Dec 15th. - More Troubles

Up real early. Gave the kids a hug as they each headed off to school. Gave Josh a big hug as he headed off to work. No work for ME:) Sent a text mail to Lynnel to bid her bye.

Hooked up the rig and headed down the road. This time we made it about 5 miles. Can't believe my new jeep just QUIT. We were stunned. We sat in dis-believe for a long time staring at the road and then at each other. Said a few prayers.

After a 10 minute wait, it started again and we drove a few miles heading for the nearest Jeep dealer. It quit again after about a mile. This sounds very familiar. Waited again, drove again, same thing. Warning light says to service the 4w Drive. We place a call to Jeep to arrange towing because traffic ahead is dense and we are approaching a construction zone. If we try to drive through the zone and stall it will be real bad....major traffic jamb. The tow people have a long and frustrating menu system and a long wait but we finally get a live person, a least I think she was live, I forgot to ask. She start to arrange a tow, but after several calls back from her, she is having a lot of trouble finding anyone willing to tow a trailer AND a car. We wait. Several police drive by and ignore us, but that's OK. Better for them to chase bad guys. Finally a policeman comes up behind and turns on his lights, but then I noticed he was pulling someone over right behind us.

I decided to go for it. After a 20 minute cool down, I cranked the engine being careful to time it with the red light ahead and breaks in the traffic behind. The engine caught and off we went through the construction zone. Susie was praying for the light, the traffic and progress through the zone. We made it through and all the way to the next turn. Zap, it shuts off again but now the road is wide and there is a full extra wide parking lane, plenty of room. That is a big relief from all the traffic on the narrow road we were on.

The GPS says its only ONE more mile to the dealer. Wait, crank, zoom, stop, wait, crank, zoom, at last the dealership is in sight. The motor stops, but its down hill and there is no traffic. We coast again. Boy this is familiar. Barely rolling, we pull up to the sevice lane on a dead stick blocking the lane with our Jeep and trailer.

After a short chat with the service person, she tells me to move the Jeep over there and unhitch the trailer anywhere I can. I told her, "Sorry, we are not going anywhere until you fix this thing." She says, "OK, will just part the trailer somewhere and we will pull it into the service bay and check it out." "Can you help me push it?" I reply. Suddenly the light dawns and she begins to really listen. After a 15 minute wait, I drove the jeep across the street to a construction site where I asked permission to park in their lot. It is a busy work zone with large trucks and construction workers scurrying about, but they said it was OK. Unhooked and set up.

Susie is working on the scrapbook again. I got the car into service and began typing this long blog and listening to Rush Limbaugh on the wireless internet. Its 2:00 PM and the service person just informed me that they found the trouble. A crank shaft sensor. They don't have the part in stock and they cannot really identify it properly without pulling off, thus disabling the Jeep completely. It may be a day or two before we are on the road again. Hey! We are on vacation, right.? Jesus knows. Looking at the WX in the courtesy TV, maybe this is the best place to be. Maybe we will see Josh again sooner than we though.