Day 107, Wednesday, November 23, Salina slightly revised 2
Andy from the garage stopped by my motel today at noon and told me that he installed the new pump. But he also told me he could not get the Defender running agsin despite the new pump. Something about the distributor module being bad, or an electricial problem. (The distributor, by the way, is two weeks old). I told him i had a spare distributor in my garage container, and he was going to install it. But he told me that he could not guarantee that whatever it was that caused this new failure would not happen again on my trip home.
Andy's prognosis was all i needed to hear. After he left, i called an auto transport company and they will be here Saturday to ship the Defender back to DC where i will have my mechanic work on it. Even if Andy gets the Drfender running again, I am not going to drive the remaining 2100 miles in a vehicle that is likley to break down again. Nor am i going to abandon it here after it has served me so well for 23 years and all it needs is for someone to figure out what is going on with it without my having to hang around in a motel waiting for the solution.
On Friday, i will load all my gear into the rear of the Defender and have it shipped back with the Defender. One problem that came up is the height of the Defender with the roof rack,86". Unfortunately, the height restriction in the auto carrier is 84", which means the roof rack has to come off. Ironically, UPS wants $1800 to ship the roof rack by freight, $400 more than it will cost to ship back the Defender, and they want me to bubble-shrink wrap it myself so it does not get damaged. The roof rack, by the way, is stainless steel,so it cannot get damaged. (UPS, of course, is not coming out as a hero in this story.) Abandoning the roof rack here increases the cost of this incident by at least $3000, the cost to replace the rack.
If anyone knows of any high vehicle auto transporters or shipping companis to ship back a roof rack for a better deal than UPS offers, please donlet me know.
If anyone knows of any high vehicle auto transporters or shipping companis to ship back a roof rack for a better deal than UPS offers, please donlet me know.
As for Donner and my getting home, there are two options, rent a car and drive home, or fly home from Salt Lake City. I will make my decision on Friday morning so i can load into the Defender everything that is not going back with us in the rental car or plane.
The main problem with driving back is the weather, and i will not have the reliable Defender to deal with the weather. A big snow is expected early next week in the Denver area again, probably closing I-70 again. Of course, if we drive back, camping is out of the question entirely. Flying would be slightly less expensive (and less problematic with Donner's gastro problem) than driving and get us home in nine hours and not six days, to get Donner to a vet quickly.
As for flying home, while it would be nice if we could leave Sunday after the Defender moves out, unfortunately, Donner needs a health certificate from a vet, but i cannot get one till Monday. Flying before then would be tough anyway because of the holiday weekend, not to mention the snow expected in Salt Lake City on Monday.
On the subject of that health certificate for Donner, its' purpose is to make sure he is healthy enough to fly home. So, just in case his gastro bout continues, since there is no vet around for miles and i do not have access to a car if there were, i called my vet hospital in DC (Friendship Animal Hospital) for a prescription of Metronidazole to get him well before his examination so we can fly home and not have to drive if Donner cannot get his health certificate. My vet was off and the vet on duty refused to prescribe prescribe the innocuous medication over the phone even after the situation was explained. Of course, he or she was worried about either liability or lost profits from an office visit instead of my dog's health. (There's that G word again, from some businesses.) Although i like Donner's vet, i think it's time to change vets when we return, I mean, if we ever extricate ourselves from this Ground Hog's day cycle and ever return.
I trying to stay at a level of simply trying to solve not-so-simple problems instead of letting my feelings about all this get in the way. But i have to say thst i feel like something almost evil is going on here with the Defender that i just cannot figure out. (That vehicle has been extremely well maintained for its 23 years) And it is clear that no one so far can figure out what is going on. I do know this, that my owner's/operator's instincts were right all along at every step of the way. Just go reread my blog postings about this to see for yourself. Except for Andy today, no one among the people I trusted ever told me to not drive the Defender on. I hope that if someone i trusted had, i would have turned back.
i will give thanks tomorrow for at least one thing, that despite these at least five close calls on this trip, Donner and I are safe. We are extremely fortunate that the only damage so far have been to my wallet, not even to my spirit. Nor to the Defender, except temporarily.
I may not be posting a blog tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day. In that event, I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to those who are reading this blog, and thank you sincerely for your ideas, concerns, and offers of help. I really appreciated it.
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