Shakedown Cruise, Day 2

Well, things are moving along. The place we were supposed to call to get the car fixed? Their phone number had been cancelled. We called the State Park office where we are staying, they suggested a couple of places. The first one's phone number was no good. The other one wasn't any help. We called our AAA referral number; they suggested a AAA recommended shop. That place said they didn't know anything about 4WD service, but we might call Wright Stop.

We called Wright Stop. This fellow sounded young, sounded like he'd been tinkering with autos since he was 7 years old, sounded confident. He told us that it might just be an electronic problem, but if not, there's no money in fixing these things in the shop. He'd have to pull the transfer case apart, ship the innards to Phoenix to have 'em rebuilt and they'd be back in a week... more or less. What's a fellow to do?

Next call was to CoachNet to get a tow to Wright Stop. Took the tow guy quite a bit longer than anticipated to get here, but finally here came Nelson from Nutcracker Towing.

Isn't it funny, but for us seniors, all these working folks seem like kids! The kid, Nelson, expertly dropped his ramp within inches of the front tires of our Suzuki, chained 'er up, and dropped me at Wright Shop.

Jim, the owner of Wright Stop, told me he would first have to diagnose the problem. Listening to the noises the car was making, he thought it might just be an electronic problem, and if he was right (or perhaps Wright?) it would be a blessing for us. I told him we could use a blessing. If it's the major problem, we'd be in the neighborhood of $1500. That's a dangerous neighborhood!

Nelson ferried me down to the local Ford dealer, who rents space to Enterprise Rent-A-Car, where Chuck wrote me up for a Chevrolet Impala. In the process I learned that Enterprise is now the #1 car rental agency. He said that Enterprise had, in the last year, added more cars to their fleet than Avis has altogether!

So, for a while at least, I'm driving a white Impala. Suzy and I took a tour of the town of Safford today, ending up at the Chamber of Commerce, where we picked up a slew of leaflets and visitor guides. Now, in the twilight hours, we look at the sunset ...

And Suzy is reading about places to go during the rest of this week in ... Our Life on Wheels.