Gold On The Inside

We then set out for Phoenix, where my fathers old army buddy, and the guy I am named after, lives with his wife. That was the plan. The plan, however, changed. I started seeing smoke in my rear view mirror. I pulled over while smoke was billowing out of my engine compartment. A huge puddle of oil underneath the car. And my car was doing so well, too! So, I left Helen with the car to go check the nearest mile marker so when I called AAA they would know where to send the tow truck. On my walk down the highway, cigar in mouth, a semi pulled over to offer help as well as a another guy in a pick up truck. Thanks to those guys out there, where ever you are for the kindness. Not to mention the Arizona Highway Patrol unit that checked on us twice to make sure we were ok. I called AAA, scheduled a tow, and grabbed a warm 16oz Budweiser from the back of the car. Why not? I wasn't driving anywhere. So, we waited about an hour. Then JR showed up. AAA called me to make sure that he got there, while she was asking me if her arrived, he said "Tell her JR is here, and we got you taken care of!". So, I asked him to take us to motel close to a garage where we could drop the car off. Helen and I then buckled up in the car on top of the flatbed tow truck, and turned the radio on. We enjoyed a nice little romantic stretch of road that neither of us were driving on. Riding on. On a tow truck. In the car. Motel time, first we had to unload out luggage because I want it to sit out over night. Got a room, went to the room that was already occupied. Went to the front desk , got another room, which wasn't occupied. Took the car to the garage, came back, had grub, and started running worst and best case scenarios through my head. The garage called me this morning at twenty to eight. I walked up there, and talked to the guy. he said one of his technicians thought that i had blown a rod. Huh, expensive proposition. That was one of the worst case scenarios I had come to terms with. A couple grand, but what can you do? It has already happened, so you just have to deal with it. I didn't think that was right though, it just didn't add up. I have thrown rods before and that is the loudest noise you will ever hear out of and engine compartment. So, we brought it in and put it up on the lift. I told Bill the mechanic that I was going to be in there with him, cause she is my baby. We looked around, and found the problem. My exhaust had rubbed a hole through my oil filter. All I needed was the monetary equivalent of an oil change. We then took a crow bar and pushed the exhaust pipe away from the filter and put a new filter on. $2000 to $26.71 in the blink of an eye. Crisis averted, weight of the world lifted. Now we are heading to Phoenix. We are gonna take it easy today, maybe go through a little mining town, and hopefully fly my kites. I am so relieved and excited, and am taking it as a huge omen to the things to come. I tried to load the video we took roadside yesterday, when we were laughing and just dealing with it. But for now, here is a picture of the sunset yesterday, as we were broke down on the side of the road. We love you all. Whats gonna happen next? Ha. Find out.