In It For the Long Haul

[Alex V.]

Got a call from my BIL's girlfriend yesterday morning, sitting on the side of the road just East of St. Louis (headed from KC to central KY) in her Focus with a big puddle of antifreeze under the car. She'd seen the gauge way too high, but before it pegged out and the light came on, pulled over and called the family/resident car guy, yours truly. She got a tow off the interstate to a nearby mall from AAA and I threw my tools in the 1-ton, poured in 1.5 qts. of transmission fluid (pump seal has been leaking and initial engagement of the forward gears has been progressively more questionable for quite a while now, but it was my only option) and a little bit greater quantity of gas, rented a U-haul trailer and hit the road. By golly, just like the old girl always does, the truck took the beating that is I-65, booked it across I-64 spinning 3 grand all the way, and the ATF level held steady the whole trip. Plodded along with the Focus at 55-60 on the return trip and got somewhere between 9 and 10 MPG driving into a side/head wind most of the way. A while back I loosened up the secondaries a little but I think it was too much because mileage could be a tad better. But never the less, 33 years and 129K don't mean she can't do what she was made for.