Friday, January 22, 2016

A funny thing happened on the way to Seattle

It's odd how things can change on a dime, as the saying goes. One minute you're driving your truck along, whistling a tune (doubtful, I hate whistling), the next moment you're off to the side of the freeway, halfway to Seattle, wondering what made the loud 'clunk' under the truck, and why reverse and most forward gears don't work.

Now I sit in the lobby of a hotel, waiting for the dutiful oldest daughter to drive the 250 miles to pick up her stranded father. It's 6pm, and thus far the trip has, as the saying goes, exceeded expectations. Maybe 'exceeded' isn't exactly the word. I expect to get to Seattle around 2am.

Wednesday I'll be back over here, to finish the drive with a new transmission.

I'll see how the rest of this trip goes, I'm not ready to give up on it yet.

18 comments:

  1. I hate transmissions. I've lost a couple in my life.

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  2. Don't give up the trip, Mike. I've known men who've had too many busted transmissions and they get a strange far-away look in their eyes and spit tobacco. You don't fit the profile. Rest of the journey will go fine.

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    1. Not sure about the Red Man or Copenhagen, but listening to Palin makes my eyes glaze over.

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  3. Bad luck is better than no luck.

    Steve

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  4. Hang in there--I've lost one transmission on a trip through the desert and it ain't fun.

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    1. At least the truck had the decency to break down near a gas station and resources.

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  5. By now, your ride has arrived and you are in sunny Seattle...or rainy Seattle...or cloudy Seattle...you know what I mean.

    By the way, we got your snow. I'll pack it up and return it to Butte - just as soon as I can figure out which pile of the stuff is hiding my back steps so I can get outside.

    Thank goodness you weren't hurt when the transmission failed.

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    1. It turned out that the main route back to Seattle, Snoqualime Pass was closed, so we had to detour north to Steven's Pass over the Cascades, getting to Seattle at 5am. The trip took nearly 8 hours instead of the usual 4.

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  6. Yup, losing one's transmission is a painful and expensive proposition. For who knows what reason I used to drive Dodges and I think I've lost two transmissions. Damnable cars. Good luck with the rest of your trip.

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    1. I must say this one's lasted a long time, and it's given my warning, to be fair.

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  7. Well, this is life and are you not glad you have someone to come help!!

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    1. You have no idea on how much help i've had, yes I'm lucky indeed.

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  8. Thank goodness. As the old saying goes: All's well that ends well.

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  9. Treat it like one of those road movies (The Straight Story; The Worlds Fastest Indian) and go "zen". Enjoy the resulting encounters.
    Riding old motorcycles, as I do, there are quite a few breakdowns and treated that way it's part of the fun!
    (found you via Crow)

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