Water Pump’s Installed!

2016-04-07 16.38.07Well, although we got back to Freightliner of Oklahoma City (formerly known as Select Service) by about 4pm, they told us that Troy the mechanic was still working on it, having had considerable difficulty with rusted bolts and hardware.  He had to replace the belt tensioner as well as the water pump.  2016-04-07 20.52.05He’s now in the process of putting it all back together, will refill the coolant, pressure test, and then we can get on the road.

I have talked with Troy a few times over the last two days and I’m comfortable with his experience, knowledge, and professionalism.  In fact, all the folks at both the Tulsa and Oklahoma City Freightliner group (Premier Truck Group) owned by Roger Penske have been nothing but courteous and professional.  I’ve been impressed with all of them.

We sat in the waiting room, eyeing the vending machine wondering if some of the contents would end up being our dinner.  2016-04-07 17.16.22We watched the 5 o’clock news, the 6 o’clock news, the 7 o’clock news, The Big Bang Theory, and I don’t remember what else.

Troy finally finished up around 9pm, came in and gave us an update, and we settled up with them.  Normally Troy goes home at 4pm, and normally they close up and lock the gate a 7pm, allowing a few of the guys to get a little overtime occasionally while serving the needs of the over-the-road truckers.  This night they stayed even later in an effort to get us back on the road.

We headed about 45 miles south along I-35 back to where we had camped Tuesday night only to find a shiny “silver bullet” (Airstream) travel trailer parked in the only remaining spot that we had hoped to get.

So, as of this writing, we are sitting in our first WalMart parking lot “boondocking” as they call it.  We bunked for the night, I just got up (about 6am), turned on the coffee pot, the furnace, and the water heater.  Kathy will be up shortly, we’ll shower and then continue on down I-35 through Dallas and south to Livingston, TX where we plan on staying a day or two at the Escapees Rainbow’s End Park

 

I'm curious ... what are your thoughts on this?