Lincoln Highway
Day 18
After spending a fun weekend with the Shinn’s we left their home at 7:30am, before we melted from the heat. Our plan was to drive the southern route of the mountains instead of going through Lake Tahoe.
The drive was beautiful and we stopped at one overlook to take pictures. When we got back in the car Steve turned the key to start it and it was dead. After doing some investigation he realized the starter switch that activates the solenoid wasn’t working and to make the car go he had to jumper the solenoid. For you Model A guys, this should make sense to you. I have no idea what I wrote, but I got it straight from the horses mouth, Steve.
We were also having trouble with internet reception for the GPS, which we depend upon to get us from point A to B. We had just entered Minden, NV and saw a McDonalds. We knew we could get good reception there so we stopped for an early lunch and plotted out our route.
Steve missed the exit to go around Carson City so we were going to be driving through the business district. We hadn’t gone far when the car started to pull to the side. Steve’s first thought was it was the grooves in the road, but no it wasn’t that. We just got our second flat tire of the trip. Again, this happened where there was a large turn-out so we weren’t just on the shoulder of the road.
I’m either getting so used to the breakdowns or I just wasn’t thinking, because I didn’t get out of the car to take a picture of him fixing the flat until it was done. I did jump out and get one showing his dirty hands before he put his tools away.
As we drove through the city Steve spotted a Discount Tire shop. We stopped to see if they would find the hole in the innertube and patch it. No such luck. Tire shops no longer work with innertubes. Next door to Discount Tires was an automotive shop. We stopped there to get the necessary stuff to repair everything that needed fixed. We barely left the parking lot when Steve needed to brake for a light. As he did, the brakes pulled to the right. This was yet another problem we hadn’t anticipated. We were close to Reno, NV and realizing we couldn’t go much farther with all these problems I called my cousin, Linda, who we just saw a week ago.
In the midst of all that was going wrong 4 good things happened. First, she was home and welcomed us for another couple of nights while Steve sorts all this out. Second, Kenny took Steve to a bicycle shop where they do work with innertubes. They found the holes in the tubes and only charged five bucks!. Third was Steve could work in their newly cleaned out garage, instead of out in the 90+ degrees! Fourth, is we get to spend the 4th of July with my cousins, instead of being out on the road. God is good.
After Steve worked on the car for a bit, he came in and showered before we went to the Rusty Taco for dinner. When we came back to their home, Steve promptly fell asleep in a chair while the 3 of us visited and watched TV. Finally, at 9:00pm Steve got up to go to bed.
Let’s pray Steve can get everything repaired so we can get home by July 14th.
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