The Fix

It's been awhile since I last posted. My buggy was down for a day or two but is now repaired. On the suggestion of my wise father I decided to rebuild the broken brace from scratch. Complete with tenon joints, the same type of wood and I'm still trying to match the stain. In an effort to get it back on the circuit I worked a late Saturday evening and had it ready to assemble for use on Sunday afternoon.

I took it for another quick trip to make sure it would work and then loaded up the whole family and off we went. Isaiah was a little nervous about riding in the back. Luke was oblivious to it all and Jen held Savannah on the seat next to me.

One minor but important detail was still left unresolved. The quarter straps that keep the buggy from running up onto Dan won't stay tight around the shavs and therefore require the use of the brake to keep it from running Dan over going down hill. This can be tricky while driving with one hand, holding on to a squirmy Luke with another and trying to apply the brake with a.... some thing's gotta give...what a buggy ride. We made it fine until we passed by the Hazard's and saw my buddy Scot outside his house. I drove up his steep driveway without considering the fact that we'd have to come back down. After all this was an opportunity to show off the new rig. My wife probably uttered some words of hessitation...caution...etc...but I wasn't listening. We had a nice talk with Scot, then I turned the buggy around and saw the steep decline which was cemented this past spring. Nothing like having your most precious cargo loaded on an old relic buggy with limited braking power going down a roughly 9% grade... You guessed it...Jen suggested she and the boys and Savannah get off and they'd walk down the hill. She handed Savannah to Scot and off they all went. I nervously looked down the hill and thought to myself, "Self, what are we doing here?" No time for hesitation now, down we went. It wasn't that bad. With less overall mass in gravity's favor, we did just fine. I rode the brake and Dan did great. At the bottom of the drive we reloaded and off we went. As we went down hills Dan's natural reaction to get the buggy off of his rear end was to try to out run it. This was fine with Luke and me (remember he was oblivious) I thought I can drive him as fast as he can run, but to Isaiah and white knuckled Jennifer it was...well...sort of a buggy ride! A little uncomfortable at that. We all made it home fine and it was really a good time. I took pictures of the fix I made on the buggy. I've made a few modifications since these photos to strengthen the brace and to eliminate the running over aspect of the hills. My brilliant father made some rings that we attached to the shavs to secure the quarter straps too. I haven't yet tried them out as Dan is a bit sore from his injured leg. I hope to get him back out on the buggy trail again this week if he's feeling up to it. The weather is absolutely perfect for buggy rides.