If you received our snailmail newsletter, then you know I was planning another trip (by truck) to São Paulo to pick up an airplane motor. This is the rainy season so not the best road conditions, but after much prayer and consul we decided to go for it. Again, I took Scott, my missionary friend, who has made this trip with me already 3 times. Also, Paul (a fellow missionary pilot/mechanic) that we met in Campinas went along to help do a pre-buy inspection on the motor. We left Saturday morning around 4am and drove 3 days. We thought we were going to drive straight through, but I guess we are getting older because we stopped someplace every night. Granted, one night we got to bed at 1am and were on the road before 7am. We arrived in Marilia, Sao Paulo on Monday night. Tuesday we spent inspecting the motor and getting it ready for transport.

Only a couple of farm boys from the midwest could come up with this method of securing it. We took a used tire, cut out sections of it so it would fit over the bottom of the motor. Then took some wood and made a frame under the tire so it wouldn’t bottom out on the ruts. Everything checked out fine and we started home. We were on the last stretch when (4 hours from home) a pin broke on the front wheel and the whole wheel fell off. We were stuck out in the middle of the forest. Scott caught a ride back to town, we got a tow truck. They said they could fix it, but didn’t have the parts. So we took a taxi back to Santarém and then a couple days later I took Scott back on the motorcyle to get his truck. Following is the trip in pictures. Also a short video that Paul made of the trip (here). 

Motor packed.

One of the many stuck trucks.

Yep, it’s muddy out there.

Photos of the breakdown.