A long walk in the desert at sunrise . . .

A long walk in the desert at daybreak

Day one on my journey to Mexico ended okay: not good but okay.  The sun was going down and I was still 50 miles from my intended stop in Blythe, CA.  I saw a sign saying “Desert Center next exit”.  Since I remembered stopping at Desert Center many times before I figured it would be a great place to stop for the night so I got off the I-10 and headed north along the only road in town. 

I traveled about 8 miles before I found what I thought was the perfect overnight camping spot.  It was a cross road that I thought would have zero traffic at night.  About 30 minutes after I parked a pickup truck pulled in behind me carrying a security guard who informed me that I was parked on a private road belonging to the Metropolitan Water District and that I would have to leave.  She recommended a dirt road back toward the highway as a good spot to camp for the night.

I headed back toward I-10, located the road and found a good spot about ½ mile down the road.  It was very peaceful and the view was beautiful with a ¾ moon shining on the desert landscape.  I awoke at dawn to a beautiful sunrise and decided to get an early start.  As I made my “Y” turn on the narrow road my adventure began.  I had to put Dod’s front wheels up on a small bump in order to complete the turn.  Apparently when I backed down something caught the transmission cooler line and separated it from the tube leading to the transmission.  Of course I didn’t know what had happened so I just drove down the road.

About 100 yards later Dod had no forward movement: it was just as if the transmission was in neutral and I mean neutral in all gears.  I got out and crawled under Dod to check the linkage, the drive shaft and the differential finding no evident problems.  I took out my cell phone to call AAA and walked to the front end where I noticed a hose hanging down just above a puddle of red fluid.  The transmission was completely drained of fluid.

I set off for town to purchase some fluid and enjoyed a nice 3 mile walk in the desert.  It was quiet and peaceful and the cacti and bushes cast shadows five times their height.  When I arrived in town only one business was open; the Desert Center Café.

Tomorrow, “the rest of the story”.