For those that are interested, we will try to blog our progress across the country en route to Baltimore, MD.
Today our day started at 6:00 a.m. putting the finishing touches on our pack job. We have about 3000 lbs of our junk loaded into the truck and a 6 x 10 trailer. We had planned to leave by 8:00 a.m., but we fell a little behind. As the truck and trailer combo was double parked on the street, the original battery decided to die (lasted 6 years, thanks Chevy). My father in law gave us a jump, and one husband, one pregnant wife, one child, and two cats were on their way around 8:45.
We stopped at the local Walmart to have a new battery installed which didn't take very long and we were back on the road by 10:00 a.m. It was cloudy when we left Alameda and a balmy 60 degrees. Once we got over the Altamont Pass, the weather was clear and 80 degrees. We discovered that the air conditioner broke when the battery failed, which wasn't a good thing the closer one gets to Bakersfield.
We were going to take a huge detour to Merced, CA, where the nearest Chevy service provider was open, but I took a wrong turn and we ended up in Newman, CA. The good Lord provides, even with wrong turns. We found an open service shop in Newman that took twenty bucks to run diagnostics immediately - it was fixed in less than five minutes once he reset the truck computer! Whew - what could have been a combined three hours of driving and vehicle service in Merced, ended up being a 30 minute detour and 5 minute repair! Blessed!
We ate some lunch before we hit the road again - it was about 1:00 by this time, and we still had about 300 miles to travel. Frustration was setting in, but we had our air conditioner and a new battery.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful; we drove though Wasco, Bakersfield, passed Edwards AFB, and are now resting for the evening in Barstow, CA.
Day 1: 430 miles in 10 hours.
Hopefully we will have more pictures tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment