Endurance ride = truck problems

I'm seeing a disturbing trend.

 

And it has nothing to do Farley, her hocks, or my current obsession of learning to vault into the saddle (look mom!  no stirrups!)

 

Thursday before a ride = truck problems

 

Let me take you back....way back.....to the Thursday before my 100.  (Because let's face it, anything that happened before my 100 was a LIFETIME ago....)  There was a small issue of my truck having transmission problems and (more serious in my mind) the cruise control not working.  They wanted to give me a loaner.....I shrieked something about leaving for a 100 miler that weekend and they managed to patch it up good enough to drive to Ridgecrest.  I was permenantly known as the crazy horse lady.

 

I brought the truck back in the next week and they "fixed" it, declared it good as new and sent me on my way.

 

Except......

 

Now there's a noise that wasn't there before that sorta whines over my transmission/engine noise.  And the orginal problem of NOT shifting when accelerating onto the freeway in tow mode still exists....but "differently". 

 

I gave it a chance.  After all, they did reprogram the transmission etc so I gave it a chance.  And then today, I took it back in.

 

"it makes a noise" (they look at me skeptically)

"it still doesn't shift right" (they look frusterated)

 

So they STILL can't make the transmission do the non-shifting thing (probably because it's not under load) but now they've found a more serious problem....apparently that noise was my rear end gears chewing themselves into pieces. 

 

I think the exact expression used was "frosted flakes".

 

See, I told you it was making a noise.

 

So now I have a rental car.  They tried to give me a truck (they give you something comperable to what you have) but I told them if I could pull a trailer with it, I wanted something with good gas mileage.  So now I'm getting something called a "Cobalt".  Whatever. 

 

So now I'm REALLY happy I'm not going to Buck meadows this weekend.  Can you imagine?  For the second time having to tell the shop that "this simply won't do!" (imagine my snooty nose in the air stamping my little foot), "I simply MUST have my truck this weekend". 

 

Ummm....sorry - not for a local 50 miler.  Nope nope nope.  Let's get that truck fixed!  However, the decision is definately easier to swallow as I already decided not to go!

 

If you really want to cry with me.....remember my truck is but a year old with 37,000 miles!  We aren't talking a clunker!

 

When do those lemon laws go into effect??????

 

On the other hand, I scheduled a jump lesson for Saturday.  I had to reschedule from last Saturday because of hocks......looks like I'm rescheduling this Saturday because of truck issues.  Ummmm....maybe God is trying to tell me that I shouldn't jump?

 

On the other hand, the ride from my stable to my trainers would be a nice conditioning ride! 

 

Just kidding, kinda

 

(btw - "jump" lesson, because it's my first is poles etc.  Nothing that will cause my pony's hind legs to fall off!)