Thread: A new car!
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Unread 11-08-2011, 11:08 AM   #35
GlenL
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It's a good, long drive from Edgerton, WY to Minneapolis, MN. We're going past Mount Rushmore as well so the day starts early.

Eastern Wyoming looks like a old Western backdrop with giant coal mines for a modern touch. At breakfast I put on the power steering belt. The prior occupant having come loose and dropped off somewhere the day before.

I can't get the pump to move back enough so illustrate "dumb guy style" for my son: get it partially on the pulley and crank the engine. Might cut the belt but works like a charm. Only a few minutes of work so a good, hearty coal field breakfast awaits.

The car eats up the flat landscape pretty quickly and we get to the Black Hills in good time. The roads get very twisty in the parklands there so the power assist is much appreciated.

Mount Rushmore is at once both impressive and disappointing. I've been before but the kids share my impression: it's big but should be bigger. It's the off-season so not much going on. We snap a few pics, wonder who else should be up there, take the "Walk of Presidents" and get on our way.

It looks like it on the map and, sure enough, South Dakota is a lot of wide open space. Fairly dry. Fairly flat. Sunflowers and row crops. Good for running quickly in the "Zombie car." The daughter has dubbed it that as it should be dead but won't really die. I'll be fully reanimating it soon enough. Perhaps it's the Frankenstein car then.

South Dakota turns into Minnesota and the scenery gets more full. You can tell that going East the soil improves and there is more rainfall. Wheat gives way to corn. Lots of corn. The richer soil allows for a denser population of farms.

We're cruising along and looking for the turn from I90 to I35 and the last leg home. I've told the wife we'll be in by 11. Sounds like the trip is closing well when a new sound suddenly comes into the cabin. A rumbling. I try the other lane and running off-line. Changes a bit but not enough. Same over a bridge. Better check the tires.

Can't see in the dark, but touching the tires shows the left-rear is flat. Running on the rim flat. Fortunately we're only a mile or so to an exit. I nurse the car along the shoulder and pump the emergency flasher when cars approach. Seems to work but I later see it doesn't do anything at all.

Fairmont, Minnesota is a pleasant town from what I could see. The businesses have stretched down the main road to the interstate as in so many small towns. I nurse the car into a gas station and go in for help.

The nice ladies give me two phone numbers. One for Wal-Mart and one for Goodyear emergency service. Wal-Mart is closed so I call the emergency service number. Yep. They can have someone come fix it. It'll cost an extra $180 for emergency road-side service but I figure it's worth it. I'm waiting for the truck to arrive but get another call instead. They don't have the right size tire after all. Instead of innovating with an alternate size, I choose to pack it in. We get another overpriced Holiday Inn room and call it a night.

In the morning light I can see that the tire had been worn to almost no tread and a stripe of belt had come off. Odd, and fatal. I call the Wal-Mart. Sure enough, they've got 225/50/16 tires in stock. It's just on the other side of I90 so I roll the car over there. Slowly. Matched the service there.

They point out that the other side is almost bald and I relent on two tires. The kids are at the pool and having a good time. not a problem to extend the trip by a half day.

The final cruse home takes 2 and a half hours. Almost made it the previous evening.

So there it was. Out Tuesday and back Monday with a new 928. A couple of belts, a couple of tires and a hood ornament lost along the way, but it drove onto the driveway under its own power. And, even better, we had a good time together on our expedition.
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Last edited by GlenL; 11-08-2011 at 07:21 PM.
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