I was supposed to be doing then I'd be putting everything back in the transmission housing right now.  Instead, I'm sitting here in a mild panic wondering how I'm going to save this situation.  There's no getting around it.  I've got to take this darn thing back apart and do it correctly.

So that's what I do.  It only takes me 38 minutes for the teardown and build up.

When I get everything together, I slather on the silicone to make the gaskets/seal and stuff it in the tailhousing first.

I have the shifter moved slightly so it couldn't possibly get stuck in reverse (like it was with the spare transmission) but something is wrong when I get it all together.  I install the shift lever just to try things out and it's like it only wants to shift between 1st and 2nd gear...  I must have missed the slot this thing is supposed to sit in when I assembled it so I try to take the tail-housing back off, only to have it catch on something about 1-inch into the removal.

No amount of prying or hammering is getting this thing to budge.  It's like it'll go a little ways, and then it'll just.... stop!

It's like 6pm at this point, and I've been fighting this tailhousing for almost 2 hours.  I'm frantic, I'm exhausted, I'm not in the mood, and I should be inside the house with the family and not having temper tantrums because of inanimate objects that refuse to cooperate.  I decide enough is enough, and I grab my biggest three-jaw puller.  I no longer give two craps about the guts of this gearbox, it's coming off.

I crank down to insane levels of "pull" and finally something inside snaps.  It was my reverse lockout assembly.  When the housing was installed, it somehow bound in the shift linkage and that's what was preventing me from shifting or taking everything back apart.

(See also:  Top left bolt hole on the right housing for the damage sustained from previous temper tantrum)

That's enough for one day.  Time to head in.  Bill needs a beer and some family time.

Another morning and I'm up at 4.  The kids are home today and we get some time together followed by breakfast.  Those beers from the previous night did their job and I'm in a much calmer state of mind.  To prepare for today's wrench session I take forever in the shower and don't get out to the garage until about 9am.

Wanting some background noise, I turn on one of the "Toyota W56 Rebuild" videos.  It picks up very much where I left off last time, which just happens to be near where I'm at now.  The host/presenter hasn't quite gotten to the installation of the gears into the housing yet, but I keep myself busy re-scraping the gaskets while he catches up.  That's when I notice that I've installed one of the shift forks upside down!!!!!

Holy balls, man.

I check the spare transmission.  Same

THAT"S what was causing the jammed shifter issues!!!!

Ok, correction is no problem at all and I have the 1-2 shifter fixed and right side up in no-time.  By 10:30, I have the housing installed and everything is sealed up.  That was way too easy...

I install the shifter to check things out and it goes through all the gears.  5th is a little odd, and takes me two tries to engage, but I attribute that to this being on a bench and not in a car so I press forward.  Besides, if 5th don't work then that just means I'm working with a complete 4-speed (and I'm ok with that)

By 11:30 the transmission is bolted into the truck.  I had a little trouble with one of the starter bolts that wouldn't install without cross-threading but it didn't look like I had a tap to clean that up in my tap and die set (bolt size is M10 x 1.25?).  I just stuff a narrower full length bolt through and tighten down a nut on the other side.

All the other ancillaries (t-case, swaybar, crossmember, etc) are installed and by 14:30 I'm filling the transmission oil until it spills.  Once done I again try the shifter while holding my breath.  1st and second are smooth as silk.  3rd and 4th are harder.  5th takes me three tries.  In my mind I attribute this to things being dry and the engine not running (so things aren't moving).

The transfer case shifter takes me no less than 4 attempts to install though.  It's been a few days and I'd forgotten that I had to use low-range to get me up the driveway when things were still stuck in 4th gear. Once I remember, I get things together no problem.

Ok, time to put some weight on these gears...  I start the truck and:

1st, and clutch out?  Check.  The truck tries to move forward.

Success!!!!

2nd, and clutch out?  Success!

3rd, and clutch out?  Nothing.

weird.

I push further towards third gear on the shifter.

3rd, and clutch out?  *Grinding noises*

oof.  better not do that again.

4th and clutch out?  Success!

5th?  SUCCESS!!!

I take it for a test drive, and the results are exactly the same.  Third gear is out of whack and not only do I not know why, but I 100% do not care.  As long as nothing gets worse in there, I could drive to the moon and never use third gear (inside the truck, I take appropriate measures)

Ok, but speaking of "worse", there are still those brake lines.

I take the driver's side wheel off and that line is blistered in no less than three places:

After what I just went through with the transmission, this is nothing more than a time killer.  I decided to change out the passenger side line as well under the logic "if the driver's side was going to burst, then the passenger side isn't far off".

And now, there's just one more order of business.  I never was able to get to the belt change (I noticed the power steering belt was starting to show signs of cracking), and there are chunks missing from my alternator belt...

The new alternator belt I got is slightly longer than my old one, but it feels tight enough when I have it adjusted to the maximum range of adjustment offered to me by the truck, so I let it fly.

Tomorrow is a work day, which means we finished this just in time.  I'll commute to the office in the truck for a bit of a confidence run, and if all goes well we'll run her east!

Wish us luck, everyone!

Just for GRM.  there was a Christmas party at our kids Kung-Fu studio.  Obviously, by this point Mrs. Hungary and I are absolutely knackered.  Normally chippy, here's our current mood:

It turns out that the one day in my office was all we needed.  I'm able to get a travel request submitted and approved for the very next day.  We're going to be one day shorter, and driving further than we've ever gone, but I think we can do it.

Even better, the generator arrived on my lunch break!  I'm able to drive the truck out to the delivery van and accept the delivery.

That guy in the photo?  That's "Ken".  He funded the entire thing himself and simply said "screw it.  I'll collect any donations I can get (from friends or family) on the back end.  This thing needs to go in".

Thanks Ken!

That evening, and with the generator still in the back, the family and I spend the night re-packing.  Needless to say, the Toyota has to deploy her secret weapon (roof removal!) to fit everything inside, but she does it.  We hit the rack early to get a good rest.

It's D-Day (Drive Day) today and I'm up at 4am, just like usual.  A shower's had, and the last minute packing of paperwork, snacks, and water commences.  The family says our goodbyes and I'm on the road by 5am.  NORAD's Santa tracker says he's flying over South Hampton, NY at the moment.  He had contacted me late last night and reported that sleigh couldn't get through Ukraine's active air defense network.  For that, could we send the 4-Runner?

My man, I do believe we can:

Stacked "sky high" we covered Santa's magic bag with a tarp to keep his secret (about needing wheeled help) our secret.

5am and we're on the road and feeling much more confident.  My focus is on the shifter at the moment, and I'm feeling it for any faults my hand can detect inside the transmission.  The shift into 5th is pretty odd, but driving without a 3rd gear isn't as bad (yet) as I thought it would be.

Cold air is leaking in from the tarp area, and I'm super mindful of my mirrors and am watching for any signs of cargo loss.  I decide I REALLY don't like how loose and flappy the tarp is (even with an elastic cargo net covering it) and I'm no further than the first town when I decide to pull over and shore things up with bungee cords (man, i hope nothing fell out.  Santa would have my head!).  I also take the opportunity to put a hoodie on under my leather jacket.

By 6, I'm back at that same fuel station.  It's not that I forgot to fill up this time, it's just that we didn't have time to fill up this time.  Under the glow of the fuel station lights, I take the opportunity to shore things up again.  You really can't be too careful, and this cargo is WAY too important.

On the highway, things are a little more difficult.  I can't tell if it's just because the truck is heavy, or if it's the aerodynamic drag of that tarp (and subsequent cargo), but the truck is SLUGGISH!  100kph is about its happy spot, and if I'm going to accelerate further then I need to have it absolutely floored (downhill with a good tail wind).  That doesn't matter much though, because anything above 110kph and the tarp is not happy at all (it starts pullin and flappin all over the place), it's just not worth the risk.

The slow pace is what I'm blaming for again not being able to get into a "groove".  Add in that there's a NASTY cross-wind and I have to be 100% on my mirror game, as it's REALLY pushing me around and I'm still worried about load-loss.  I'm also thinking about the various EU border crossings.  If stopped, I really don't know how the officials are going to react to my cargo net / tarp contraption and I'm not really in the mood to find out (nor, would I be willing to turn back at this  point).  Luckily the EU border points are unmanned this morning so it's all smooth sailing.

My imagination is running wild though, with only the flapping tarp to focus on.  I'm certain that any minute now something is going to fall out, so at every fuel or bathroom stop I make a full round of the truck and tuck that tarp in for all it's worth.  On multiple occasions I've found broken hooks that have snapped off due to the stress.  I have a few extras that I brought with me, but ultimately these are just cheap plastic jobs so I decide to buy a good hand-full more bungee cords from one of the fuel stations and use these to sinch things back down.

Snow appears somewhere in Poland (but the road is clear), as do the UA license plates.  My kiddos are well out of bed at this point and at one stop Mrs. Hungary sends me some videos of the presents that Santa left under the tree.

After lunch I'm at the UA border where there's practically no line.  The only thing of note was a grumpy Polish border guard who asked me to open things up.  I should mention that by this time I've made enough stops and planned far enough ahead that I've actually devised a system with that tarp and cargo net where I can unhook 4ea hooks at the VERY back of the truck and fold the whole thing forward.  It's flippin awesome.

So I unhook my system and fold it forward (revealing the massive stack of plastic bags we're using as a second line of protection for all our gifts) and she comes back and grumpily says "I said "open up".

To which I just looked back and said "This is open, but if you want me to unload everything I absolutely can"

I show her a bag or two and offer her the inventory we have but she's not interested (nor amused).  Upon seeing the fourth bag of toys she says "and THIS is 'humanitarian aid'?"

"Yes", I respond flatly.  "Kids need help too" (seriously lady, there's a man-sized teddy bear buckled into my passenger seat, and a santa hat on my roof lights.  WHAT, pray tell, were you expecting to find in the rest of the truck?)

There's a second where we stare at each other blankly.

"it's Christmas" I say (a bit more pointedly than I meant to)

I dunno what she was expecting (and I certainly don't know what she's used to seeing hauled in) but my last statement results in her handing me back my stamped papers and letting me through.

The UA side?  A MUCH different experience.  I dunno if it's because of the holiday season or what, but all the customs agents were SUPER friendly.  In fact, the last guy I talked to (before the gate gets opened, and I'm in country) is NOTHING but smiles when the truck pulls up to his station.  This strikes me as "unusual", but 100% go with it.

If Santa commissioned this trip it has his magic! Godspeed good elf.

Set loose and in country I regrouped at the first gas-station I come to.  My folding system worked perfectly when it needed to, but now I need to get things shored up for one long LONG drive.  I'm also able to get warm food at the station, and use its wifi to get data service to my phone.  The Tom-Tom is set up (this thing is WONDERFUL when it comes to informing you about fuel stations) and we're on the move.

I'll be honest, this run is tougher than I thought it would be.  By 5:30 it's already dark, and my visibility is severely limited.  The whole thing looks like this:

The road is incredibly difficult  to see as it looks like they've had a bit of weather recently.  Headlights pointed my way flare up my windscreen and make the center line almost invisible.  The shoulder stripe is mostly covered in grit and sand.  Spray from any vehicles in front of me covers my windshield in gray water, and my sprayers are used near constantly to keep it clear.

I can also tell the back of the truck is loaded WAY down as oncoming vehicles are flashing me thinking my brights are still on.  They're not, but the front end must be pointed up high enough that my regular headlights are blinding them.  The third time I flash back (not rude, just letting them know these are my "dim" lights), I decide to exaggerate the use of my high-beams so oncoming vehicles can see me dim my lights.  This seems to work.

This whole time, I'm stuck between 70 and 80kph but feel like I'm making good time.  The limited visibility is one thing, but the other thing working against us are the steep grades on this road.  6-10% isn't uncommon and the truck REALLY slows on the uphills (I'll admit, 3rd gear would be nice to have about now).  The problem is I can't TELL if I'm making good time as I can't see any landmarks that are familiar to me on this route (or any landmarks at ALL, for that matter).

Of note, on this section of the run are the two times I stopped for fuel.  The first time, we almost mixed up diesel with benzine but we got that sorted.  What was interesting to me there was the man wouldn't take a tip after he was finished pumping my fuel.  This is the first time that happened, and I very much got the impression that it was because I was a volunteer.  It wasn't that he said "no", it was the way he said it.  Like it was humorous because I must be joking for even asking.

The second time I stopped was noteworthy because the cashier spoke a little English!  I was certain to compliment her abilities, but I was surprised when she asked if I was a volunteer.  This doesn't normally happen.  When I responded in the affirmative she got REALLY happy, and started telling me about Ukraine and how beautiful the language was.  I communicated my unhappiness with my ability to stay in country and learn (something I very much want to do) as our runs are always so frantic, we spend the whole time driving.

"Well, this IS a special day" she said (referring to Christmas), and I told her what we were hauling and all the places we would go (this had the effect of having her nearly clapping her hands with excitement).

Back in the truck I couldn't shake that odd feeling again.  It started with the Ukrainian guards at the border, and it's continuing at the fuel stations.  Is Santa's magic bag radiating something out from under the tarp that's affecting these people??

I had no way to be sure...

And so the drive continues...

I get a couple messages out to family for the holiday, and even have a quick video call with family back in the states.  Looks like Santa's arrived there as well.  I'm hoping the children in Dnipro aren't too bummed that Santa's gifts haven't arrived yet, and hoping even more that they're keeping the faith that these will eventually get there.

Again though, there are no landmarks for me to judge my progress by.  Specifically I was looking for a hotel I had stayed at once early in the war (when the curfew was still in affect for this region).  I never did see it, so failing that I was looking for an American style diner that I knew to be adjacent to a fuel station.  I had slept there too, once and liked it because the parking lot was often dark and vacant (plus its proximity to a fuel station meant warm coffee in the morning).  Of the two I was REALLY hoping for the hotel though, as I wasn't looking forward to the cold night that would be me sleeping in the truck.

Alas, somewhere near midnight I passed through a town I finally recognized.  I've noted it on previous runs because of a memorial they've erected in the town square that has banners depicting photos of their fallen residents.  It's grown much bigger now, and it pains me to see it.  The only bit that brings me a little joy is the fact that I usually pass through this town sometime on my second day of driving.  This means I've skipped over light-speed and have been traveling at ludicrous speed this entire trip.  Sometime near midnight I find a spot to stop, and shoot off messages to VikkiDp and Mrs. Hungary: "This is where I've stopped.  I'm going to make Dnipro by noon"

TRoglodyte said:

If Santa commissioned this trip it has his magic! Godspeed good elf.

There was definitely some magic happening.  No other way to explain how we could be one gear down, loaded to the sky, and still setting record times across the country.  I tell ya, Santa's magic knows no bounds!

Damn, Bill. I needed a beer after just reading about your battle with the transmission.

It simultaneously pains and warms my heart that you were making this trip on Christmas day.

Ohhh, i already raised one for Bill and another one for another good guy  

Cheers, guys!!!

Perhaps (ummm... actually, no doubt) I should have raised two glasses to Bill, but then I doubt I would have made it to the hotel (i was away on a business trip) 

So i got back home and of course there will be updates on the trip from me as well 

Bill, love your stories  

This trip was absolutely crazy, but it was worth it!!! ABSOLUTELY worth it!!!

Hi everyone!!!

Have a good time!!!

Well done Bill. 
Wish I was a bit closer and could help with the driving. 

Driven5 said:

Damn, Bill. I needed a beer after just reading about your battle with the transmission.

It simultaneously pains and warms my heart that you were making this trip on Christmas day.

hahaha.  I tell ya.  I do enjoy a good thrash from time to time, but this one had important cargo and a short deadline attached.  It was not easy to get through, and for a lot of it I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it.  I honestly had no idea what I was doing wrong, and as the clock ticked I was running out of time to find out.  Definitely got lucky at the last minute.

The generator was the big driver though.  As soon as that hit the truck bed, I felt I HAD to get it east.  Too much of Dr. Julia's most important equipment (that could be mean the difference as to whether or not a parent would or could return home to their kids) was depending on that damn diesel unit being in operation.  I forgot to mention it at the time, but I ran it for an hour the night we got it.  Went through all the checks, and then filled it with long-life semi-synthetic (diesel rated) oil.  I'm hoping that keeps it in operation for as long as stinking possible.

I brought a jerry can of fuel too.  Just like batteries in the toys, I felt it was important that the key to that thing could be turned the second it hit the ground.

JFW75 said:

Well done Bill. 
Wish I was a bit closer and could help with the driving. 

 

Nah, man.  We'd put you in a second vehicle and fill that thing to the sky as well!  Add in Mrs. Hungary in her kombi and....

In reply to VikkiDp :

It was absolutely worth it, and I can't wait until we're able to do it again

I'm up by 3:30 and head inside the fuel station I've stopped at to use the head and get coffee.  I order two cups of americano and don't notice that the lady using the machine has added milk until I'm already back out at the truck.

It's not enough though.  By 6am, I'm stopping again.  I'm getting drowsy, and pull in to a place that I know acts as a food donation station for the Ukrainian Army (I may or may not have stopped here for a coolant system repair once).  It's not open yet, so I choose a spot away from the building and fall asleep.  I'm later woken by a van that's parked next to me and is unloading.  They had hit their horn a few times.  It wasn't directed at me, but it was enough to rouse me from my nap (best darn 20-minute nap of the trip!).   An air raid siren soon follows, the source seems to be a town I can see off in the distance.  I get out and stretch and get on down the road.

It is still pitch black out...  I'm really wondering at this point if I'm going to make it across all of Ukraine in the dark.

Between here and Dnipro, I begin to notice I hear something metal tapping under the hood of the truck.  It only happens around 3000rpms in 4th gear (basically when I downshift to go up a steep hill).  I run a list of things I think it is, but it's really hard to hear over just how loud this truck is. 

Since it's happening under load, my first thought goes to pre-ignition knock.  But that can't be it.  I haven't changed the timing, and I've run this thing on 80-something octane African fuel before and it's never had a problem.  I switch from there to either an exhaust leak or a rocker arm (I'm praying it's not piston sleeve-slap, or a rod end bearing.... but honestly, it doesn't sound like that kind of "knock").

This occupies my mind for way longer than it normally would.  Let's face it, I've a lot a time to kill.

I run all sorts of road tests on this new noise.  I've got it down to a specific RPM, gear, and to the fact that it only seems to happen on an incline.  I was about 1-hour out of Dnipro when I finally figured it out:  That alternator belt I had just changed was a little shorter than the one I bought to replace it.  This new one went on, but only with the alternator at its maximum length of adjustment.  After a few heat cycles, it's not as tight as it used to be.

I'm good with that.

Finally!!!!!

I send this shot to VikkiDp and her response was to the tune of "are you CRAZY???"

Yes.  Yes, I am

Between this sign and our destination, I have to again stop for fuel.  When I do the man in front of me at the pump pulls out his camera and asks to take a picture of the truck with the bear in the passenger seat.  I don't understand him at first, but he speaks fluent English.  I tell him he can take as many pictures as he likes, and HE asks if I'm a volunteer.  I, of course, tell him "yes" and he thanks me twice before I'm able to go in and pay.

again.  odd...  I feel like I'm being given some sort of VIP treatment or something.

After paying, I return and the attendant is handing me my keys.  "good luck" he says.

I'm again left a bit confused.

At our destination in Dnipro by 11am (ahead of schedule!) VikkiDp tells me that she's going to be here in about 10-minutes.  I decide to get out and prepare for her arrival:

Out and getting set up, VikkiDP arrives just like she said she would.  We're able to meet and greet, and she has some toys in her car as well.  Reason is, some of the items we need for some of the children (and for the rehabilitation center) are language specific so made those purchase in country.  We both have lists printed and in-hand, and Mrs. Hungary packaged the gifts "one family to a bag", and even wrote family names, numbers, children's names, etc on tags before stapling them closed.  The only thing working against us right now is that we have to be in our next city by 9pm to beat the curfew.

The unpack?  Easiest ever.  Only a few families have more than one bag (or one bag and a box, etc).  I'm able to ferry toys back and forth and VikkiDp is able to stack them on the counter and send them out.  It's so smooth, in fact, that I have down time to organize the truck between ferries.  Definitely good to lean ahead on this next leg.  That is...

until the power went out...

(ha!  you can see the bear still sitting on the counter!)

By now, it's not just us who are prepared for these unexpected events, the courier office is as well.  15-minutes later a generator is fired up and connected to the building.  The lights go back on, and the process begins again.

Easy money!

With all the gifts inside, I spend my time REALLY re-organizing the truck and covering everything back with the tarp again.  I also put caps back on the roof lights.  Where we're going after Dnipro is a bit of uncharted territory for us, and we'll be going in at night.  I decided early on that I didn't want the lights to draw any extra attention to the truck if they didn't have to...

Unfortunately the bear and some of the other larger items couldn't be shipped from this office.  There's another office we can visit that is set up for larger freight shipments, and we'll have to go there.

No prob, but before we do that we've gotta pay a visit to the Malva Rehabilitation center:

This is a physical rehabilitation center for children that we visited back on our very first Christmas run to Dnipro.  At that time we were able to raise enough money to purchase a portable EKG machine, some UV disinfectant lights, AND donate about $3000 in cash for some refurbishment of the facilities (they used those funds to renovate the kitchen, and to prepare two or three new rooms for residents).

When we heard the center had been hit by the IRBM warhead, saying "my heart dropped" wouldn't begin to describe the feeling I had.  I saw enough of the message preview from VikkiDp on my phone to know what happened.  It'd be nearly an hour before I could open the rest of the message... Of course I feared the worst.

You know, you go through this and you push yourself and you feel like you're doing all you can, and you feel like you're making a difference.  Like it MEANS something... and something like this literally drops out of the sky and can just end it all.  When I saw that message preview, a lot of the dread I felt stemmed from the feeling that I needed to do "more" ("more" to prevent this from happening).

Luckily we received word shortly after the hit that it was just the boiler house that was damaged.

The donations we received for the center were very much a GRM focused effort.  It was the money that all of you sent to my paypal that made this possible.  Our original goal was to bring cash in an envelope and just let the center buy what it needed.  Unfortunately, the director wasn't comfortable with that.  Instead she sent us a VERY specific list of sensory and education focused games for the children to play.  The type of activities that would help develop mental function and fine motor skills.

The box we brought?  It weighed over 100lbs (and there was more in VikkiDp's car )

I think those pictures speak for themselves, guys.  Those are your pictures.

Our meeting was wonderful, and I think VikkiDp and I left there both feeling a bit high from the whole experience.  It's 14:15 now and we're making our way back to the truck.  Before we go, we want to take a look at the boiler building.  Here's what it looked like:

I'm told the warhead was "inert", but that doesn't seem to have mattered much to the facility.  Seeing it like this after the delivery we just made brings us back to reality pretty quick.  And as if on cue, the alarm goes off.  Missiles inbound.  VikkiDp tells me there were over 40 in the air last night.

We finish our errands though, and by 1500 we're back at VikkiDp's house.  Yaroslav's mom has written already!  They're expecting their gift to arrive any second!

VikkiDp and I take a second to exchange gifts as well.  We always have a little something for each other's families and this time my eldest has picked out a Nirvana album on vinyl (Nevermind) for VikkiDp's husband.  (I should mention that my eldest is going through a grunge phase at the moment, so this tracks).

We also have to load up on more supplies for this next trip we had planned:  Christmas to the soldiers.

In these supplies are some gifts we received from outside donors (like a tablet for Dr. Julia, and some post cards, etc).  We load them in the truck and make sure they're protected from the elements.  My tarp scheme is still working SPLENDIDLY!  Just unhook, fold and go!  On the front side of things, I take a moment to zip tie the eylets in the tarp to various points in the cab.   This should help with preventing too much cold air getting into the cab, but should also help prevent too much air from getting UNDER that tarp while we're driving.

I begin to wonder though if VikkiDp know's what she's in for with this roof off in winter time.  She being Ukrainian, I figure she's tough enough

By 3:30, we're eastbound and down (again).  It's a 4-hour drive to our next destination, and it's going to take 100% of both of us to make sure we get there safely.