April 14, 2016
Breakdown Day
So we’ve experienced breakdowns before, but they have always been for the trailer. A couple tires, break lights that stayed on, electrical connection box shorting out and smoking…nothing really major. Well today our truck decided it wanted in on the action. We are in Napa Valley, backed into the dock getting loaded. Turned off the truck for about ten minutes and then went to restart….nothing. Definitely not an ideal place to be stuck and unable to start the truck. To save you from all the boring details, several things were attempted by us as well as the breakdown mobile service and finally after 3 hours of having the dock blocked he got the truck to start. Bad starter. So we ended up driving to the closest TA Truck stop, 4 hours over the beautiful Donner Pass, to have them run diagnostics and replace the starter. Thank goodness there is a Volvo dealer close that stays open late that had the part. After another 4 hours, we have our truck back and starts every time!! So, what does one do when stuck with a broken truck?! A multitude of things…check out the photos for the description of the ‘fun’. Sorry there are no photos of Donner Pass, photographer was sleeping. Next to the truck being fixed in a timely manner by Jim and Jack at the TA, I got to play my absolute favorite slot machine, The Munsters…and WON! Quite the nice ending to a long day!…
