Sunday - 257mi
Sunday morning we woke up and grabbed breakfast at Java Joe's (my favorite breakfast joint in St. Ignace). We were also meeting up with McNally who had been driving the Maximus 3 JT up from his house all morning.
After breakfast, we stopped at the local grocery store to pick up food for the next few days. It's always a bit difficult to buy for a trip, let alone for 7 people... We went through a lot of ice and ruined a few lbs of meat by the time the whole trip was done and dusted. (None of us have on board refrigerators).
We then made our way towards the Keweenaw. But not before stopping at a roadside park that marked the northern most point of Lake Michigan! This turned out to be quite the fortuitous stop! McNally saw a truck that he recognized as an old friend and sought him out. We talked for 20min or so and exchanged contact info. It turns out, he now lives in Wisconsin and was heading home. He told us that he knew a bunch of guys in the Keweenaw and if we needed any help, to let him know. We thanked him and hoped we wouldn't need to take him up on his offer.
the beach at the park
We continued North to catch MI-28 to US-41, stopping for lunch somewhere in the middle of the UP. Tailgate sandwiches taste better on road trips for some reason.
The drive continued to stretch out in front of us but we trudged along towards Twin Lakes State Park. But about 30mi from L'Anse I felt a wobble come from the front of the 715. It was fairly minor and felt like maybe I followed some ruts for a moment? I slowly released the steering wheel to check that the truck was still tracking straight. It was so I shrugged the event off for a moment. Not long after, I started to smell hot metal and then hot/burning brake material or grease. I wasn't sure which. I guessed that maybe a brake had started to drag for some reason and I checked my map. I saw that our fuel stop was in ~5mi so I decided to press on and evaluate the truck there.
We made it to the fuel stop in L'Anse and after refueling I began my vehicle inspection. I immediately noticed the front left wheel was caked in grease and VERY hot. I knew this was likely the source of my problem and likely bad... I moved the truck into a general parking spot so we could jack up the wheel and check it out. What we found, was devastating.
What I had discovered was that the "wiggle" I had felt 30mi earlier was the outer wheel bearing letting go! So now, the truck was dead in the water so to speak... in a small town in the middle of the UP... late on a Sunday evening....
We desperately called what auto parts stores we could find were open to source a bearing and found a potential fit. So McNally drove off and returned an hour later with the bearing... it didn't fit. It's now late in the evening, everything is closing, and we're trying to determine our next steps since the rest of the group was already at camp.
The group came out to support and share in my distress and keep us company in the parking lot.
It was around this time, that McNally remembered his friend's offer from the roadside park earlier in the day. He called him up and asked if any of his contacts in the Keweenaw might have the bearing that we were looking for. He put his feelers out and we were put in touch with Nate (owner of Big's Offroad). Nate told us he thought he had a bearing that would work and could be at our location in 1/2 an hour! We were ecstatic and anxiously awaited his arrival.
Nate pulled into the lot and immediately got to work helping me to free the cone from the spindle. He was able to break it free with his punch and larger hammer than what I had. We then tried his new bearing... it didn't fit either... The cone was perfect but the race was too small of an OD for the M715 hub...
It was getting late now so we grabbed diner from our parking lot hosts before they closed and made a plan. The main group would go back to camp while McNally and I would stay with the 715 for the night. Then, first thing in the morning, we would start the parts search anew and hope for the correct bearing. Nate went home ass well but not before offering to trailer teh 715 if we needed it. We thanked him for all of his efforts and hoped that we could fix it in the morning.
So we popped the tents, and slept in the parking lot in L'Anse.
