Back from Vacation

We arrived Sunday afternoon from our trip to "Cheeseburger" in Caseville, MI. What a great time we all had! The parade was one of the better times, and a must see as we were told by one of the women who works at the Chamber of Commerce.

The vacation was not completely perfect. My tow car, a 1997 Saturn wagon, seemed to have destroyed it's transmission!

We first unhooked the car from the motorhome at my friend, Gary's home. We drove it around out of the way for me to move the motorhome. Sunday morning we drove the car back to be hooked up to the motorhome. I was showing Wilma the steps taken to do it correctly. Gary was also watching. After hooking it up and checking to make sure the lights were working, we said our good by's to Gary & Cheryl. Off we went to Caseville, which was a couple hour drive, enjoying the country views.

Arriving at our destination, I un-hooked the car and Wilma got in the car to start it and move it off the road unto our campsite. That's when I heard her say something was wrong. I got in the car, moved the shift to R with no movement of the car. Not even any noise from the transmission. Moving it to D didn't do anything, the car just didn't move!

Wilma and I then proceeded to push it out of the road and unto our campsite. I checked the trans fluid and it seemed ok. But for good measure I added about a half quart of transmission fluid to it. Tried to get the car to go in gear resulted in nothing. The car just wasn't going to move. My realization then set in....a blown transmission. Now what to do????

Lucky for us we were camping with good friends who asked us to join them every time they planned on going into town. We made the best of the situation, trying to not think about the car, and have a good time. Which is just what we did.

As the car did roll freely when placed in anything but P, when it was time to come back home I just hooked it onto the motorhome and pulled it back home with us.

Now my plans are to just donate the car to charity. Looking up what the value is for this year and model car, I have determined that the cost of repairing the trans., the 4 struts, and the water pump just out did the total cost of the car.

So for the past 2 days I've been on the NET looking for it's replacement. I feel I've done my homework, knowing the MSRP and the Invoice prices of the cars I'm interested in. Today, armed with this knowledge, I took a test drive of a new 2008 Saturn Aura and spoke to a salesman. From there I went to the Chevy dealer and test drove a 2009 Malibu. Talking to the salesman there we agreed on a price, (which was what a GM employee gets), and I signed to get the paperwork going.

Keep your fingers crossed, if it's meant to be I can pick up the new car tomorrow evening.

So.....with all this going on I haven't had time to post all the pictures of our vacation. I took many, many, many pictures of the parade and town of Caseville. Maybe in a couple days when things settle down around here, I'll have time to post the pictures.

So until then, be safe and God Bless.