When It Rains, It Pours

Above, the Jeep, mini bike, mower and Mustang a few years ago. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Sometimes, when it rains, it pours.

That is what happened this past week when I was driving home from Thoreau, New Mexico in the Mustang. It started running hot. I managed to get it to the Flying J and got some coolant as the coolant level inside the radiator dropped.

Once I got the coolant into the radiator, everything seemed fine, and that was the case for the next few days. Then it started running hotter again. I put more coolant in and most, if not all, ended up dripping on the garage floor. There appears to be a leak (from what I can tell) at the bottom of the radiator. It have to get it to the mechanic's.

The Jeep has been in the mechanic's since a week ago Monday. They've been too busy to get to it. I got a call from them yesterday and it turned out the problem was that there was corrosion to where the grounding wires (or whatever) were connected, which fried the battery and the battery cables. In other words, inadequate grounding. They replaced those and set up new grounding. It seems to be working fine now and will be ready Tuesday (as Monday is a holiday) for me to bring the Mustang in and pick up the Jeep. A vehicle swap! (Yes, I told them about the problem with the Mustang.)

In the meantime, I have been using the mini bike or the motorhome for transportation in the interim. I joked to a friend, if those get disabled, I can always use the zero-turn riding mower to get around until Tuesday. It is good to have backups, eh?  

I was going to go to the grand re-opening of Meteor City Trading Post on Monday. But given the expenses of the vehicle repairs and it usually costs around $130 to fill the motorhome's gas tank (55 gallons), I decided to forego the trip. The trading post is about 160 miles from home.