the trip back home

you don;t want to break down out hereAdd caption



BACK HOME IN AZ<Add caption



Well folks it was quite an adventure, the trip back to AZ I mean, it all started off pretty good until I got as far as a little west of San Antonio, Texas, then the fun began, the old Dodge started running hot pulling the hills, and it just got progressively worse, now what??she kept over heating and loosing water, this is no good, I had used all my extra water and the motor was as hot as a pistol, so I seen a spot off interstate 10 that I could get off the hyway and on to the service road, this is much safer, so I coasted down the service road with the engine off and finially came to a stop, now what, hyway 10 is about 100 yards away up a steep hill and I see no house's or anything, I'm in the middle of noware, great I say, just then I hear a MOO and I look off to my right and there's a cow looking at me, he or she I don't know which is calling me over, saying there's a water trough right here if you need some water, and so there was, just how much luck is there, I climed over the fence, keeping an eye on the cow but she just stood there watching me, over to the trough I go and sure enough its full of nice clean water, HOORAY. I go back get my water jugs and fill them, thank the cow and go back and fill the radiator and I'm off and running again, but not for long, by the time I get to the next exit she's hot again, so I called my ever faithfull daughter and told her my delemia, I had pulled off in Comfort, Texas, is their any hope for me!! Rox tells me there's a Comfort truck repair just south of town, its 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday and not much hope of getting anything done now, so I head over there and low and behold it looks like my kinda place, junk trucks and all kinds of old crap laying around, I pull in thinking I'll stay the night and when they open in the morning maybe they can help figure out what's wrong. Well I didn't have to wait till morning as he was open, he lives there and came out when he herd me pull in, and what a great guy Mitch is, loved the Dodge, we tilted the hood and got right at it, the prognoces was not to good tho, maybe head gasket gone and leaking water into a cylinder, not good at all, my heart sank and here I sit with 750 miles to go, BUMMER!!! What do I do now?? Mitch is possitive tho, says Cummins are tough engines and there's still hope for me but I have to wait till morning till NAPA opens up so I can get a jar of miricale engine block fix, what's that I say, he says its pretty new space age stuff that the people in Holland are using on their dikes, just kidding, It'll plug a hole the size of a quarter it 15 minites, he doesn't think the leak is all that bad and is sure it can be fixed with this stuff. He thinks the thermostat stuck closed and caused all the problems in the first place. better to remove the thermostat and drill some holes in it to let the water pass thru and leave it like that. He says I can take a shower there and by now its like 6PM and I'm starving, no problem he says, take my pickup into town and get some chow and that's what I do, a nice cold beer and and good Texas burger does the trick. The next morning I take out the thermostat, drill holes in it, put it back, use his truck again, go to NAPA get the good stuff, pour it in, let it idle 15 minutes like the bottle says and thank Mitch for everything, which by the way he refused to take any money, he bid me a safe trip and wished me luck and off I went, by Mitch and many thanks. I went about 30 miles and checked the water and it was about a gallon low, now I'm a little worried again, I add the gallon and off I go again, the tempiture is staying OK tho so there's still hope, another 50 miles and I stop at a truck stop and check the water again, its full, DOUBLE HOORAY, I'm a happy camper. While I hd the hood tilted at the truck stop a guy in a cooks uniform comes over say's what's wrong, I tell him the story and he says I'm a lucky guy and we start talking about other things and I happen to mention I burn vevatable oil in the Dodge, he say's do I need any? of coarse I do, I can always use some, he says there's about 30 or 40 gallons in the tank out back and its mine if I want it, TRIPLE HOORAY Out back I go and sure enough it great stuff and I take it all, now I know I have more than enough to make it all the way back to AZ, As it turns out the rest of the trip was uneventful, thank god and I'm back home and safe, The whole trip from here to Florida and back to Arizona cost me a mere $95 in fuel, QUADRUIPLE HOORAY, not bad at all. I want to thank my daughter Roxanne for all her help and her comforting talks while I was feeling mighty low there for awhile, thanks Rox your the best daughter a guy could have, I love you.