Roasted Rodent

While we were in Las Vegas, the pickup smelled hot.  All the gauges looked good, fluid levels were good, but there was an overwhelming smell of burning rubber.  Today, driving around Tucson, we got a whiff of the same smell.  It was not as strong, but we kept picking it up faintly.  So, we drove over to Watson Chevrolet and asked our favorite service advisor to smell the truck.  He popped the hood of the truck and told us we'd been visited by a packrat. See the darker gray areas on the engine pieces?  Those are little packrat feet.

 

See the foot print?

 

Here we have chewed up foam in the engine.

 

Rat poop in the engine.

 

The theory is that while we were in Europe, a packrat got in the engine of the truck and hid out there.  While we were in Las Vegas driving, the rat got on something hot and fried.  We can't figure out why it didn't cook in Oregon, but a roasting rat would explain the odor we smelled in Las Vegas.  Hopefully it's the same rat that chewed up my mountain bike handlebar grips while we were gone.  Paybacks are a bitch.
So, that was the entertainment for today.