February 5, 2006

February 5, 2006

La Feria, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 233

 

Today was sunny, warm, and very windy.

I got up early this morning to feed Teddy and walk Bo, then I went back to sleep for a couple more hours. When I got up the second time, I made us a huge omelette brunch, necessitated by Joanne dropping a dozen eggs last night. We took Bo for an obedience training walk, and bought today's newspaper. I cleaned the barbecue. I composed some e-mail. I got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, and updated my blog. I practiced my new magic. It's getting better. We spent most of the day lazing around, reading the newspaper.

We decided to go out for dinner. Today was the Super Bowl football game, which we're not interested in. We thought it would be a good day to go out for supper, as the roads and the restaurants would likely be empty. Joanne had a coupon for a barbecue restaurant in San Benito she wanted to go to. We drove east on Hwy. 83 about 8 miles to Harlingen, then about the same distance south on Hwy. 77 to San Benito. With a bit of difficulty we found the restaurant in San Benito. It was a dump, and I didn't want to eat there. We drove back to Harlingen, and decided to eat at Cici's, a pizza buffet chain restaurant. We had a nice dinner at Cici's. When we left Cici's, I decided I wanted to stop at Wal-Mart nearby to get a money order. We stopped at Wal-Mart, and I got the money order I needed, to send to SKP Kofa Ko-op in Yuma, Arizona, as a deposit to get on the waiting list for a lot in their park. Their waiting list is approximately 8 years long.

As we pulled out of the Wal-Mart parking lot, Dee-Dee died. Just stalled ! I tried and tried to get the truck restarted. It wouldn't start. Finally, it started. We drove a couple more blocks, and it died again. Tried and tried to restart it ... no luck. It wasn't a starter problem. It wasn't a battery problem. It seemed to be a fuel problem. We weren't out of fuel. Just to be certain, I poured the 2 gallons of emergency diesel into the tank. Tried and tried to restart. Occasionally, it would start, and run for 30 seconds or a minute, then stall. I removed the turbo charger engine cover, and opened the bleed valve on top of the fuel filter canister. Joanne turned the key. Diesel came out the bleed valve. Okay. I removed the entire fuel filter canister. Joanne turned the key. The fuel pump pumped diesel out. Okay. We' re not out of fuel. Thefuel pump is working. The fuel filter doesn't appear to be clogged or dirty. I just changed it in Yuma less than 2 months ago. There was nothing more I could do but phone for a tow truck.

Very disappointed, I walked a block back to a Wendy's restaurant to use their phone. We didn't have our phone with us. I was disappointed that I was finally going to have use Emergency Roadside Assistance. I was telling Joanne just today that I was proud of my self sufficiency over the last year and a half on the road. I hadn't yet encountered a problem that I couldn't deal with on my own, that required me to phone Emergency Roadside Assistance. I borrowed a phone from the manager of the Wendy's and phoned Emergency Roadside Assistance. They were reasonably quick and efficient, and said the tow truck service they were dispatching would be there in 90 minutes. Gee, I thought that seemed like a long time for a tow truck on a Sunday evening in a medium sized city. I returned to the truck to wait.

A police officer stopped to offer assistance. I didn't need his help, but we chatted for awhile until he had to respond to a call. Occasionally, I would try restarting the truck. It would restart, then die after a minute or two. There is a sensor to detect water in the diesel fuel, and a dash light to indicate water in fuel, if that's the problem. The water in fuel light wasn't on, but I remembered that there are instructions in the owner's manual on how to purge the fuel system of water, if that's the problem. Following the owner's manual instructions, I purged the fuel system, to get rid of any water that may have been in the fuel. No change. Truck wouldn't start. If and when it did, it would stall in a minute. It was amazing how many cars would pull right up to my rear bumper, and sit there for fairly long periods of time, ignoring the fact that the emergency flashers were on, and the hood was raised.

After waiting for 2 hours, I stomped back to the Wendy's to phone Emergency Roadside Assistance again. Their phone system put me into the queue, waiting for an attendant to answer. I stood there in the Wendy's restaurant, with their phone pasted to my ear, for 40 minutes, waiting for the next available attendant. I was pissed off ! ! ! Finally, I saw the tow truck arrive. I hung up, and returned the restaurant's phone to the manager. I stomped back to the truck. Joanne was explaining to the tow truck driver that we wanted the truck to be towed to Knapp Chevrolet, about 2 miles west, then we wanted to be taken back to La Feria, about another 5 miles west. He was just in the process of refusing to drive us back to La Feria when I got there. I was really pissed off at the two and a half hour wait. I was really pissed off at the 40 minutes on the phone, waiting for someone to answer. There wasn't going to be a debate about whether or not he drove us to La Feria. He realized quickly, from my tone of voice, that he was indeed going to be driving us to La Feria after we dropped the truck off at Knapp. I made it quite obvious, as well, that I was pretty pissed off at the two and half hour wait. Emergency Roadside Assistance called a tow truck business from McAllen, about 30 miles west of Harlingen. And when the driver got the call to respond to us in Harlingen, he was dealing with a tow in Falcon Lake, about an hour a half west of Harlingen ! ! !

I tried to take a deep breath and calm down. We got Dee-Dee hooked up, and towed to Knapp. Their gate was closed, and the tow truck driver wanted to drop Dee-Dee outside Knapp's gate. I don't think so, Bubba. Just take a break, and let me look around. As I was looking around, and checking out the locked gate, a security guard showed up. He opened the gate for us, and we got Dee-Dee dropped in front of the service department. The wizard tow truck driver wanted me to sign for the service rendered. Yeah, sure, pal ... as soon as you drive us to La Feria, which is in the same direction he was headed anyway. I sure dislike dealing with tow truck companies, and tow truck drivers. I signed his voucher, he drove us to La Feria.

The truck broke down before 9:00 P.M.. We didn't arrive home until after 12:30 A.M.. Teddy and Bo were frantic to be fed, and walked. We fed Teddy, and walked Bo. Joanne went to bed. I was too "wired". I prepared the money order to send to Kofa Ko-op, then walked down to the nearest mail box to post it. I did today's accounting. I did this journal entry. I'm going to have to get up about 7:00 A.M to phone Knapp. They didn't have a late night drop off service, so I couldn't just fill out a late night drop off form to explain the problem. And I guess I won't be making it to my 10:00 A.M. appointment for installation of the starter heat shield blanket. It's now after 2:00 A.M. and Joanne is asking, with an edge in her voice, when am I coming to bed ?

DSK