Day 8: Even Old Hippies Need Love

Well the day started by dropping Jeff off with Taskar. I arrived right as they were opening up the shop and Taskar himself greeted me. Taskar was a large man who exuded confidence, warmness, and just a bit of the good ole boy vibe. His thick Russian accent only added to the confidence I had in him. I explained my issues as well as my time restraints and his only response was “key?”. He told me that getting the parts could take a few days, but he personally was undertaking the mission of getting Jeff back to road trip status.

So I hopped in an uber and off I went to adventure in Seattle. I headed down to Pikes Place Market.

One of the first things I noticed is that the sticker vandal is still following me. That being said there were stickers all over the city, so I think it just must be a thing around here.

My first stop was the original Starbucks. Yes I decided to forgo my usual green tea and oatmeal for Starbucks this morning, but when in Rome…

After getting my breakfast I spent the next few hours exploring the market. This place is a labyrinth of stalls. The street level is set up like a farmers market. Lots of fresh fish, produce, baked goods, and a few small artists stalls. This part of the market was alive and vibrant at 8:45 in the morning. The lower two levels though were not. They were set up more like a mall. Lots of small stores that didn’t open until 11. Most of these shops were artists and dealers of various collectibles.

As I was walking around the lower levels of the market I got a phone call from the lovely young lady who was behind the desk at Taskar’s. They had found all of the parts and we’re going to do the work today! I could pick it up after 4pm. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement. I mean I thought I might be stuck in Seattle for days and they found the parts and bumped me up in line to get me back on my trip. Taskar was living up to his reputation.

At any rate, after browsing the market I decided to head towards Utilikilt. Their shop was only a few blocks away, and I was in desperate need of a spare kilt or two.

As I walked I ran across an older homeless gentleman with a sign that read, “Even old Hippies need love”. I immediately felt a connection to this guy. I mean my old Jeep needed a little love that I thought I would have trouble finding and I found it. So I passed my good fortune on and give the guy a twenty, because being old is no reason to not get a little love from the world. I really wish I had gotten a picture with him though…

Well I made it to Utilikilt. I spent about an hour browsing and chatting with the clerk. He was fascinated by my adventures and is actually thinking about getting an old Jeep. I of course encouraged this idea. I also sent the store some photos of me in my kilt on various adventures for them to put into their slide show. Who knows, maybe they will like my adventures enough to give me a plug on their Facebook… maybe not, but a guy can hope.

If not, oh-well, I still walked out of there with a new kilt, a 2 inch leather belt, and another kilt on order that will be getting shipped home when it’s done. A successful trip to say the least.

I then headed back to the market. There was an artist there by the name of Dave Ryan who wasn’t open on my first lap, but he does this great blend of pop culture paintings and prints that I just had to get one. I arrived right as he was returning from a coffee run or something similar. We started chatting and by the end of our conversation I was the proud owner of three paintings and he was looking up amanajeepnorealplan.com. The paintings I bought are amazing. One was a police officer giving a land speeder a parking ticket on Tatooine, one was the Tardis in the middle of a forest, and the last one was Captain Picard shrugging. He has work for sale on Etsy if you want to check him out. Dave Ryan POP Art

As I was walking out I was approached by a group of kids. They were doing a scavenger hunt and one of their items was a man in a kilt. They asked if they could take a picture of me, and I told them only if I could have one with them as well. I handed their chaperone one of my business cards and told him I was on a scavenger hunt of my own. I may be taking this whole shameless promotion thing pretty seriously. Haha

Next up I headed towards the Space Needle. I however had no intentions of going up in it. It’s a great view and I highly recommend it, I’ve just done it a few times before and if I am going to be wasting money, I would rather do it on things I haven’t done before. Like the Museum of Pop, also known as MoPop.

MoPop is amazing guys. They currently have exhibits on Nirvana, Jimmy Hendrix, Video game developers, Horror films, Sci-fi films, Fantasy films, Marvel Comics, and one of the largest video walls I’ve seen playing music videos. This place was amazing.

Unfortunately while I was enjoying MoPop, Taskar called. They were not going to be able to fix Jeff. Apparently a previous owner had welded the shocks on instead of bolting them, and Taskar doesn’t deal with welding. Also one of the bolts on the spring was going to have to be cut off, so he decided to put it all back together and send me on my way. I was devastated.

Here I am, over 2000 miles from home, trying to basically live out of my jeep and it’s in bad enough shape that a shop is declining to service it. A good shop like Taskars at that. There was a brief moment when I thought my adventures with Jeff might be coming to an end.

That’s when I reached out to Andy. Andy is a friend of a friend who helped me find Taskar. I told him the situation and he asked around and found a shop that was willing to go down the rabbit hole and fix jeff. Only catch is that they can’t start work till Friday… They told me to swing by so they can take a peek and make sure they can help me out.

So I went and picked up the jeep from Taskar. He was visibly unhappy that he couldn’t help me out. He refused to let me pay him for his time, and gave me a discount when I asked about buying just the parts. Taskar May not have been able to help me, but he did go above and beyond as far as I am concerned. So if you ever are in Seattle and looking for a mechanic, he is an excellent choice.

So I took the jeep to the next shop. The guy crawled under looked around and confirmed that they could do the work, but it’ll be Friday before they can start. I told him that I was going to check around to see if anyone can get me in sooner, but that I was thrilled to know someone was willing to take care of me and my old Jeep no matter what.

I spent the rest of the evening looking up shops to try tomorrow and hanging out with the friends I am staying with. Actually to be 100% honest 2 of the 3 of us were passed out in the living room by 8pm… it’s been a long day. Now to get some rest, and see what Seattle has in store for me tomorrow!

Daily Scavenger Hunt score: 0

Total score to date: 12 Do you want to be emailed every time I post something new? sign up for email notifications here: