Blanche... Get Well Soon

Poor Girl… get better!

I’ve been so obsessed converting our old Nine of Cups website to the Just A Little Further website, I’ve totally neglected writing blogs lately. And in my defense, since we’re not traveling, there’s not been all that much exciting to write about. If you have a chance check out some new countries added to the Travelogue page like French Guiana… think Papillon and Devil’s Island.

On the travel side of things… We had originally intended to leave on our Maritime Canada road trip on or about May 1st. Giving it some further thought, we figured heading north to Canada so early in the season might not be all that pleasant. Here in Las Vegas, we had our first ‘triple digit day’, i.e. over 100F, last week. Checking temps in Alberta, Canada, like in Calgary for instance, they’re showing highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s with a promise of warmer weather ahead. Good that we waited. We set a new departure date of May 15th. Of course, that didn’t happen either. We’re still here in Las Vegas.

About two weeks ago, we were driving around town and Blanche began making an odd noise. So much so that David pulled into a parking lot to check it out. He could see no apparent problem under the hood, so we continued on. We made it another few blocks and the noise increased and then the transmission started slipping. She only has 87K miles, but it appeared there was a transmission problem and it needed immediate attention.

We called for a tow and had her brought to a local shop we’d used in the past and had her evaluated. They confirmed the transmission was shot, but their quote for the replacement was outrageously high. We towed her home and David went to work researching other options. He finally found a local shop that specialized in transmissions and had an excellent reputation. He got a quote for a re-manufactured transmission. Not cheap, but acceptable. The good news is that Promaster transmissions are fairly common and a transmission could be shipped FEDX and arrive in a week.

No worries. We had already planned a flight back East to visit Brennan and Hannah in Richmond and would be gone a week. The transmission would arrive while we were gone and could be installed in a day or two once we returned. All went according to plan and, with emptier pockets, we picked up Blanche and her newly installed transmission and were all set to depart until…

Poor Blanche… in the hospital

David noticed a couple of drips in the driveway. Hmmm… condensation from the A/C perhaps? Nope… transmission fluid. We hustled Blanche back to the shop. Sure enough, the transmission was leaking from a seam. Good installation, faulty transmission. Bob from Bob’s Transmissions was on the phone immediately with the transmission company ordering a new one. With much arm-twisting, the vendor agreed to ship a replacement ASAP… but it would take another week in transit. The transmission arrived late last Friday and we took Blanche to the transmission hospital on Monday for her transplant. The shop wanted to keep her overnight to insure she was ready to go. Hopefully, she’ll be home soon and with any luck, we’ll be on our way later this week.

Fingers crossed!