Team Twin-Snail
Before the Stage
An icy silence could be felt from Team Twin-Snail as they packed their supplies into the car. Linda sat in the back seat while everyone else packed up food, finished topping up fluids, and checking for leaks in unusual places.
“Thanks for helping, Linda.” Amy said with an icy tone. “Broke our radio and then sits in the car while everyone else is finding something to do.”
Scott and Luke got into the car, then headed out to the starting line. As they waited at the starting line, Scott leaned forward and hit the switch to drop the top. The electric motor whined quietly as the top folded away, and the rear cover clicked into place again.
Day 1, Leg 10
Luke started off on the road, letting Amy navigate while they blasted down the old backroads, the only sound in the car being the growling of the engine. They noticed a few people had lined up to watch, which made sense as, with all the zig-zagging roads, word would spread quickly about there being some sort of race going on.
He weaved around potholes, trying to keep the speed up as the silence in the car grew deafening.
“I said I’m sorry.” Linda said, trying to break the silence.
“I said I don’t care.” Amy replied. “You trashed the radio out of spite. There’s headphones in the trunk, you’ve got a cell phone, you could have listened to your music and not bothered anyone else. Instead, you ruined it for everyone here. We’ve still got another day to go, and no music to go with it.”
They kept their fast pace to Hainsey, where Luke parked the car.
Day 1, Leg 10 Aftermath
Once they’d parked the car, Team Twin-Snail went about the usual process by now of checking the transmission for leaks, topping up fluids that needed topping up, and in the case of Scott, working with Luke to try to restore some radio functionality, even if it was minimal.
“I’ve got an idea.” Luke said, before grabbing for the rat’s nest of wires. “We know this part worked. All it’s doing is feeding an analog signal to the 8-track player’s read head. The tape player was working the same way, just with a cassette instead of an 8-track. That half’s fine. If we-”
“If we intercept the signal, feed it straight to the 8-track instead, bypassing the middle-man, we could have sound. It’s tricky, but it might work. It broke off, yes, but it left the important bits in the 8-track player. Let’s pull apart the false cassette and see what we can come up with.” Scott said.
Amy was busy sorting supplies in the trunk while Linda sat in a folding chair not far from the car. “Linda, get off your ass and start helping me with this god-damn grill. You’re the only one here not doing anything right now, you might as well learn how to cook on a grill.”
“We don’t have time for charcoal, though.” Linda said.
“I’m not using charcoal. This car’s got old-school catalytic converters and got driven hard. I stuck some ceramic bricks on top of the converters, should still be hot enough to cook with. Take these tongs, grab the big white block on top of the metal cans, and slide it backwards. Don’t touch them with your hands, they’re stupidly hot.” Amy said, handing over a set of tongs.
Linda reached under the car and removed the two ceramic bricks, setting them in the grill for Amy to use. “Now we’ve got heat for the grill, which means we can cook something, because Scott’s working with Luke on that radio, and he’s going to want something to eat once they’re done playing with the wiring.” Amy said.
“We’re not playing, we’re bypassing the cassette adapter into the 8 track deck.” Scott said.
“I’m not going to pretend to know what the hell you two are up to. All I know is you’re doing something to try making it possible to play music.” Amy replied. “Geez, what reeks?”
“Burning the dust off of my soldering iron so we can make better connections.” Luke said, before they put a bit of heat shrink over the wires and he made the first connection.
“Thought Scott farted for a moment there.” Linda said, trying not to laugh.
“No, but I have to, and I’m being nice and holding it for a bit so that I can let it off away from the car.”
After a couple more wires were spliced together, soldered, and heat-wrapped, Luke took a bit of the old casing and adapted it to fit an audio jack and into the slot, making a flush-mounted audio kit for the car. He then grabbed a spare 3.5mm audio cable and hooked Scott’s phone to the radio, and for the first time in a few hours, the sound of Metallica blared out of the speakers.
Car Condition:
Trans fluid leak is at least not getting any worse. Radio is repaired, though the sound signal is a little lacking in power. Still, it’s music, and while it’s requiring more radio power to make the same volume, it’s working. Fluids are all topped up. Top is retracted, but Luke knows how to put it back up quickly now.
Team Condition:
MRL +3 overall. Feeling better now that there’s music. Currently enjoying bratwurst on a ceramic-heated grill. Glad that the Sinistra’s seats are halfway comfortable, and that Scott has music on his phone.
)