...ouch...Ouch...OUCH!!!!!!!

TUESDAY:
We were on some back roads heading home from Knoxville and decided to stop in a Wally World to pick up a few things. We pulled into the parking lot and I cut the steering wheel all the way to the left to pull into a parking place, we heard a small squeal and the engine stalled. I re-started the engine and went to back up a little to straighten out the car and the power steering was gone. We were letting the GPS lead us back to camp. so we're really not even sure where we are, guess we'll worry about that later. We went in the store and got what we needed along with a bottle of power steering fluid, when I check the reservoir it was dry, so I filled it up and figured we would try to find a repair center for a new power steering pump. About two blocks down the highway we spotted a repair center and pulled in, they said that they could take care of it today but first let's take a look at it and make sure it's not just a bad hose.

Twenty minutes later he comes out of the shop and ask me to come see something, the good news is it's not the pump, the bad news is it's the rack and pinion assembly, the good news is we can take care of that, the bad news is all we have to do is find the parts. We spent about 40 minutes on the phone calling all the parts places and parts suppliers in the area but no luck, the only place that had one, and only one was the Chrysler warehouse in Atlanta, so it's going to be two days before we get it. The mechanic topped of the fluid and told me it would be OK to drive it the 12 miles back to camp and they gave me a bottle of fluid to make sure it was topped off when I brought it back.

OK now it's time to figure out the price of this little adventure, over to the computer and start hitting the keys and the GRAND total is just that, 8 cents short of a Grand. Sure is a good thing that we raised our daughter to be a CPA and she got us a nice big rack and pinion assembly for a refund on our taxes this year.

THURSDAY:
10am, Got a call that the part was in and to bring in the car, since this is going to be about a 4 hour job Cathy decided to stay home, I grabbed my book and netbook and I was on my way. About an hour after they pulled it into the garage area the manager came out and said he wanted to show me something. When he said that Tuesday it added about $800 to the bill so I was hesitant to go with him. He pointed out that the front brake were down to being paper thin and that I really should replace them. Now we haven't had any problems with the brakes at all, no squeals or other noise, no pulling, nothing but they were down to nothing so I agreed to the repair.

You would think the you would be able to get more then 70,000 miles out of your original brakes, now I have to call my CPA daughter and tell her to redo our tax return and figure out how to get a brake job added on to the refund.

You know the worst thing about this is we spent all that money on the car, and when we look at it, it looks exactly as it did before, you can't see where the money went, kind of like spending a week painting the kitchen the same color it was, you bust your butt but don't see any difference.

Oh, I did joking with the manager tell that for this kind of money I should get a bonus oil,filter and lube. To my surprise they did it.