Yesterday, I decided that the best solution to buy a new Jeep. I had to get the Old Jeep to the dealer in Carson City that is about 240 miles away in order to make a deal.
I called Cal/Nevada towing and they said, "No problem, we can hook you right up, and it will cost $1800 for the tow." Yikes. Tonopah does not have a lot of options...they don't even have Uber. I heard via local grape vine that there was some guy named Tom Adams that gives people rides for a fee. I called him up and he came over to take a look. Upon arrival, he said he could load that Jeep up onto his flat bed tow rig and tow me to Carson for $600 cash.
Tom is a rough red neck sort of guy that is partly disabled, and volunteers for the local "Search and Rescue" outfit as an equipment hauler and communications coordinator. He wears a gun and likes to tell everyone that he wears a gun. He asked me if I would be upset because He wears a gun (he was not offering to take it off and leave it behind.). I told him that it would not bother me and that I packed a gun too, concealed. He had not noticed...ha. He said he does not like to carry concealed. All of the above took place yesterday late afternoon.
Friday morning at 7 AM, Tom showed up with his fancy Nissan pickup truck and a stout custom rigged flatbed trailer with winch and ramps. He loaded up the Jeep and we took off for Carson City.
On the way we talked about a lot of stuff and I managed to give him a short version of the Gospel. But he adamantly said, "Hey, I don't want to talk religion... I've heard all that and seen too much... not interested."
We arrived at the dealer at Noon and they had a new Jeep waiting. It was the only Grand Cherokee in stock that was factory rigged for towing. Choices, due to the circumstances, were very limited. Tom unloaded the old Jeep and I spent the next two hours making a deal for the new one. Soon I was on my way out of town.
Funny thing. This new Jeep has all kinds of electronic gizmos. I still live in the analog world in some respects. For example, there is no key. You don't have to unlock the door, just have the "fob" in your pocket and pull the handle. Get in and push the button. This lead to immediate issues. I drove 3 blocks down the very busy 4 lane road to leave Carson City. When I came to the very first stop light, there was a pile of traffic behind me and the new Jeep just stalled. I pushed the start button and it was dead. I fiddled with the fob and tried again.... nothing. The guy behind me was blowing his horn and flipping fingers. I could not even find the emergency flasher button, they moved it and disguised it. Grrrr.... Finally, after about 5 minutes of holding up traffic for two red light cycles, I took my foot off the brake and the car started all by itself. I didn't even push the button. I pulled into Wendy's and called the salesman at the dealer to find out what goes. He laughed with a little embarrassment. "Oh, I forgot to tell you about that new feature. It does cause a lot of confusion. When you stop at a light, the car shuts off and stays off until you take your foot off the brake.... it saves gas." I said, "Right! What a bad idea." He said I could turn the "feature" off by pressing a certain button on the dash that was marked with and "A". I pushed the button.
The long drive back to Tonopah went well but the car definitely has a different "feel" to it. It is a little bigger inside than our old Jeep so that is nice. I will miss the diesel engine a lot..... that old Jeep was my baby and I hated to loose it. There was just no practical way to get it home. Every option was too expensive and too complicated.
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