Once the truck was restarted, we carefully proceeded down the road approaching Clines Corners. We had not gone two miles before the malfunction light was back! And this time, the truck was running up and down the gears, shaking, surging, and scaring us! Would we make it even into Clines Corners, in the middle of nowhere, or even Santa Fe? The truck finally settled into fourth gear, and we limped into Clines Corners.
Again, we shutdown the truck and let it cool for a while. When started back up, all was fine or so we thought. We started up US 285 north towards Santa Fe - very carefully. All seemed well until about 10 miles south of I-25. Again, the malfunction light! We limped along until right south of I-25, and pulled off the road and restarted the truck.
Once again, with the malfunction cleared, we carefully approached I-25 and Santa Fe, minimizing the speed, shifting, and every finger and toe crossed for luck! And I guess luck was with us, because we did not have another malfunction, especially through Santa Fe traffic. We reached Trailer Ranch RV Park on Cerrillos Road successfully around 5pm. Needless to say, it was a long day for a short drive!
Once set up, I contacted the Ford dealership for an service appointment, but as it was late in the day, it was not until the next morning, Wednesday, before I received an answer. The Santa Fe Ford dealership was down to only one diesel mechanic, and he was backed up until February! However, they suggested taking the truck to Chalmers Ford in Albuquerque.
A quick call to Chalmers Ford in Albuquerque, and we were on I-25 heading south by 11am. By 1pm, the truck was checked in for service, and we were heading out of Enterprise Rent-A-Car back to Santa Fe. At least, our "first stop" was to be Santa Fe, and we were there, though without the truck!
What a start to retirement! What a start to our travels! Why did it seem like retirement had not even started? Was retirement supposed to be this stressful! I had weighed myself on Wednesday morning and found I had lost 10 pounds so far in retirement!
Wednesday night, the winter storm moved in. Thursday morning was a Santa Fe winter wonderland.
And late Thursday afternoon brought a phone call from Chalmers Ford! The truck, hopefully, was fixed! The service department found a recall on the transmission programming on the truck. They had to delete the complete programming for the transmission and shifting control, download and load a new transmission program. Let's hope this will fix the problem, for our next trip will be to Pagosa Springs! John, the service advisor, said if we had any problems on the road to call him immediately. That is, if there is cell phone coverage north of Espanola!
Thursday night found us both fatigued and imploded from stress, worry, and concern. To bed early, and a long sleep to follow!
No stress, no worries! If retirement was easy everyone would do it. Slowly but surely you are getting there.
ReplyDeleteRon, what is it with all of these mechanical difficulties!?! Maybe it's a sign that you need to go back to work :-)Think of how little you'd have to write about! "... if it wasn't for bad luc, I wouldn't have no luck at all..."
ReplyDeleteKeep writing!
Tom