Lemonade from Lemons

May 29 -

After Boomer’s initial guess two weeks ago that Vic’s issue was the torque converter, we had a couple shops look at it and ultimately confirm that as the most likely problem.

Basically, as long as it’s in Drive and moving, everything’s okay.  But when you start the engine and move from Park (or Neutral) into Drive, she lurches and dies. Or if you come to a stop … game over, unless you quickly shift into Neutral.  We finally figured out that if you’re on a downhill and can coast just a bit, she’ll get going.  On level ground you can try switching back and forth quickly between Neutral and Drive and get moving, but sometimes that takes 6 or 8 tries.  By then the people behind you are flipping you off.  And on an uphill … fuggedaboutit.

So in the last ten days, we limped our way down the coast, always looking for mild downhills to park on, and basically terrified of stopping.  We’ve run more stop signs and red lights than we care to admit.  We’ve also been stuck in the middle of several intersections with cars lined up in each direction, honking and gesturing. Eeesh. It’s hard to convey the consistent level of stress.

After more than 400 miles of that, with a lot of altered plans but still some great bike riding, we rolled into the Santa Rosa Mercedes Benz dealership last Wednesday. We rented a replacement vehicle and left Vic in the capable hands of our new MB friends. Then we waited (again) to find out just how much our plans would be altered for the last two weeks of our adventure.

On Friday we heard that a new transmission would be required.  Now we wait to find out when they can get the right one and get it installed.

In the meantime, we’ve continued to hike, golf, paddle and (mostly) ride, using the rental car and Sam’s home in Inverness as our base.  Definitely making lemonade out of some pretty sour lemons.

Boomer and Cindy left us shortly after Vic “got sick” which left us with six. Then T Lee had to go home not long after that … down to five.  Midge (Mike) got on a plane for home yesterday.  Tex’s knee has gotten worse so he’s not riding anymore, but he’s a saint and willing to keep driving. So he, Cathy & I (the original 3 musketeers) left Sam & Anna’s (thank you guys again!) and headed down the coast yesterday to ride some more. Highway 1 is closed for repairs just south of Big Sur, so our original plans would have been altered regardless. Now, after reaching that point tomorrow, we’ll head back to Santa Rosa to check on Vic and maybe finish the trip with some rides north of the Bay Area in wine country.

Despite the significant setbacks (did I mention my seven flats and a cracked front wheel?), we’ve had one helluva good time. I’ll post some more random pics from the past couple weeks, soon.

Robbo