It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Between all the fun stuff that 
Let's get back to the trailer though. During the Winter we store our trailer at my parents house. They have a nice little spot on the side of their garage where their trailer used to sit when they weren't using it. Now that they no longer have one, we have taken over the parking spot. The ground tends to get a little mushy over there with the Spring rain though, so I usually have to wait a little bit before I can get it home.
Once I get the trailer home, the first order of business is pulling the wheels apart to clean the bearings, inspect them for damage, and then re-grease them and put it all back together. I've written posts about it in the past if you are interested in going back and looking for them.
Usually things go pretty smoothly and I have the process down to the point where I can do a wheel in about twenty to thirty minutes. On a two axle trailer that means it takes me about two hours to get the job done. This year, as I was pulling apart the second to the last wheel, I noticed this little mark on the bearing you see in the photos. At first I thought it was just some extra grease that I didn't get cleaned off with the diesel fuel.
I rubbed it a few more times and used my old toothbrush to scrub away at it, but the mark wasn't coming off.
You might think it doesn't look like much, but as I was looking at it I remembered that I have a couple spare bearings that I keep in my truck just in case, so out of an abundance of caution, I decided to replace it. With the new bearing in place, I just had to do the last wheel and I was finished up. Bearings aren't that expensive, so as long as you don't have to replace the race that it sets into, it's not too big of a deal to swap them out.
However, things like this are the main reason that I do this each year. A lot of newer trailers have an EZ Lube feature where you just pull a cap off and you squirt some grease into the hub and you go about your merry way. If you aren't pulling them apart and inspecting them, things like this can get missed and cause you bigger headaches down the road (pun intended).
For a job well done, I decided to treat myself, so right before I started the last wheel I fired up the Weber Kettle and threw some wings on.
They turned out fantastic, probably one of my best cooks yet with wings. The skin was nice and crispy without being deep fried and the flavor was totally on point. I have been buying some rubs from Dizzy Pig seasonings lately and this one in particular was called Tsunami Spin. It's an Asian inspired rub that has a nice sweet and savory flavor with just a bit of heat.
When you take away the cost of the rub, the wings were less than $3 per pound, so when you figure I bought about 2.5 pounds of wings the total cost for this cook was about $10. I should also point out, those 2.5 pounds of wings were enough for me to get three meals out of it. Yes, I could have eaten them all in one night, but I tried to exert a bit of self control. It was hard given how amazing they were.
If
Along with my wings, I cracked open this bottle of bourbon that I picked up when we were over in Grand Rapids the weekend before. I've seen ads for Wilderness Trail in the past, but I have never tried it before now. It was deliciously smokey and for the $50 to $60 USD price point it is a really good bourbon. I'd totally buy a bottle of this again. If I were the sort of person who kept a constant stock of specific brands, this would probably be one of them.
If you ever get the chance to try it out, I highly recommend it. If I ever make it back down to Kentucky, I am going to make a point of visiting their facility.
Believe it or not, that's only a fraction of the stuff we have been doing lately. Check back for more excitement and fun with my wife and I!
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or
