Eventually, we got through that, as well. We were making decent time, within 35 or so miles and about 40 minutes to our destination (an Air Force reunion with the guys that Joe hung out with when he served starting in the late 70s). As we climbed a hill, the truck started to sound odd. At first, Joe thought it might be the header again, but it was misfiring and throwing codes that were flashing.(Even I knew THAT couldn't be good!)
So, Joe pulled off to the side of the highway, between an on-ramp and the highway itself. Within 5 minutes, as Joe took out his SuperChips computer to determine what the codes meant, there was a pickup pulled over that asked if we were okay. Right behind him, a K-9 police car pulled up. A very intense young officer got out and asked if Joe had dealt with this before and if we could get on the road. Joe said that he was checking the codes and couldn't tell what they meant yet. The officer asked the guy in the pickup if he knew us. We said that he just pulled over to help. The guy said that if we had everything under control, he would take off, and he did. Kind of him to stop, though. The police officer waited for a bit, until Joe fired up the truck and I got in. Before he left, Joe told him that we would pull off at the next exit.
Of course, Joe didn't intend to pull off at the next exit, he intended to make it to the reunion and see if we could get help there. The worst part about all of this was the stop signs. When we were idling, the engine wanted to die. If the person in front of us didn't move when the light turned green, Joe had to rev the engine to keep it alive until we could move. It was a VERY LONG half an hour. We arrived at our host's house, and had to back the trailer into the sloping driveway, but I didn't have to direct Joe, because the Air Force bunch was there to do it. Whew- we made it off the high way to a safe stopping point.
The guys all hugged, wives were introduced, and restrooms were indicated. Koen immediately joined two other boys on the Wii. Kira hung around with them, too. The oldest of that family was 16, so he had earbuds in and was doing his own thing. These are a really nice group of people; it was obvious that the men had a connection that was enduring. If you didn't know otherwise, you would have figured they met and spoke on a regular basis. They don't, though. They have spoken frequently on Facebook, through which they set up the reunion, but most haven't seen each other for over 20 years. Joe had spoken with our host, Leon W. on the phone on the way up and went to John P. to hike the Grand Canyon. There were laughs and stories in abundance.
At one point, the guys all went out to look at the truck.
Some of them just looked, but a couple actually knew something about engines. Leon is good friends with the sales manager of a Chevy dealer in the village of Goshen (who lives up the street.) Paul(the sales manager), who stopped to partake of some of the plethora of food on his way back from Myrtle Beach, recommended a mechanic just down the street, but of course, being a Saturday evening, we couldn't do anything about checking the repairs. The guys stayed up late talking- in fact, Joe said they went to bed around 3:45 in the morning.
The next day, everyone else headed back home after breakfast. Of course, we couldn't leave yet. Donna W., our hostess, taught Kira the game Bananagrams. It is similar to Scrabble, but with no board. Each person creates their own collection of words and the goal is to finish using all the tiles, completing words, first. In fact, the whole family ended up playing it. I will have to find it when we get more mobile.
Monday morning, Joe and Leon took the truck to the mechanic’s place. Then Leon headed off to New Jersey for work. Donna had a golf scramble tournament that she ended up playing in the rain. Joe, the kids and I ended up sitting by ourselves, in their house, waiting for news from the mechanic. At 11:00, he called, said that he was the only mechanic on site, and of course, everyone and their brother needed his work this week, so he wouldn’t be able to work on the truck. (He was pretty sure that it was an injector leaking onto the plenum. And no, I don’t know what that means!) He suggested that we call the dealership and see if they could get it in sooner.
So we did. The dealership service department said that if we could get it in there, they would look at it. Off we went to the mechanic to get the truck, drive it to Goshen in the pouring rain, and hope they could find a solution. They did get it in right away. We had ice cream at Carvel, which Donna's sister owns. They have GREAT ice cream! Lauren, Donna's daughter works there when she is home from UMASS. Anyway, the service guy told Joe that they didn't think it was the injector. They said that when they pressure tested one cylinder, the air came out of another one, which indicated to them that the engine block was cracked. They could fix the head, but they said there was no guarantee that the new head would hold in the old engine block. So, their recommendation was a complete engine replacement. It would be $4850 for the engine replacement- but they didn't have one in, so it would be an additional $400 to have one overnighted, so we could get it in time to have it installed by Thursday or Friday. Well, swell, huh?!?
Joe talked to a bunch of his friends about it- and the original mechanic who had said that it was an injector. They all said that the whole thing sounded a bit fishy. One of them suggested that Joe actually looked at the engine, when they had it out, to see this crack. He called the service department back, and they said that they would do that, but now, since an hour had passed, they wouldn't be able to get it in until Monday. (Holy moley- really? We were talking about renting a car and getting a hotel room, so we wouldn't abuse the welcome of our host and hostess. (They both said that we would do no such thing. We were welcome to stay as long as we needed to, until the truck thing was figured out. They are some of the nicest people we have met on this trip! I felt that before the whole truck thing happened- and that just reinforced it.))
Then, half an hour later, the service guy called back and said that they would send a driver to Michigan to get the engine, so we wouldn't have to pay the shipping costs, and they would also take off some money for something else, so we were back under $5000 to get the engine replaced. They can also get it done by Thursday, they think. It made me sick to my stomach to think about it all. Joe's stomach was freaking, too. The ice cream helped a bit, but the whole thing is just nauseating. We haven't been able to speak with the service department today, so no idea how far the work has progressed.
Instead, we made lemonade. We went to High Point State Park, in New Jersey, to see the monument there, look at New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, all at the same time.
We then swam in the lake that is in the middle of the park. As we were swimming, Kira started having an aura on one side of her face and complaining that her head ached. We started packing up, changing clothes and getting ready to head out. She started getting worse- so we headed to a store as soon as possible to get her some ibuprofen. We also stayed in the air conditioning, used peas as an ice pack and attempted to get her head to calm down. She was not making sense when she spoke, much like Joe does when he gets migraines. When we got back to the house, she used the bathroom and then vomited all the meds back up. sigh. So, we tried Tylenol and she laid down in the dark. She is currently suffering the after-effects of the migraine, but seems to be doing much better in terms of pain.
Leon is on the phone with Joe right now, giving him an idea of what we can do tomorrow, so we don't just sit and stress about the truck.
Yesterday, when Donna got back from her miserable golfing tournament, she played Farkel with us. Like I said, really great people.
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