Friday, January 16, 2004
Made it!
Yay, we're here safe and sound in Denver!
This almost didn't happen. First, we had one of those good news/bad news deals when we went to pick Dreamcloud up from Rick the Car Doctor. His U-joint is fine and dandy, the U-joint of a vehicle half his mileage. BUT his drive line is bent or warped or something. Not enough to make him undriveable, but it puts a semi pricey repair (probably $300-400) in his future.
Also, while they were puttering around today, Rick happened to notice the fuel filter looked like it had NEVER been changed out (still had original factory undercoating on it!). Hmm, 74,000 miles on one filter--is that a world's record or anything?
No matter. We loaded up, got gas, and headed out into the twilight. Got about 5 miles out of town--and the CHECK ENGINE light came on!!
Naturally I calmly pulled into the abandoned KOA and quietly freaked out. And also chickened out. I just could not bring myself to say the heck with it and go anyway. The Stock Show runs through next weekend, after all... Mike was as unhappy as I was, but he is a trooper when the chips are down. He was actually trying to console ME.
Then I had an idea. It was only about 5:15. MAYBE Rick and the guys were still at the shop!
Sure enough. The office was shut and Rick was gone, but three of the mechanics hadn't yet escaped from the garage.
Here again is where Rick et al RULE! Despite being technically closed and mentally halfway home, they insisted on hooking up the computerized monitor to find out what the little glowing light was trying to tell us.
Good news/uncertain news! It was only the emissions chip suddenly having a fit of the vapours. So THAT might need replacing next week too, BUT we felt safe in resuming our trip to Denver.
It was, apart from the odd incident of finding a cell phone in the ladies' room at Arby's, the turning in of which caused the manager and both counter persons to inexplicably ditch their duties and go pelting out into the parking lot, a blessedly uneventful trip. And in a few minutes I am going to be blissfully asleep.
This almost didn't happen. First, we had one of those good news/bad news deals when we went to pick Dreamcloud up from Rick the Car Doctor. His U-joint is fine and dandy, the U-joint of a vehicle half his mileage. BUT his drive line is bent or warped or something. Not enough to make him undriveable, but it puts a semi pricey repair (probably $300-400) in his future.
Also, while they were puttering around today, Rick happened to notice the fuel filter looked like it had NEVER been changed out (still had original factory undercoating on it!). Hmm, 74,000 miles on one filter--is that a world's record or anything?
No matter. We loaded up, got gas, and headed out into the twilight. Got about 5 miles out of town--and the CHECK ENGINE light came on!!
Naturally I calmly pulled into the abandoned KOA and quietly freaked out. And also chickened out. I just could not bring myself to say the heck with it and go anyway. The Stock Show runs through next weekend, after all... Mike was as unhappy as I was, but he is a trooper when the chips are down. He was actually trying to console ME.
Then I had an idea. It was only about 5:15. MAYBE Rick and the guys were still at the shop!
Sure enough. The office was shut and Rick was gone, but three of the mechanics hadn't yet escaped from the garage.
Here again is where Rick et al RULE! Despite being technically closed and mentally halfway home, they insisted on hooking up the computerized monitor to find out what the little glowing light was trying to tell us.
Good news/uncertain news! It was only the emissions chip suddenly having a fit of the vapours. So THAT might need replacing next week too, BUT we felt safe in resuming our trip to Denver.
It was, apart from the odd incident of finding a cell phone in the ladies' room at Arby's, the turning in of which caused the manager and both counter persons to inexplicably ditch their duties and go pelting out into the parking lot, a blessedly uneventful trip. And in a few minutes I am going to be blissfully asleep.
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