Wednesday, September 11, 2024

What another day! - September 11, 2024

After the nice things I said about the Cherokee in a previous post, it went beserk on me on the way home today.

I was halfway home when I noticed a noise, like the engine was revving up.  Sure enough, at 45 miles per hour, the RPMs were reading 5,000 (2,000 is the average).  In a minute, there was a ding and a dashboard light read "Check Gauges."  The car was running hot.

I pulled over in somebody's driveway and tried to think what to do.  A friend lived less than a quarter of a mile down the road.  If I could make it there, I could put water in the radiator, if that's what it needed.  Meanwhile, a guy who was out in his yard saw I was having car trouble and came over to help.  We raised the hood.  Some oil-ish stuff had been blown all over the place, and there was water in the radiator reservoir.  Not a simple fix, I suspected.  I called a tow truck.  When they asked where I wanted it towed, I gave them my home address.  Then I thought that was probably a bad idea.  I called The Husband to see where he wanted it taken.  It took the tow truck about 30 minutes to get to me.  It was hot waiting.  And I had a birthday cake in the car.

The tow truck driver was a nice guy, and he got the car where it needed to go.  The Husband drove up about 5 minutes behind us.  The repair shop guy came out, raised the hood, pulled some sticks.  He thinks the stuff that got sprayed was power steering fluid.

Wonder how much this will cost?

But if it had to happen, I'm glad it happened in this county.  We've been taking the Cherokee on log road trips and have another trip coming up in a few weeks.  I shudder to think about car trouble happening a long way from home.

The birthday cake for my daughter-in-law survived the ordeal.  We dropped it off on our way home and stayed for a short visit.  Smooched all the granddaughters.  

Came home, cooked dinner, showered, and now I'm ready to call it a day!


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