Vacation Nightmare!

8-11-26

It was time for our Florida beach vacation!

We hadn’t been on a vacation in a bit because, you know, life. We were excited to go and had been looking forward to it for months. As the time approached we both went further and further into going into vacation mode. Finally the night before we were to leave, things were ready, packed, and all we had to do was get up at 2 am. Cross a couple things off the list. Load the last of it. Fill the cooler. And by 306 am we were on the road.

About 2 hours in, Nick said “oh shit.” And began pulling over. I didn’t know what was up. I didn’t know if maybe we were getting pulled over, there was an ambulance? Did we have a flat? I felt nothing. Finally he said “I saw smoke”

So there we were on the side of an offramp / connecting ramp or whatever it was. He’s out in the dark with a flashlight. Looking over the tires and brakes and as he came by my door I noticed him slip and saw he’d stepped in sloppy wet roadside mud. He had to stop to clean his shoes and then got back in the truck.

He said he noted that there was nothing wrong. And wasn’t sure what that was. Maybe just water spray from the road. It was odd but off we went again.

A few minutes later, he said “can you check normal transmission temps?”

I looked over and saw it was reading high and climbing. We were about 2 hours and 12 min into our 15 hour drive.

Optimal transmission temps for the truck while hauling runs 180-220 or so. It was well over.

So we stopped again. Took some time to research a bit between the two of us. Went to look at some things, check fluids. The normal. Not sure what to do but just watched that temp. Up it went again. Nicks research found that there is a thermal bypass valve that sometimes gets hung up and doesn’t open. So we started looking at where to find it.

Up it went again. And fast. So we stopped again, this time I had done a bit of research to find out where this valve was. The sun had finally risen so we could see.

Google AI said it was under the passenger side. He got out, I got out. I looked at the surroundings and noticed some trash and a spoon and some mud strewn about next to a plastic spoon just right out my door. I thought it was mud or a dumped chocolate shake. I dunno.

Nick grabbed his sunshade and laid it down. It was all he had to lay on the filthy road in a white shirt. Both passenger side doors were open. We watched as he wriggled under the truck. Feet kicking in the rocks and mud so he could push and wriggle under. Joe being behind me then said “that smells awful. What is that?”

Nick couldn’t hear these things. I didn’t know and couldn’t smell it as I was downwind I guess. Maybe denial knowing what my instincts said. But why didn’t I say anything? I just assumed he noticed the muddy milkshake strewn in a long wide line from my door straight out about 2 ft.

By the time Nick got back up, it all really started making sense. I started to smell it. That wasn’t mud.

Now realizing that there was shit all over his shoes, maybe on his cloths and definitely on the sunshade, with a terrible sigh, he asked for paper towels to start cleaning his shoes. Again.

At that time we were about 2 miles from an O’Reillys in Metropolis, IL. We weren’t even out of the damn state yet! It opened at 7 am. So we limped it there. It was 6:33 when we arrived.

Nick asked “so what do you wanna do?”

I said “well,I think we try to figure out the problem. If we can fix it, we fix it. If not, we limp it back home and load whatever we can in the Lincoln and take two Days to get there. But we can chat about all that on the way back home if that’s the case.”

Nick agreed.

We waited. Took some more time to research. And Nick found a common thing to do is smack that bypass to knock the valve back open.

So he pulled a beach towel out to lay on since the sunshade was covered in shit, took his shoes off and put on his sandals. We couldn’t handle that smell in the truck anymore anyway.

He wriggled his way under the truck again, this time on the other side after finding Google ai was wrong telling us it was the passenger side. Ya know, where the shit was. He found it, smacked it a few times and we had 15 min before they opened.

So we went for a drive to see if it would start getting hot again.

It didn’t.

We went back to Oreillys, we saw the man start to open the store. He was burly, rugged and had a big beard. We immediately said the each other, that’s dude knows what’s up. We saw hope. So after he turned the open sign on, we walk in, Nick told the Oreillys Santa was going on and dude had no idea what might be the issue. Never heard of it. I felt like we walked out with our tail between our legs. Wrong again.

We bought a second sunshade to use as our shit covered shade was now in the trash can in front of the store and Nick asked for a plastic bag. For his shoes. So we could contain the shit and keep it off our suitcases.

So off we went for about two and half hours. We thought, oh it just needed a good wack to open up that valve. So we felt we were good to go putting us 5 hours in on a 15 hour trip. No prob. We got this. GPS said eta to St Pete Beach was 8:30 pm.

After those 2.5 hours it started going up again.

So again, we stopped, let it cool. Smacked it a few times and back down it came.

We made it 1.5 hours that time.

But that’s when it all went to shit. No pun intended.

It cooled down and then made it only 10 min. Then we stopped about an hour to give it more time. After that it would barely last more than 30 min and we’d have to stop. Sometimes 1/2 hour would get the temp down but sometimes it would be an hour. By the time we realized that the rain and more traffic was helping along with only going 55 mph the whole time to keep the rpm’s down, by the time we hit Georgia it was hot and sunny and there was no hope. But we’d gone too far.

We even found a car wash to cruise through but that didn’t help and that whole stop of wandering was just a waste.

We kept mathing and we went from we’ll get there about 10 pm to maybe midnight to 1 am to…. We didn’t know. We didn’t know how long the truck would go. We didn’t know how long it would take to cool it down.

At some point before dark, we stopped at a rest area. The temps were running on that truck high enough that it could cause damage. We had to stop and not just for a minute. It needed time. I told Nick, we’re getting one beer out of that cooler and we’re gonna share it. I was so done. And I wasn’t even driving.

We took some time to take off the lower grill on the truck to help with air intake. Nick cut his hand of course, and there was blood running down his hand. He smacked on the part again. Wasn’t ever easy. And it was so hot. And in a weird spot where you couldn’t just take a good wack at it. When we were getting ready to leave, I headed to the truck first, Nick cut the corner of the sidewalk and walked through the grass, and I hear behind me. “I almost stepped in dog shit!!!!”

I glanced back to see it strewn about the area he walked through. He didn’t have any other pairs of shoes or sandals. Close call. Dog people, clean up after your dog, you never know who’s having a really shitty day.

So we got back in after about an hour stop and off we went.

I don’t know how long we made it after that. I don’t know how far out we were. But it felt like we were on a hamster wheel. I swear every time I looked at the eta we were 7 hours away.

At some point the transmission had slipped and you could feel that jerk. Twice. We were sustaining some high temps. Temps that truck should not have been into. But we were in too deep. I feared being stranded. Not knowing what to do. But I did learn a bit about transmissions that day.

When we crossed the Florida Georgia line, I made sure we stopped at the rest area that we do every time. We took a break. Went for a walk. Took time to enjoy we at lease made it into the state. It was dark. Normally you’d have 3.5 hours left. I don’t know what time it was then. We knew it was gonna be a while before we made it to the sand. But we had the sun gone and the air a little cooler in our favor. Off we went again.

At the point that we had about 2.5 hours to go, we hopped off the interstate and decided to take the little roads the rest of the way closer to the coast. The first thing we found was a self serve car wash. We stopped and Nick sprayed down the underside of the truck. And we watched that temp drop so fast. Mighta not been the best thing to do but at that point it was about midnight or 1. We were exhausted. While Nick was out there washing, I told the boys, you guys are doing so good but he’s about to lose his shit. So behave, be kind, be careful and don’t set him off! And off we went again after that wash down worked wonders. We drove down the darkest highways I think I’ve ever been down. The trees towered over and you could see the Spanish moss dangling and blowing as the storm at sea made landfall. And then it dumped. This storm was impressive. You couldn’t see a damn thing. Lightening, thunder. Dark roads. No traffic. I was just waiting for Bigfoot to saunter out of those woods. After about an hour and a half, the heat was staying low enough. And we found our way onto a toll road. It was brand new. Super dark smooth blacktop. Just lovely. Almost looked AI. Had 4 lanes like an interstate. Every overpass we went under was lit up like a Christmas tree. It was about 230 or 3 am I think. It was haunting. There was no traffic. It was visual silence. We even questioned if the road was even open although the gps put us there. It was some eerie twilight zone stuff!! Then we finally saw one car. Phwew.

For the last 2-3 hours, I had to talk Nick through it all. I asked stupid questions, I patted at his arm to keep him going. I talked and annoyed him but played the good wife to keep him focused and pulled together. I mentioned once we got there the excitement would kick in and give us a 28th wind. Nick said “nope, ima pass out”

I told the kids how good they did as we battled this. They didn’t do anything to make it harder. As though they knew what they had to do and how to act and I do feel they really grasped our emotions and how to handle themselves. Like “mom and dad are having a really hard time. Let’s chill.” I was so proud of them.

3:39 am, 24 hours and 33 min later, we rolled into the parking lot. We unloaded in stacks as fast as we could, leaving stuff to deal with tomorrow. And we hit the sand at 3:50 am.

I went back in the take a shower. 24 hours on the road made me feel awful, especially keeping the a/c warmer for most of it. I got out of the shower and saw Nick peak in and wave with a smile. He was sitting out on the patio with our beers. I was so excited that we’d get a little bit of time just to chill and that he actually did get his 28th wind.

After 24 hours and 33 min of the adrenaline rush of fight or flight going to fight the whole damn time, I was relieved, exhausted, excited and almost at a calm. It felt like a 24 hour brush with death. I felt alive again.

And those were the best two beers I’ve ever had in my life.