Day 104, Sunday, November 20, Salina Utah
The longer any trip away from home in strange places continues, the higher the probability that something adverse could or will happen, in my case, to me, Donner, or as we all know well by now, the Defender. To minimize that, i minimize Donner's and my activities, so despite the beautiful weather outside today, most of the day was spent in our cozy cabin. I also cut back on my walks with Donner since he had a bad case of D last night and threw up once today and there is no vet in this small town of 2000 people.
My fellow traveler Sarah stopped by for a brief visit on her way through town to her next camp site. Not only are our routes identical from Northern California to Denver, but our routines and values are the same too.
After Sarah got back on the road, I spent the entire day emailing or calling more than a half dozen Land Rover people or mechanics trying to find out if there is any reason for me to believe that the new 4.6 liter engine in a Defender built for a 3.9 engine may be putting extra strain on auxiliary parts and causing them to fail prematurely. If the answer to that is yes and there is nothing that can be done about it here in Salina Utah in my case, i cannot take the risk of more hits on my 2100 mile remaining trip home. In this case, one option is to drive the Defender to Salt Lake City or Denver, load it into a container, and have it shipped as freight back home. I would then rent a van and continue the trip back home with Donner. There are other options i want to explore for the two moving parts to this puzzle.
Of course, i am hoping that the two hits the Defender took this week were just isolated incidents waiting to happen that improbably occurred one day apart. Improbable, but possible. That, of course, is a risk i have always been willing to take and prepare for them where I can.
In any event, i do know now that i will not be home by Thanksgiving, but who says that you have to be home to celebrate that holiday? Besides, readers of my blog will recall that I spent one Thanksgiving already with Donner in October on a picnic in a pleasant park in Whitehorse in 35 degree weather. What can be better than that?
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