May-June Happenings

We did some tye dying while in Casper.  Here Carla is dying some shirts.

 I promised to finish our Mayo Clinic saga and then never got back to it.  Here's "the rest of the story!"  On May 6, after the doctor gave Bob the OK to head to Wyoming to stay for a while with Carla's family in Casper, we all got packed up to leave Phoenix.  Carla, JJ, Bob and I loaded into our 1990 Lincoln Town Car and headed for Flafstaff.  Due to my great sense of direction and map reading skills, we ended up 45 minutes of city driving later, several blocks away from Annie's house!  Ozzie was supposed to meet us with his motorcycle in Flagstaff and was patiently waiting when JJ called him to tell him where we were.  He sarcastically wanted to know if we were going to stop back at her house for a bathroom break!

Annie celebrates her two new knees.

 The second try worked much better and we were finally headed for Flagstaff.  As
we got closer to that city, driving up the winding mountain highway the car started to do big jerking gear shifts.  Bob kept accusing Carla of not knowing how to drive and she kept insisting she wasn't doing anything wrong.  After all she had grown up in the mountains and knew how to drive in them.  Meanwhile JJ and I were in the back seat feeling the floor to see if it was getting hotter.  JJ kept seeing smoke from the back of the car when it shifted.  We were only about ten miles from meeting Ozzie and going about 45 mph on the interstate.

Bob is dealing with the heat the best he can.

We made it to the bottom of the exit ramp and could see Ozzie over in the filling station waiting for us.  When the light changed and Carla stepped on the gas nothing happened!  Just our luck!  Bob said try it again and it inched forward.  We made it and Ozzie took over and helped us to figure out what it was. The transmission fluid was gone so we dumped in several quarts, waved goodbye to Ozzie and JJ on the motorcycle, and we were headed for New Mexico.

Buddy is the welcoming committee at the dentist office.  I took this the day before her second knee surgery.

 We stopped a couple times to make sure the fluid was still OK and it was.  We ended up staying overnight in Grants, NM.  Bob was tired but did pretty well.  We pressed on the next day which was Sunday.  I was driving and shortly before Santa Fe the car started a jerking.  We had forgotten to check the transmission fluid that morning and so we made a pit stop at Walmart in Santa Fe.  They didn't have any transmission fluid but did have some stop leak type stuff.  We drove around town until we found an auto parts place that was open, added more transmission fluid and the stop leak fluid and were off again.  We checked our fluid again in Raton and it was OK.  We made it to Denver that night in the rain and were in Casper the next afternoon with no problems!

Carla checks up on how her tye dye is doing.

We took the car in to the Ford garage in Casper and they found a crack in the transmission where the fluid is kept.  After a couple weeks of recovery for Bob in excellent weather (warm with no wind), the car was ready and we were able to head for home to our beloved cabin.  Six days later we were off to Elko for a graduation and then back to Phoenix for six more weeks helping Annie with her other knee replacement! With another little, but expensive, blip on the drive down we made it!  That's where we are now in 113 degree heat--but that is another  story!

Erin is sitting on their patio in Spring Creek, NV.  The view from there is terrific!