Zebulon Montgomery Pike Trail to Red River, Mexico Journey 1807

Day 4: October 1st, 2003 Pittsburgh (Chevy Dealer)

Also tonight it was really cold. Even the high temperatures during the day shall not exceed 50 degrees, like the other days. All my preparations are now finished. Like the last days, I check my company emails and wait for the Chevy dealers call.

Eventually they call around 11:30am. They have found nothing else and I can pick up my car now. But Helen is currently at a meeting and will not return before 1:30pm. When she is back, we immediately drive over to the Chevy dealer. Then she directly leaves for her next meeting.

I pay the cashier and shall wait outside for my car. I already see my truck, but no one brings me the car as promised. After ten minutes the cashier shows up again and asks, if no one has showed up in the meantime. I say no and ask, if I cannot simply grab my car and leave?

But that is not possible, because the car is locked. I shall go back into the building and ask them to call again for someone to bring my car. Eventually, on this second try, someone shows up and brings me my truck. Now I drive over to Wal–Mart to buy the remaining stuff for changing my oils (engine and transmission).

However they don’t have the stuff for my transmission. But I get them at Pep–Boys around the corner. I drive back home, equipped with all my spare parts and wait for David’s call, so I can start working in his garage.

Around 5:30pm he is eventually back from work and I drive over to his place. First I load all my self recovery gear like winches, snow chains etc. in my truck. Then he helps me with the engine oil change.

There is not much left to do for today. We just do the lube job at all lubrication points and that’s it for today. For tomorrow he gives me his spare key for the garage, so I don’t have to wait on him.