[Leica] Not the best trip we have been on.....

[ernest nitka]

Not to compete but to commiserate with you Aram - we were on a month long
Airstream Caravan down Highway 61 - Duluth to Lousiana.  While we were gone
my sister died suddenly, my daughter lost her job and got COVID.  We were
in Mississippi when we crashed our tow vehicle and injured our Airstream.
Tire and Rim on our tow vehicle was destroyed and there were no new rims
for the VW TDI in the whole of the USA.  We got the temp. spare on and it
blew up 10 miles further down the road. The trailer and the VW were towed
to Natchez, MS to a FORD dealer on the weekend - spent the weekend with no
electricity, water or sewer - though we do this on purpose at times.
Monday morning find out that there are NO new F150 on the lot.  Ended up
getting a used Silverado truck that's perfect for our use.  The VW is still
down in Natchez being repaired.  Oh and in the meantime the wife got COVID
- thank heavens for Monoclonal Antibodies.

Ernie Nitka

On Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 8:00 PM Aram Langhans via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
wrote:

> Hello fellow photographers.  So, the short story is we are back at my
> father-in-law, Bob's house, three days after we left.   So, here is the
> rest of the story.
>
> We got to our half way stop in an RV park in Bakersfield on Saturday and
> spent the night.  Then we headed out for Yosemite. The weather was not
> too bad but I knew they were expecting pretty bad rains in Yosemite
> Sunday night but we would be already camped.  So we are on our way in
> and past Oakhurst winding through the trees.  It is raining but not
> bad.  The fall color starts to get really nice so I am anticipating a
> great trip.  We get to the area where the fire hit a few years ago and
> it is misty/foggy with these spindles of trees reaching skyward and a
> beautiful wet undercover of reds and yellows of the dogwood.  Just
> spectacular. Of course, Bob is in his GIANT 5th wheel so we have on
> place to pull over.  A little past that really nice spot is a place he
> can fit, so I say lets pull over and he can get in our rig and go back
> about 1/4 mile to a few small turnouts.  Well, he is packing up and
> Margie sees some steam under our van.  I though we just hit some water
> and it was evaporating from our exhaust but then it filtered inside and
> smelled a bit different.  I spun around to a asphalt area, put it up on
> some leveling blocks and crawled under to see transmission fluid running
> out from between the engine and transmission and it was HOT.  I checked
> the fluid level and it did not seem low, so, we waited a bit and turned
> around.  It was running just fine. It was mostly downhill back to Fresno
> and we were hoping we could make it may that far or further to a
> campground and regroup to see what we could do.  It was still running
> great.  Never noticed any problems.  Well, on the outskirts of Fresno it
> started to shift a bit hard when we took of from a traffic light but no
> slipping.  Found a campground and I we were about 1 mile from the exit
> when a horrible screeching noise started so I pulled over and just as I
> stopped it jerked.  I checked the fluid level and it seemed to be fine.
> I have a hard time reading the tranny fluid levels.  I added fluid
> anyway and went to get back on the road to get off at the exit but it
> would not budge.  Locked up.  Well, a few phone calls and a tow truck
> was suppose to be there in 45 min.  The freeway was busy and scary as
> cars and trucks went screaming by at a million miles/hour. About 1.5
> hours later still no truck even after a few more calls to AAA.  Finally
> a CHP officer stopped to see if we needed help. He offered to call AAA
> and did as Margie was also talking to an agent.  Margie was told there
> have been lots of calls due to the rain and flooding and we have been
> skipped over three times. Well, I guess the CHP had more weight because
> when they called AAA we had someone there in about 15 min while our AAA
> truck still was not there.  Anyway, we had no idea were to go, so asked
> and he towed us to the Dodge dealer since he knew they had a place for a
> Sunday night drop-off.  A late night sales person said we could sleep in
> our van and Bob could leave his 5th wheel along the street for the
> night.  Filled out the forms and after dealing with street racers and a
> uncooperative security guard, left with Bob and spend the night at a
> Walmart.  Next morning we went back at 7:00 through rain and flooded
> streets and were told they will not work on it because it is too old and
> they can't get parts anymore. Gave us a few tranny shops to contact so
> we did and all said it would be about  month before they could get to
> it.  After much debate we decided to have it towed back to Bob's in
> SoCal and got that all arranged.  So, skipping that long story, we made
> it back today after spending the night in another Walmart in Victorville.
>
> So, today I looked up Jasper remanufactured trannies for a price and
> called a few local places to see how long.  We expected to leave the van
> here and rent a car to drive home, them come back in the spring to
> picked it up, or have it shipped home.  Much to my surprise we found a
> place on Jasper's preferred list that will get the tranny and install it
> next Tuesday.  WOW!  So, that is what we are doing.  A little over $4K.
> Almost the price of a Q2, but well worth it.
>
> So, NO PHOTOS OF YOSEMITE OR THE DRIVE IN!  Saw it on the news today.
> 5+ inches of rain, beautiful colors and raging falls by autumn levels.
> But safe and sound and her to tell this story.
>
> Aram and Margie
>
> --
> Aram Langhans
> (Semi) Retired Science Teacher
> & Unemployed photographer
>
> “The Human Genome Project has proved Darwin more right than Darwin himself
> would ever have dared dream.”
>     James D. Watson
>
>
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