If you know me, you know that I don’t care for sitting still. If anything, I typically put more into a day than I should. A close friend has called me a “Martha” many times. She can do that because it takes one to know one. Right, Dot? We have been in a motel for three straight nights. I’m sure that there are many things to do in Grand Junction, Colorado, but with the 100+ degree heat, and no wheels, Maddie and I decided to take a break. You know, the thing that most sane people do on their vacation.

For the past couple of days, PB&J has stayed at a garage in Grand Junction. I have been dealing with a gentleman named Jeremiah. This garage was number nine or ten that I called. All of the others were at least a week and a half out to even look at the Jeep. If Jeremiah gave me the same news, we would have shipped it home and got a rental car.

Jeremiah and I have talked several times over the past couple of days. He was able to locate a new oil cooler, install it, and begin the clean-up of the six-plus quarts of oil that either leaked out in the valley of the motor and spilled down the front of the transmission or was pushed through the coolant system. He didn’t have the proper equipment to do a coolant flush, but he did his best to clean up the latte-looking mix that was clogging everything up.

Not wanting to chance things, we drove just down the road to another shop that is doing a proper coolant flush while I type this blog update. If you’ve never seen an oil and coolant mix that has been circulated through an engine, it really does look like what some of you like to drink each morning.

The picture at the top is of a cactus that we ran across the other day on the Via Ferrata. I didn’t want to embarrass PB&J any more than I already have, so I didn’t take pictures of the oil-covered underside or the brown milky mess dripping out of the radiator. Maybe we will have more pictures for you in the next couple of days.

Because of timing, we are scratching the Grand Teton from our list. This is a sad statement, but we talked through the decision several times. We would have to drive around eight hours in the opposite direction of South Carolina. Most of the drive is through nothingness. At this point, I’m not 100% confident in PB&J. We need to get a few miles on it before I will feel comfortable.

On top of this, we would have to climb the Grand on a Saturday. Neither of us wants to deal with crowds of people on the route. We both agree that the mountain isn’t going anywhere. We haven’t fully decided where we will go next. The first thing that we will do is put the Jeep through the wringer. We will drive slowly through the city with the air-conditioning on to see if the cooling system is working properly.

We are about 1500 miles from Powdersville, and much of that drive is through sparsely populated areas. I’d much rather the Jeep give up near civilization if it isn’t going to make the trip.

Proverbs 16:16 How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!

I don’t pretend to know everything. I’m not sure why the Jeep puked out on us. I’m not sure why we have had to constantly change our schedule. Maybe we needed the rest. I am sure of one thing though; I’m sure of Who the Lord is. Twenty-five years ago, I would not have reacted the way I have over the past few days. I would have been mad. I would have made rash decisions, and I wouldn’t have enjoyed my time with my daughter. I praise the Lord for the wisdom He offers to His children.

Because He Calls, Old Climbing Dad