T@Bless No More!

I picked up my replacement T@B yesterday from Vacationland RV (Big Rock, IL). It's the second T@B and third camper I've bought from them in three years, and I also have stored my campers on their lot during the winter, so we know each other pretty well now. They're a terrific dealer with excellent service and low prices.

While I waited for them to install a hitch on my blue Subaru, I looked at their new T@DA trailer (the "bigger" version of the T@B). It was about the same as the one I had seen at the Minden rally last summer. It was a nice trailer, especially for a couple with a child, but a bit excessive for my needs. I was still glad a chose to get another T@B.

Here are a few more pictures of my T@B's homecoming... the interior is a golden tan color with brown accents (matches Millie's fur quite nicely!). I really LOVE the new stove and sink. Both have flush-mounted black tempered glass covers, and the stove now has an auto-ignition so you don't need to fool with matches or a lighter. So good to be a T@Bber again!!!

Bit by bit...putting it together

One would think that after my hellish vacation experiences with my first Subaru, that I'd be looking for new cars the minute I came home. Well... Jody, the Subaru customer service manager who I'd been talking to daily during my car problems out West, also anticipated this. The day after I got home, she called to say "I'm guessing that you might not ever want to see that black Subaru again. Am I right?" Of course she was!

So, she pulled a few more strings at Subaru headquarters in New Jersey (where she works), and put me in touch with another dealer in Chicago who was tasked with getting me a replacement car. I told him I was flexible on the options and almost any color...except for black! Within a couple weeks, he found me a beautiful blue and silver Outback.

One night, I decided to make a formal portrait of Mom, Millie, and I in front of the new car to print and send to Jody at Subaru as a thank you for all the hard work she did on our behalf.

So now with the car problem solved, and a beautiful Labor Day weekend on the horizon, I was starting to go through serious camping withdrawls! I had gone out to my T@B dealer hoping I might be happy with buying one of their models off the lot, but none of them were quite right, so I ended up placing a special order for a new one....and would only need to wait about 12 weeks for delivery!

To make the wait more bearable, I decided to do two things: 1. Buy a tent so I could still do a little bit of camping this season, and 2. Plan to co-host a T@B Rally with a T@B friend I had met out at Minden. I figured if I couldn't have a T@B myself for a while, the next best thing would be to hang out around them and their owners for a weekend.

I decided to go with an LL Bean tent that matched my new blue car. Millie and I took it out to White Pines State Park for Labor Day weekend to christen it. Tent camping again was fun, but I had forgotten what a chore it was to pack and unpack all the camping gear into the back trunk (with the T@B "always packed", I had only needed to hitch it up and go). But it was sure better than not getting to be outdoors at all!

"It's Like Deja Vu' all over again!"

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the Subaru dealer in Jackson had my car finished and ready for pick-up. Mom and I hurriedly packed the T@B and returned the rental car, and began making reservations for somewhere other than Jackson!

Apparently, they had discovered some defective parts in the transmission, and that is what caused the blown gasket. Now that the transmission had been rebuilt, the dealer was confident I was good to go.

We finally pulled out of the KOA in late afternoon and decided to drive straight west over to to Idaho and then head north into Montana and spend the night in Butte. Our drive was uneventful and calm.

The next day's drive would finally take us to Glacier National Park. Because of the delay in Jackson, we no longer had time to get all the way up to Banff, so we decided that at least getting to Glacier would let us see at least one thing we had originally set out to see.

This was a day of record hot temperatures for Montana, and the Subaru was starting to show signs of stress again--- at every long incline, I had to turn off the air conditioner and slow way down for fear of overheating. We stopped for lunch in Great Falls, Montana and the bank time/temp signs were displaying 104 degrees!

Only 3 more hours til Glacier...but then, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra "it was like deja vu all over again!". This time I was driving as we came to the first long, steady incline about 40 minutes north of Great Falls. Nearing the top of the hill, a familiar blue cloud of smoke burst out from beneath the hood. I literally screamed in disbelief! "This is a brand new car", I shouted!

Well, this time, rather than calling my Good Sam towing service, I knew exactly who to call...my Subaru customer service manager, Jody. She was completely stunned by the news, but quickly jumped into gear to get me some help. There was a Subaru dealer back in Great Falls, and she contacted the Service Manager to make towing arrangements for us.

In an hour or so, a nice young man came to tow the car and the trailer back to Great Falls. Millie knew the routine now, as she peered out from the back seat of the Subaru as it got loaded up onto another flatbed tow truck.

While the dealer in Jackson was a total nightmare to deal with, the dealer (and all the people we met) in Great Falls were the kindest, most generous people we had ever encountered. When we arrived to Bennett Motors 10 minutes after closing time, the Service Manager, Bob Bailey, and his head technicians were out front waiting for us. One of them started inspecting the car as it rolled off the tow truck while the other hooked my T@B up to his pickup truck and drove it into the garage for safe keeping that night.

(photo courtesy of Bennett Motors)

There were no rental car offices still open that night, so Bob drove Mom, Millie, me, and our bags over to the hotel and promised to send a driver in the morning to take us to the rental car office. When we arrived to the hotel, Bob even took the time to help carry our bags inside and made sure we got checked in o.k. I couldn't imagine any other auto service manager in the country doing something like that for total strangers, long after work hours no less!!! He really renewed my faith in how good and compassionate people can be, and we will be forever thankful for his kindness to us that night.

Change of plans

We left Minden early on July 3rd to drive out to my brother Randy's house in Colorado to get there in time to watch the town of Avon's fireworks from his condo's balcony. It was hot for Colorado--- well into the 90's, and we had been driving hard and fast all day. Rather than stop in Denver for a break, we decided to drive through town and start heading up into the mountains.

The stretch of I-70 just west of Denver has perhaps one of the steepest grades in the country. You literally climb a few thousand feet within a few short miles. My new Subaru's temperature gauge had been running slightly hotter than normal all afternoon, but I didn't really think anything of it until we got to this mountain incline. As soon as we hit the first big climb, my temp gauge shot up and teetered on the borderline of overheating. I pulled off to the first exit and called my brother who suggested I just open the hood and let it cool off for an hour. He also gave me his Subaru dealer's number down in Denver, and they gave me the same advise.

What normally would have been a two hour drive from Denver to Avon, took us nearly 4 hours due to having to stop a few more times to let the engine cool as we climbed up the mountains. Fortunately, we never overheated, and we still managed to make it to Avon in time for the fireworks show and a terrific dinner my brother and his friends had prepared for us on the balcony. It was a terrific way to end the day!

We stayed in Avon the next few days so my Mom could visit with my brother while I worked. I tried calling the Subaru dealers nearby to see if I might need a transmission cooler installed, but they all replied the same that no cooler was made for the 2008 Outbacks. So, I decided to leave things "as is" for the rest of our journey.

After leaving my brother's, the next leg of our trip was to drive up to Glacier National Park and then on to Banff. We planned to stop in Jackson, Wyoming and Yellowstone on our way up to Glacier, but we had gotten a late start out of Avon and ended up staying a few hours south of Jackson in some dusty, forgettable town on I-80.

The next morning, we heading north to Jackson and Yellowstone. The day before, at a couple of brief moments climbing up steep passes, the car had started to veer towards the borderline of overheating again, but for the rest of the trip, it performed just fine.

After stopping for gas around noontime, Mom drove another long incline towards Jackson. All of a sudden, blue smoke started pouring out from under the hood. We quickly pulled over to discover that my transmission had blown a gasket and was leaking fluid all over the highway. We were 10 miles from the closest town, but fortunately, still at the very edge of cell phone coverage, so I was able to call Subaru Roadside Assistance. They were happy to send a tow truck for me, but said it'd be about a 3 hour wait, and they also would not be able to tow my trailer. Fortunately, I also still had my Good Sam RV towing service. They were fantastic and life-saving! Good Sam arranged to send 2 trucks to rescue us, and promised to drive us all the way into Jackson (a 60 mile drive!) so that my Subaru could be taken to the dealer there. For lodging, they arranged to tow my trailer to a KOA there in town, and I also was able to get a rental car.

As we waited for the tow trucks to arrive, a number of people stopped to offer assistance. It seems like the vast distances in the West make everyone help each other a bit more than they do in the Midwest or East. Finally, our trucks arrived, with only one small problem....Millie would not be able to ride with us in the cab of the truck, she'd have to go either in the trailer or stay in the Subaru. Temperatures were again in the 90's that afternoon, so I left her in the car and rolled down the windows. What a look on her face when they hoisted the car way up onto the flatbed tow truck!