Well, we're down again!

Hi everyone! I woke up in Laramie, Wyoming with Mike telling me that there is a nasty exhaust leak in the truck. I didn't really smell it right away, but soon after I turned the heater on, I got it full force! Needless to say, it was giving me a severe headache and my eyes were burning and I decided to call RoadService and tell them about the problem. Tom from roadservice told me to take the 214 exit (which was only one mile away from where I was currently) and take the truck to the TA travel stop to have the service center check out the problem. The guy tightened up a clamp, charged me $51.00 and sent me on my way! The problem still existed; with not only the exhaust problem, but the engine brake wasn't working--was sounding like a dragon snorting; and there was loud noises coming from the right side of the truck; not to mention, I was losing power as well. I barely made it to the next TA which was in Fort Bridger, Wyoming; called the shop again, and this time Tom told me to call back in a few minutes to talk with Kevin, the shop manager. In the meantime, I called my driver manager, Greg, to tell him of our dilemma. Needless to say, Kevin wanted me to baby the truck into Salt Lake City, to our shop because the TA couldn't fix my problem and our shop could do a much better job.

I made it into Salt Lake City's Knight Yard, and after waiting for several hours before getting the truck in to be seen, we finally had Ritchie look at it, tighten a clamp and say it was fine! No way! Mike and I took it for a test drive again and apparently Ritchie had heard the truck leaving the parking lot; and when we got back, said that the truck would be there overnight so they could look further into the problem. He found the problem! It was a hole blown the size of a fist (my fist), which was in the Flex Pipe in the exhaust system... Finally, the problem had been found--I told the guy the truck wasn't leaving there until the problem was fixed--I wouldn't subject myself to Carbon Monoxide poisoning for any company or anyone. The truck would be fixed by morning... Yay! We are at the Ramada, which the company gratiously paid for, had a nice dinner; I'm already up the next day, had my breakfast, and am washing clothes for our next run, while Mike is still sleeping. At least he will wake up to clean clothes, and not have me in the room waking him up... He will like that part best. The best thing about this is the fact that this hotel has a computer room and I am able to update the blog for all of you to read. We are fine, they took the load away that was supposed to deliver in Washington, but for that, we are happy as there is a storm coming in and driving over Cabbage at this time of year can be treaturous (spelling?) this time of year. Oh, we would have made it over fine, but the storm would definitely have probably stopped our return safely from coming back... I'll have to go put the clothes into the dryer now, so please send your comments and have a wonderful day. Until next blog entry, Gayle.

P.S... Next time, I will put our DM's pic in to the blog... Just don't have time right now.