Like a Phoenix From the Ashes, The Truckster Rises

We had been told by more than one person at the wedding that we should visit Kings Canyon National Park in addition to Yosemite or even in leu of it. Bold statements, we decided to see it for ourselves. We entered through the sister park, the Sequoia National Park with intentions of seeing giant Sequoia trees, before hitting the breathtaking canyon. We had just about an hour left of sunlight and we were hoping to climb to the top of Moro Rock to get a sunset view of the park when the Truckster began to sputter. We had climbed 4400 feet on a road switch-backy enough to make a snake carsick. We pulled over as soon as we could and looked under the hood. Oil level seemed fine, the engine wasn't over heating at all and we had plenty of gas. I walked back to the passenger door and noticed what appeared to be Truckster blood spewing out onto the pavement below. We looked downhill and could see a trail of blood all the way up to where we were standing. As we were peering under the van, a nice man and his family pulled over. They were from San Diego but he was randomly wearing an Alaska t-shirt. He said he had just seen a van just like ours up ahead with the same issue, the front seal on the transmission was blown. Yikes, I thought, I didn't really know what that meant, but I did know that we were in the middle of frenching no where and it was a good thing we had emergency roadside service with Geico. I was able to get cell reception in one 4 inch by 4 inch square on the road, and if I moved my neck either way, I lost Shaumika, my Geico representative in Georgia. I strained to hear Shaumika over the couple who had pulled over to help us as they blabbed about the Truckster to Kai. "Miss Ved-a-No-Ha, can you hear me? Miss Ved-a-No-Ha?? Hello, hello?" It was the most frustrating conversation I've ever had to participate in, but finally after 30 minutes we were able to give her our GPS coordinates and she said a tow truck would be there in the morning to rescue us. It was 6:30 pm and all of the repair shops were closing so the tow truck would be there at 8:00 or 9:00 am the following day. How completely frustrating and annoying, to add to the annoyance level the good Samaritan wife was very reluctant to leave us on the hill as we were "in bear country." She must have said "bear country" 7 times before I shut her up by rudely announcing that we box bears for fun back in Alaska in our front yard. 

Truckster Blood

No thanks to Geico, I was able to make tacos and we sat down for a beer at our temporary camp site. The only traffic going by were construction workers heading up the mountain to repair the road which closed to the public at 9:00 pm. I was able to text my family to let them know we were without cell service unless I was in my pavement square, and received a text back from my dad. He suggested that it was likely NOT the seal, but simply that the transmission fluid had over heated in attempting to climb that giant hill and purged. He told us to add more transmission fluid and keep on keepin' on.

Problem was we just had one quart on us, but we figured it was worth the try, and sure enough it was enough to get us down the hill. We camped that night in the park and then next day in the sunlight we made it back 30 miles to the nearest town where we purchased a case of fluid. That nice couple who had pulled over to help left us their business card. I debated sending this email:

Dear James,
Right after you left us on the side of the road, I called my dad who happens to be a better mechanic than you, and he told us how to fix it, thus avoiding sleeping overnight on the side of a mountain and auto-repair shop fees as well as tow fees we're confident Geico would try to get out of us. Thanks for pulling over, but please don't quit your day job.

Sincerely,
The Ved-a-no-has

We bought a case of ATF at the Chevron

The Truckster requiring frequent fluid level checks

We left the park never having seen the General Sherman, the largest living tree by volume on Earth. Nor did we see a single canyon worthy of a oooo or awwwww. Kai clenched his fist tightly in the air as we drove away, "We'll get you General Sherman, we'll be back!"