Remember my Road Trip in September?
http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/...-small-updates
Well, this is a road trip that seems to keep on giving and giving and GIVING AND GIVING........
Today when I got back from Whitstable in Prozac, there was a letter in my mailbox.
Anyway........
Remember this entry when the Hemi Challenger broke down, due to a melted wiring loom, which turned out to be a factory recall job after Dennis spending a small fortune to get it bypassed in Jonesboro in order to get me mobile so I could get back to Rogers party and his birthday party??
Challenger breaking down in the middle of nowhere, in Banjo country....
So I try various ways to start the Hemi Challenger, but no go.
So I pull out my UK based mobile phone that will let me make a call at £1.10/min to call Dennis......
No reception.
So took some pics of the car, the address etc and started to walk toward the next home down Hiway 25 Arkansas.
Number 3001 has an old guy working in his yard, next to a trailer and 70's Big Block Suburban.
So I look for guns and approach, explaining my situation.
He pulls out his mobile phone and says "You can use my phone" while he carries on trying to remove a tyre from a rim with some wholly inadequate tools. But he does succeed.
Long story short, Dennis refers me to Dodge recovery service, they take my exact details and say it should take an hour (I am 29 miles from one small dealer at Wallnut Ridge and about 45 miles from the bigger dealer at Jonesboro)
I get a text a while later to confirm it will be just over two hours for them to get there.
So Walk back to the car to check if it will start again, but also just to move it more on driveway.
Then I hear RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.........!!!
Look back and see this.
Old guy in his EZ-GO Golf kart coming to pick me up and run me to the car.
Thank you Charles.
No luck there in the end.
We do look at this truck, found out later it was bought for the house owners son, but he lost interest fast and now has a jacked up V6 Toyota pickup
We go back to the old guys home, try to get a tyre onto the rim, unsuccessfully.
More chat, glass of water and local history.
Help him adjust golf kart throttle cable.
And then I go back to the car to await recovery service.
By 3.30 pm still no recovery, so I walk back to the house and ask for phone again......
at 4.03 a missed call, as I cannot raise the service......
Call back and it is the Recovery service owner to say they were given the wrong details and despatched to the wrong address
So I walk back to the car and at the same time my friend Steve from Jonesboro where I was headed arrives in his Toyota truck, so we chat while waiting for the service guys, who eventually get there after 5pm.
Car loaded, we head to Jonesboro, which is where Steve lives, the recovery service is based even though Dodge will only recover to the nearest address etc...... the owner Glenn says he will take the car to Jonesboro with us following in Steves truck.
Once we got there, signed off the car, to be investigated on Thursday.....
And Steve and I head home via a Pizza place with cold beers and great service.
Then home to see Lulu the dog and his wife.
Lulu loves me, and I love her gentle nature.
Knowing we need to be back at the dealers 30 minutes away by 07.30 the next morning, we turn in early-ish.
Thursday was going to turn into a pile of steaming poop.
SO TODAY WHEN I GET IN THERE IS THIS ENVELOPE IN THE POST.
I look at the return address and the memories come rushing back.
Take a moment to read this message from Charles, who had helped me when I broke down.
I had sent him and his wife Onida a nice Thank You card after I got back to Dennis and it must have impressed them that I did not take their help for granted.
They actually made the effort to find out what my address in the UK is.
Did I mention that LIFE IS GOOD ??