Ness' Outpost

My uncle donated his old 2 stroke gas string trimmer to me when he found out I was looking for one. I finally got sick of dragging out two extension cords to try and reach the front and the back of the lot.

He had a Weed Eater GTI-16 sitting in his shed for the past 2 or 3 years. It looked like it was in pretty good shape, the starter rope extended and the trimming line turned as the starter rope was pulled out. I didn’t try to start it since I wanted to check and lube the shaft first before it got up to speed. The engine probably would have fired up without any work though.

This time my adopted small engine came with an owners manual that covered the GTI-15T and the GTI-16. I had some basic instructions to work off of – how to tune the carb, replace the starter cord, etc.

The basic plan was to:

• Lube the drive shaft
• Rebuild the carburetor since I was going in to see how the diaphragm and pumper valves were anyway
• Replace the fuel lines and filter
• Clean everything up and lube the air filter
• Check the spark plug

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Went to the sportsman show tonight – picked up an after 5pm ticket for $5. For those going this year the layout breaks down like this:

• South Building = Hunting Show
• Walkway between North and South buildings = Fly Fishing area
• North Building = Fishing Show

Park accordingly as there are lots in both the N & S buildings. We paid $17 for the ~4 hours we were in the lot.

There is a lot more walking than in the Direct Energy building and the locations draw distinct lines between the two disciplines.

We took a trip down to New York City as tourists visiting a friend in the city. It seems like we went everywhere!

Visited the Chelsea Brewery and went on their free tour on Saturday after our flight in. Then went to a market to pick up a few things for dinner. Lots of trips through the subway, but we only saw one rat. We checked out the Brooklyn bridge just as the sun was starting to set and things were cooling off.

Sunday we were off to Liberty and Ellis Island. Lo did very good on the ferry over – not a tinge of green. Then we went to Stout NYC to watch the hockey game. We all had Team Canada gear on but it was a little nerve racking wearing a Team Canada hockey jersey in the heart of the beast. There was quite the cheer with 28 seconds to go in the 3rd – but the small group of Canadians were even louder in OT. To top the night off we we went to Babbo — which is Mario Batali’s restaurant for an over indulging meal of the pasta tasting menu. There were some substitutions for Lo’s allergies though – mmm lobster.

Monday the city came back to life as everyone returned after the snowy weekend. Lo and I wandered through central park and then did some shopping at some huge discount store called Century 21 — all I could think about was real estate and obviously we couldn’t afford any of that in NYC. The store was down near where the twin towers used to be so we had a quick tour of the area – they are building a monument there now. Then we took the subway back up to Grand Central station and wandered down to the piers. Then a quick walk up through China town and little Italy before packing up for the airport that night.

Photos are here.