That Long Day

When ever a travel day is coming up we get into that "let's go" - mood, and it affects our waking time. So today, I was wide awake at 5am and turned on the heater. 15 minutes later I was ready dressed and muggins had the coffee water on the range.

So no wonder we got out of Dodge at 6:30am. And with such an early start you can get to places you never thought would be possible.

Rolling out of the Walmart lot, it just started sprinkling enough to make it difficult to see anything through the windshield. And the low sun wasn't making it any easier.

Eventually some clouds got in front of the sun and things got better.

We were getting around Albany,NY at 11:30am. Massachusetts was next, and it has some looong hills. Usually we go along I-295 via Worcester, but at the exit was a line-up - long as the distance to the moon, so we continued on the I-90 until we got to I-495. That's when traffic got a tad worse. Boston is always chaos.

The I-495 eventually ends and we went down the ramp to I-95. Some more bad traffic but it was getting better soon.

Our goal for the day was the New Hampshire Wine and Liquor Outlet right along the I-95. It is only a few more miles north to the State Line with Maine. And from there we have roughly 5 more hours to home.

So yes, this was a long day - 9hrs and 461 miles long.

The Destination For The Day

Over the recent couple of days I woke up knowing that I could turn around and sleep some more. 

Not so today! A faint light was visible through the roof hatch and I kinda knew, it was time to get up and get ready. Ready for another day of traveling and making another 400 miles towards home.

Breakfast was ready in a record-breaking speed and then the usual procedure continued to the point that I tried to hitch on the trailer. But this morning the hitch ball wouldn't cooperate. Even though, I got it right in place, the locking wouldn't work. After more than 30 minutes trying I just pulled the trailer out of the campsite with an unlocked hitch. As soon as I parked it along the camp road the locking went into place. Never had that happen before!

Next stop was the dump station and then we got driving. We avoided to get into the Columbus rush hour by bypassing the city via Hwy 4 through a number of small towns and villages, all which made an incredible proper and clean impression on us. I mean some places you might see run-down houses with garbage strewn around, but not in Ohio! People take pride in their properties and it shows.

So today we made to between Buffalo, NY and Rochester, NY

Yes, there are wineries in upstate New York

We Will Be Rolling Again

We got our van back! Continuing our line of communication with the GM dealer this morning, we were informed that the transmission had already been mounted in before 10am and that the mechanic was about to do the finishing underneath. At around 2pm they did a test drive and Kathy showed up at 3pm for giving me a ride to town for the pickup.

After paying our bill, I was still sitting in the van, when the service manager showed up at my window. Great, so I could thank him in person for quick and professional service.

The drive back to camp took just about 1hr. and both Dixie and Bea looked like Happy Campers.

Even though we have booked another night until wednesday in the park, we will be heading out first thing tomorrow morning. Our goal will be reaching Buffalo, NY. 

So Now What?

Weather has not been good. Rain and wind over large parts of the US didn't stop here either. The last night was loud, as the wind played his rough song in the strapping of our solar panels. But at least we didn't have to get up at 6am. It was almost 7:30 when I found Dixie still sleeping on her bed.

Checking the messages on my phone, I found one from the Chevy dealer. He needed authorization "to drop the Tranny pan" to check for metal pieces. I gave authorization to plow ahead with whatever seemed necessary. It confirmed what I already knew, the fluid was burnt, plus that metal shavings were plentiful in the bottom of the transmission. Catastrophic transmission failure!

During the afternoon we got their quote. That was some tough reading! A full replacement of the tranny would amount to $8500 minus $2000 for the core of the old transmission. A hefty bill, no doubt, but it would give me 3 yrs. of warranty or 100,000miles. The good news was that they have that transmission in stock and that they will do it on Monday. That is actually great news, as we really don't want to hang around here longer than necessary.

Tomorrow morning Kathy will come to move our trailer to the next site over as our site was already booked from Saturday. She also dropped by this morning and we got her a short list of groceries to pick up for us.

Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning our angel Kathy will drive us to Columbus to get our van back. We will be eternally thankful for her help.