The drive up to New York was a little interesting. I got to drive through some thick fog in Mississippi, some deer on the side of the road in Alabama (and swerving around a fresh carcass in the same state), hopefully prevented a crime from happening in Montgomery, AL, and lost a brake pad somewhere along the way. On the 2nd leg of the trip I got treated to closed gas stations, another deer carcass, and Ozzy having 2 accidents in my back seat. I was hoping for something a little more uneventful, but since we got to New York safely, I'm not going to complain.
The visit itself was for the most part nice. I got to meet my niece Shiloh. She's a beautiful baby who thankfully did not inherit my sister's nose. A couple of days after we got there I took my car into the Ford dealer to have the front brakes replaced. I ended up doing 3 fishtails on the ice (in the process nearly taking out 2 telephone poles). I knew the roads were slick and wasn't going that fast... I think I may have overcorrected when I felt the first slide in my rear tires. After paying nearly $200 for the brake service, all seemed to go well.
We stayed at my sister's place in Stanley, NY for 3 days and then headed to my parents' house near Cincinnatus. The weather turned pretty damn cold after we got there... that night we arrived the temperature got down to 5 degrees Fahrenheit with a -15 windchill. Taking the dogs out to do their business was not fun at all. That day saw about 4 inches of snow fall, so it left the roads covered with snow and ice, which is not fun at all. Ozzy and Angela were loving running through the snow and we had a hard time getting them to go inside sometimes. Although it didn't get much warmer after that first day in Cincinnatus, the sun did come out so the roads gradually cleared. However, not every locale is created equal, and the road maintenance definitely bears that out. Our mobility was definitely limited. A case in point - we went to Norwich, NY on 29 Jan and the roads were clear. I went to Union Valley, NY later that night to drop something off to my friend Jim (both localities in the same county as my parents), but the road going to his place looked as if it hadn't been touched by maintenance.
I was treated to some nasty news the night before we were scheduled to depart for Texas - a winter storm decided to hit the mid-Atlantic states. This storm stetched back into Kansas and Oklahoma lenghtwise and from southern Pennsylvania all the way down to middle Georgia. The forecast called for snow and freezing rain. We decided to stay an extra day since we really had no escape (unless I wanted to head west to Minnesota then move south, which if I had been alone on the trip I would have done in a hearbeat). The next day the news reports were showing areas where the ice was nearly an inch thick.
We departed for South Carolina on 31 Jan. The trip itself was going good until I started getting a rattle whenever I turned slightly left. I wasn't sure what was going on since it was very intermittent. We ran into the snow in southern PA, and it was pretty deep in some areas, although the roads themselves were clear. When I got to the I-77 junction in southern VA things got a little interesting.
I-77 runs through the Blue Ridge foothills in southern VA and northern NC. There are a lot of curves and a lot of ups and downs. There had been road crews on the roads that day, but I could still see some snow and a little bit of ice on the roadway. I wasn't the only one driving at a slower pace. Near the state line there is a 7.5 mile downgrade (complete with runaway truck exits) with, you guessed it, snow and ice.
A runaway truck exit is built on the approach to a bend in the road so the driver doesn't have to manuever into it. Immediately after entering the exit there is a steep incline to help slow the truck down. The road crews had run the plows over the roads, but in the process created a snow barrier into the runaway truck exit. There were plenty of tractor-trailers on this downgrade while I was on it... I hope none of them needed to use the runaway exit.
The ice continued down I-77 and I-65 through all of NC. There was a little bit when I hit SC, but nowhere near as bad as its neighbor to the north.
I got a late start the next morning, but off we went - destination Houston. The rattling was getting progressively worse and I was getting a little concerned. I looked at the wheel at one point and didn't see anything that looked bad. The trip through SC, GA, and AL went fairly smooth. In Mississippi Angela started getting into the habit of hopping into the driver's seat whenever I had to leave the car for something. It was definitely cute. I'm wondering if she was trying to be a sentinel, wanting to help me drive, or giving me the hint that she wanted to get home.
We finally arrived in Houston on 2 Feb at about 1:30 am CDT. It was a long trip but we had fun. Now it was back to the grind, but first thing's first - I had to pick up Sharon from my uncle (who was very glad to see me) and I had to get my cat from boarding. I inspected the right wheel again and it looked like the outside brake pad had come loose from the caliper. I figured that was the cause of the rattle and made plans to take into a local Ford dealer to get fixed.
After spending the next 2 days catching up, I took my car to a dealer to have it checked. I got a call saying the brake was installed a little roughly, but it was fine. It didn't look fine to me, but I'll take his word for it. I was then informed that there was oil on the undercarriage of the car. The technician had found a pinhole leak in the oil filter. I felt the blood drain from my face. I asked the service advisor to change the oil. I later found out there was less than a quart of oil in the engine. I had the oil changed the day we departed for NY. I was not the least bit happy. When I picked up the car (after another $150 in repairs) they handed me the filter - it had definitely been overtorqued as there were holes all along the groove where the wrench rests.
Well, faithful and not-so-faithful readers, this is it for this entry. I will have further updates on Day 37 as for now I must call it a night. To all of you out there - have a good night.
Angela is either being a sentinel or is telling my to hurry my happy ass up so we can get home.
No comments:
Post a Comment