Almost Trouble

Our drive today was approximately 234 miles. We started by wandering through some very curvy hills and then cruised onto I-5, joined by a million vehicles. When we were snaking along the twisty blue highways, we were much slower than non-RV-type vehicles. Being slow does not mean that I am more relaxed. I still have to grip the wheel and keep us on the pavement. When we were on the freeways, we were much faster than through the hills, but I still had to fight the traffic and maintain our progress. It was not an easy day.  

We arrived at the Elks RV park in Merced, CA. Linda had reserved a spot for the night a few weeks ago and the park host was ready and waiting when we arrived. After signing in, Linda went for a long walk and I unwound by taking a little nap.  We played cards and had a good meal then went to bed. Funny how tired you get sitting and driving all day. We have one more day of travel before getting to Anza Borrego State Park for a few days. This is a very special park to Linda (as written about when we took our trip to Queen Valley, AZ a few years ago). We've really been looking forward to visiting there again.

The next morning we awoke to find that there was a weather advisory out for a heavy fog layer in the direction we needed to travel. Linda made a great judgment call to sleep in an extra hour and a half. This gave the fog a chance to dissipate before we hit the road. It was also nice to sleep in the extra time.

Loaded and ready we set out for another day of traveling south. Our path took us through Modesto, Fresno, and Bakersfield. Not the most scenic travel route, but it was freeway driving, straight and at a good speed.

Our night's campsite was at Los Alamos Campground at the top of a pass near Pyramid Lake. We arrived at about 2:20PM and set up the camper. As I prepared for the stay, I noticed oil on the foot of the rear driver's side camper leg. My heart started beating. I walked to the truck door and lowered myself onto the ground and spotted an oily substance dripping from the engine. This time my gut hurt and my nerves clenched. We have an oil leak!

Linda walked back from talking to the camp host. I met her with the bad news. We immediately went into emergency mode. Linda got on Google Maps and started calling repair places. After several calls, we had an inkling that we were in trouble. It was Saturday, December 21, and everyone we spoke to would be closed through the Christmas holiday. A little more desperate, Linda dialed a small repair place in Gorman. She talked to a gentleman named Alex. He said if we could drive down to him, he would be there until 4:00 PM. He would be happy to look and maybe diagnose the problem, but he wouldn't be able to work on it til Monday if it was something major. We were not too far away, so he gave us the address, and we headed to his shop. We were not optimistic even though we had just had a ton of work done and money spent to make sure all was well. But we had no choice. We couldn't continue with the way things were. We told the camp host we would have to forfeit our money because we would probably need to be in town. We told Alex we were on our way!

Gorman was a spit of a town fifteen miles back the way we had come. The truck was running fine and none of the dash lights had come on, so we drove to the repair place.

When we turned the final corner, we spotted Alex standing and waving his hands. We both sucked in our breath. The shop was nothing we were expecting. There were cars everywhere in a million stages of repair. It was quite the junkyard. Alex guided me to park on the street in front of his shop. Alex greeted me, wiped the oil off his hand, and immediately said, “Pop the hood!” He checked up under the hood and then dove under the side of the truck. “I think I found the problem,” Alex said. In 5 minutes, he figured out that it was a transmission fluid line that was loose and dripping. That transmission fluid line had been replaced before we left home. 

With a few twists, Alex tightened it up and then replaced about a quart of transmission fluid. He was very confident that that was the problem. We were so lucky. If that had come all the way off, we would have lost all our fluid and ruined our truck. We can't believe how this turned out. Linda gave Alex a huge hug (after she asked if it was ok). We asked him what we owed him. He asked for $10 for the fluid.  He didn't ask anything for his work. We gave him another $20. He was our Christmas angel 😇. All he asked was that we rate him online. He also said to call him if anything else came up or if we had questions. We thanked him profusely, wished him a happy holiday, and drove back to our campsite. We are still stunned.