Stuck Inside of Des Moines with those Lubbock Blues Again

It's been awhile. Too long, really. And in all our meandering since we set out on the road, we've been to the far southwest corner of New Mexico, to the far northeast corner of Wisconsin, with a lot of stops in between. We've met great people, had great times, and enjoyed the experience that is part and parcel of being a full time rver.

Last Friday we met with a telling reminder that road breakdowns and unexpected stops are also part of the experience. We were rolling between Iowa City and Des Moines and the check engine light made an appearance. As an older vehicle it didn't tell us much but I kept driving, wwanting to get to a better place. It was still running fine, or so I thought.

Big mistake. In Des Moines th3e car simply stopped going forward. I called roadside assistance and waited four hours for a tow. After a good deal of discussion, we found a shop willing to look at it and we sat through the weekend.

The coolant lines blew on the transmission. It needs a new one, and because of age, it does not come cheap. $11,000 in fact. After giving ourselves time to rest we determined that a better course of action is to replace it entirely.

We found a replacement rv; that's the good news. It's draining our savings; that's the bad. But this, literally, is why we HAVE savings, and so we move forward. We're put up in a hotel for a week and should be able to start moving next week. We just have a lot of work to do in between.