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A rough journey
Mood: Ouch
My daughter is due to have her first child within the next week or so. She really wanted her Mom there for the birth, so we split the cost to get my wife up to Montana, where our daughter is. To do this, we settled on Amtrak as the mode of transportation, and since we have 5 cats and 2 dogs one of us had to stay home. Our oldest son is also making the trip, and will be staying in Montana as there is very little in the line of work in Monroe County, Tennessee at this time. That also means that my wife will have someone with her on the train to deal with memory slips and whatnot from the very early and slow progressing Alzheimer's.

So, we pack them both up and load up our only car for the 350 or so mile trip to Memphis where they are to board the train, leaving home for the drive at noon on 8/19. The 6 hour drive over there went quite well, and although the train was late and they had to be transported to it by bus because the Memphis station has a sinkhole, we got them both boarded and headed north west. After the buses pulled out, I turned the car toward home and slipped onto I-40 for the trek back.

Everything went fine for the first hour of the trip home, then while I was passing a string of trucks the engine began racing while the car started slowing down. I backed off the gas and then gave it a little more, more engine race, but still slowing down. I waited for the four or five trucks in the right lane to get past and started angling for the right side of the road. Now, this is about 1 AM, so there is not much traffic. Once I was in a clear space and working on pulling over I start to notice the high pitch squeal and grind coming out of the car. I let the car coast as far is at would go, then start playing with the gear shift. The engine is running fine, but the transmission just howls and grinds when in any gear and the car stays right where it is. I shut it off, locked it up, and start the quarter mile walk to the next exit. There was a truck stop open, so I go in and purchase a couple of quarts of transmission fluid and head back for the car. I get there, put the first one in, hoping that it had just run low and I could limp it home. Of course that was not the case. I noticed after I had opened the hood that when I bumped the front of the car with it in park it is perfectly willing to roll, with a little grinding noise coming out of the transmission. Starting it up and putting it in gear resulted in the same symptoms, engine fine, no power to the wheels. I pushed the car the quarter mile, but the grade coming up the slope of the offramp finally beat me, so I parked it in the grass beside the offramp and set the emergency brake. After stripping anything out of the car that could be used for identity theft I walked back to the truck stop, and trashed all of the paperwork in one of the trash barrels. Back inside, I got some change and hit the pay phones. Luckily my brother-in-law keeps his phone number listed, so I was able to get hold of someone.

Now, my brother-in-law is a truck driver and works for a small trucking company. We all live within a few miles of each other, and his company is based out of Madisonville, TN which is the town he lives in. He was out on the road, but his wife was home. I explained the situation to her, once she was awake enough to understand, now with the time difference it was around 2 AM for her. She asked me to call back in the morning and we could figure out what to do.

At this point my main concern was for my animals. I knew that one way or another I would make it back home, but if it took a considerable amount of time they would not survive. I knew that I could get my sister-in-law to come out and feed them and let the pups out, so that greatly relieved me. I figured I was on my own on getting home, so I set out back onto the Interstate walking east.

By morning I had made 16 miles and was at an exit that had open stores and fast food places. I knew that I needed to get some liquid and a few calories in me, so I hit the McDonalds for a quick sandwich and 3 refills on a 32 ounce cup of PowerAde. Next priority was to find a pay phone. This was across the street, so off I went. I called my sister-in-law, and she told me to stay right where I was and call her back in one hour. Given how sore my feet and legs were and the blisters I could already feel rising I figured this was my best bet. In the meantime I went into the convenience store for something more to drink and some high salt snack food to bring those levels back up, I also asked if there were a Greyhound stop nearby, turns out the nearest one was 24 more miles ahead of me. I knew in the worst case I had enough on my card to catch a Greyhound, that would have brought me within about 20 or 30 miles of home.

The hour passed, and I called back. It turned out that the trucking company my brother-in-law works for had a load being picked up in Memphis that was bound for Knoxville. They were willing to have the driver pick me up and bring me back to Madisonville. From there my sister-in-law would be able to pick me up and drop me off at home. My brother-in-law also called around and will be borrowing a trailer to help me pick the car up this weekend, provided it has not been towed by then.

So, 36 hours after pulling out of home for Memphis, I finally made it back into town, another short drive and I was home to let the pups out and get everyone fed and watered. Of course the next order of business was to call my daughter, I had already had my sister-in-law call here and let her know I was alive, but delayed. By the time all of that was done I had been running something like 40 hours since waking up last, so I collapsed and slept for 10 hours.

Back up and running I called up the highway patrol over in Memphis to let them know I would be back to get the car. A friend of the family is a highway patrolman in this area and let us know I should do this, then they would tag the car so it would not be towed after 48 hours. Of course they said they could make no guarantees that it would not be towed and that the local sheriff's dept may still tow it after 48 hours.

It would be nice to get the car back here, I am quite capable of changing a transmission, but I'm not counting on it

So, for me, it is time to scrape and scrounge, build back up, decide on repairs, or purchase of another car. Fortunately I don't work outside the home, so there will be no loss of income, also most of my merchandise is not heavy so I can walk it to the post office if need be. This episode did reinforce the fact that I need to get myself back into shape. Twenty years ago I could hike 40 miles a day and pushed that extra 10 miles out if I had to. I need to get myself back into that kind of shape. I've let myself slip too far into a state where I can wind up dependent upon others and I don't like that one bit.

So, although it has been a rough couple of days, I'm still in business and life goes on.

Jason Leave a Comment
Thursday August 21, 08 at 01:43PM

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