Driving a Tacoma around the world

Definitely got lucky, good catch! Glad it hung in there. Any idea what caused the alignment issue?

 

Glad you're getting that sorted before something horrible happened!

 

Good idea! You must be working a night shift

 

The alignment shop was hoping that after they put a bolt on that the alignment would be ok but no such luck. Heading back there tomorrow. I'm guessing it's probably from a pothole or climbing a curb while parking. Parking on top of the sidewalk is completely acceptable here. Forcing pedestrians to walk on the street

 

no, I only do days...

 

Hopefully nothing too serious, how is your steering now?...

 

I'm heading straight down the road... tomorrow hopefully will be fixed. He (and I) couldn't see anything obvious wrong...no bent tie road, etc

 

On a lighter note, evidently this is a beer. I bought a six-pack for two USD.

 

On the top green area it reads "pevo"...beer in kirilick, Slavic languages , I was forced to learn f...russian language...I forgot most if not all...except how to read essentials...like beer

 

Some people have had it move off center without anything else being wrong. If that’s the case, there’s a bolt on the shaft inside the cab you can loosen to straighten the wheel back out.

 

Nice! Don't think it's required anymore. I was using Google translate to read the label afterwards. Works pretty well. the mechanic and I yesterday used it to have a conversation, it works just a bit slow

 

Awesome! Thanks! I'll have him check out the alignment first. Do you know if the nut is obvious?

 

Almost looks like a harvest host location. Beautiful.
Zim

 

Yeah that bolt is a separate issue. Somehow a tie rod or the steering box/rack has slipped. Good luck with the mechanic.
Zim

Did you have a difficult time on that trail where you turned the wheel very hard to the left of right? It may of spun the splines on the rack-steering column joint.
Z

 

Bulgaria does not allow wild camping unlike the Nordic countries so you have to know where it’s ok. We have been very fortunate in finding some awesome camping sites. Europe has an app called Park4nite which is crowd-sourced locations. It’s worked great for us







Here’s three of our scenic sites we’ve camped in Bulgaria over the last couple weeks. We asked permission at the monastery to camp in their parking lot. All thanks to park4nite

 

Hard to say. it could have been a couple of big potholes I hit or me climbing curbs while doing u turns or large rocks


Driving straight down the road with the steering wheel angled…


Impressed with the technology



Notice the different degrees. The drivers front was pointing to the left and the passengers front was pointing to the right.



The mechanic was awesome. Wish I could google his shop and give him a great review. But where to begin on interpreting the Cyrillic alphabet

 

Yeah it's
tow at the top
then camber
then caster
That would have caused some serious wear on the inside of the right tire. Nice work Sir.
Zim

 

Pretty easy to find yeah

 

We’ll with Thanksgiving with our niece in Germany closing in on us. We had our last night of wild camping in Bulgaria and headed to Croatia.

Adjacent to a farmers field and the border with Serbia


The Serbian border control. Close as I’m going to get snapping a photo as some places are pretty sensitive.

Even with time getting tight for us we chose to drive the four hours across the country of Serbia pretty much non-stop. We had heard that foreigners traveling being targeted. Unlike the rest of Eastern European countries who truly love/admire the USA, Serbia was bombed by NATO 25 years ago into allowing the dissolution of Yugoslavia into six independent countries-there are still hard feelings there.

We zipped over to their flagship Plitvicka National Park. limestone geology has created tons of waterfalls, lakes and caves. The water must have 50’ to 100’ of visibility.



Yes, the water is this clear everywhere. Croatia is famous for its beautiful clear ocean but if anyone thinking of going this spot is a couple hour drive from the coast


Found a good spot hidden in the trees after a hard days hike. Nights are now below freezing.

As soon as I started the truck up after fixing the alignment, the TSS sensor went on the fritz. So no stability or cruise control until London, a drive of over 1,000 miles!

 

Hopefully everything is OK, waiting for updates.