Zebulon Montgomery Pike Trail to the sources of the Mississippi 1805 — 1806

Day 9: August 19th, 2002 Pittsburgh

It seems like the phone doesn’t stop ringing this morning. When I get up Helen tells me that her divorced husband had passed away this morning around 4am! Now the family is busy to organize everything for the laying out tomorrow. This is pretty fast here in the US…

I offer my help, but there is nothing where I can assist in any way. So I start to work again on my trail. First I drive to my Chevy dealer to let them know about my transmission. They are really amazed and take a look at my car together with the mechanic who was working on the car. They realize that everything is fine now. Jay, the Servcice Manager, takes me to his office to discuss this further. He offers to take away the $35 for the transmission diagnosis from my bill. But I insist that I also don’t want to pay for the diagnosis of the rear main seal. If they would have not wrongly diagnosed my transmission I would have let them do the rear main seal job. But it doesn’t make sense to pull the transmission two times. He thinks a little bit about that and then he agrees. It seems this was really an exception and they are now doing everything to have a satisfied customer. I am really amazed. Unfortuantely I don’t receive cash but a check. As I am not sure if I can get the money here in the US I ask them to put Helens name in. I thank him for keeping things easy.

Next is to look for a winch. David warned me not to go to the shop in Wexford and recommended one along Highway 60 on the way to the airport. The name is Eastern Offroad. But when I arrive there after one hour drive (the store is located at the other end of Pittsburgh), the shop is closed. There are only the signs around. So I decide to drive to Meridian Offroad. Unfortunately I have not an address with me but I know they are in the area of Butler. I hope they are along one of the main streets to Butler. But I have no luck again. It’s already late afternoon and I decide to drive back home and call them tomorrow.