Relentless Inquiry

I've gone from driving to San Diego on Thursday night to flying on Saturday afternoon to possibly driving on Saturday morning or Friday night. Yeesh. How did we get here?

Mike's friend Randy needed a lift, as his SO Kathy had to work on Friday and couldn't leave until Friday night. Randy, Mike, and their dive and photo gear (yes, 2 underwater photographers, phear their luggage!) are about max-out for the Toyota Echo without myself and a land-based-only bag. I wanted to stay and get a quiet day or two at home, do a little gardening, go to a friend's party on Friday night. So Mike & Randy took the Ford Ranger, which seats only 2, and which had the advantage of being able to throw bulky gear willy-nilly into the back. I made a reservation to fly to San Diego on Saturday afternoon. Mike and I will drive back together, taking an extra day to sight-see. Randy & Kathy will drive back together on Sunday night in Kathy's car.

Time passes. I go to dinner with friends at Afghani House (qabili pullaw, ultra-yum!), then to Barefoot Coffee Roasters (white espresso w/molasses drizzle, omg, who knew that molasses & espresso made this MAGIC THING together?!) Mike called very late last night (eg, after midnight). He & Randy got to the hotel just fine, but the last 300 miles or so, the truck's transmission gave more and more trouble. By the time they got to the hotel, it had locked up enough that Mike couldn't get into reverse.

That thing has always been trouble– we had half the front linkage replaced during the initial warranty period, and then bought an extended warranty because the shifting always was dodgy. Unfortunately that's been expired for a year now. Mike is kinda hard on manual trannies, had to replace the one in my previous car after he'd driven it a lot, but still– I hardly expect to have this kind of trouble with a 1998 vehicle!

So he's going to find (in order of priority) either a AAA-operated repair facility or a Ford dealership, because either of them would give a warranty on repairs that could be honored at sister facilities up here. If the repair bill is too enormous, we will either fly us both home (and send his stuff up with the rest of the group in this trailer they rented) or possibly buy a new (used?) car down in San Diego. Or I could end up driving the Echo down to San Diego. Whee.

I've heard that LA and/or San Diego are good places to buy cars this time of year, actually– have heard of people making a trip just for that. Apparently dealers in the rest of CA send their stuff down there in the late fall to make room for next year's models, so it's possible to buy a new last-year's car at a steep discount. We'll see. I really don't feel like spending the money, or having to deal with it right now! Sheesh. It's always something!