Rachael and I pulled up in front of the parts store just a minute before their 7pm closing time, and she jumped out and ran in while dialing up Dale on the phone.
She walked back to the car a few minutes later and shrugged, "He didn't need a caliper after all, it's some problem with the axle bearing."
"So we beat on the old girl for nothing?"
"Not necessarily", she smiled as she crawled over the bar and back into the passenger's seat, "It means we'll get to Applebee's sooner!"
Once settled into the restaurant, I called Boone to get the skinny on what had happened.
"Well...Dale's rear brake locked up on one side, and he was barely able to get the Gremlin off the road and into a farmer's driveway. Since I had the trailer on the Duster I couldn't make the cut, so I went down to the next farmhouse and tried to get turned around in his drive. Both were narrow dirt paths more or less so it took me a few minutes and the porch light was on by the time I got back on the highway and started back to where Dale had stopped. Darren pulled in as well and we had Dale's Gremlin on a jack stand with one tire removed when suddenly a big dually with a gooseneck cattle trailer stops in the highway to make a left hand tun into the driveway we have all cluttered with cars and parts!"
"Good grief" I shook my head. "What did you do then?"
"Dad ran out and told the guy he couldn't turn into the drive just yet because we have it blocked, and the farmer went off on him! He started ranting about it being his drive and no one would ever tell him when he could or couldn't drive up it, then he went into threats about what would happen if we didn't get our junk out of his way, and he ended with an explanation that he was tired, he'd been hauling cattle all day, and he just wanted to get home to a shower and a meal!"
"So, at what point did he pull the shotgun out from under the seat?"
"No, it never came to that. Darren and I both pulled over into the ditch, then we picked up all the tools and parts around the Gremlin, and carefully guided him and his rig past all of us. Then he parked just past us, got out of his truck and came back to talk with us about our adventures and our cars, tell us about his new Camaro that his wife won't let him take to the track, offered us the use of his shop, and was just as friendly and agreeable as can be!"
"So he has everything you need to get going?"
"No, we were just happy he wasn't yelling any more or calling the cops, so we let him get to his dinner! Then the neighbor whose driveway I'd used to turn around in showed up on his side-by side to check out what was going on. He explained that his shop was twice as nice as his neighbors, and he had a new Challenger, so Dale ended up taking the axle over to his garage to press everything back in place and weld the collar to the axle!"
"So it was the same axle that we found the collar backed off on before we left?"
"Yeah, but at least the bearing wasn't damaged, so if we weld it, it should last through Drag Week anyway!"
"C'mon!" I laughed. "You know Dale, it will be like that if and/or until that bearing fails again, and won't ever get touched otherwise!"
"True statement!" Boone laughed.
I hung up, and started eating my food, but not until I posted a picture of it on the group text, just to get the brothers riled up.

Dale sent a picture of the menu about two hours after I had sent the picture of my food. By that time Rachael and I had traveled the twenty-four miles due north to Monroe WI and checkpoint one, and were on our way due east on WI-81 towards checkpoint two in Lake Geneva, WI.