When Rachael and I returned from the airport to Dale's back yard, the first thing I did was reach into Boone's truck and hand her the large black camera bag that was on the seat. Boone had purchased a Cannon digital camera that came with two lenses, and was way fancier than any of the point and shoot stuff we'd ever had before. I figured she had the best chance of any of us to learn how to use it by the time we left for Cordova.
"Bob Brehm isn't making the trip this year, and he's been good for about five thousand shots a day, so you're going to have to pick up the slack", I told her.
"Well, if I'm babysitting the Gebhart brothers, I'm probably not going to have enough time to take that many", she retorted.

Boone helped me bleed the brakes on the Valiant, and I dropped her back on the ground. At this point, I just needed to repair the wiring in the trunk, and charge the batteries, and she would be ready for the first test drive of 2017.
"Dad called while you were gone, and said that when they drop the Charger down the front end goes all the way down to the bump stops! Apparently when they decided to cut that brace, it makes it so flexible that the torsion bars won't hold the front end up!"
I thought perhaps Boone was joking with me at this point. "Are you sure they have the bars set right?"
"Yeah, they tried it several times, and it just won't work!"
"What are they going to do?" I shrugged at Boone, trying to contemplate a solution.
"Darren called the guy that made the modifications, and I guess he's going to come back in the morning and weld it all back together until they find another piece to replace it with.
"Have they even fired the engine yet?"
"No...don't think so, just got the push rods yesterday, and he was probably expecting Dale to run the valves."
"Have you heard from Dale?"
"Yeah, I think he got a couple of hours of sleep last night on the shop floor, and Cody is up there helping him now, but he won't be back until tomorrow sometime."

Will, Michelle, and Derek showed up to work on the Purple Duster at around 6pm.
"I thought you were going to be here this morning", I shrugged at Michelle.
"Yeah, well, I had so much to do...trying to get packed, and organized for the trip", she explained. "Did Dale ever make it back?"
"Nope, and from what Boone told me, it'll likely be tomorrow afternoon."

Boone helped them mount the alternator, and Will finished up the welding on Boone's trailer, so it was an even trade. They left with the Duster about two hours later, but the alternator still hadn't been wired. Rachael and I helped Boone hook up his trailer and load the Ruster Duster so he could get it aligned the next morning, then we followed him to his house. We were in bed well before midnight once again.
"This just doesn't seem right", I told them.
"Never turn down the opportunity to get sleep during Hell Week", Boone laughed, "We'll be better off for it when the journey begins!"