Strut Bearings and Mounts -- Tues., Mar. 5

Yesterday I took my Escape pod into Grande Ford in San Antonio for an oil change. While they were at it, I asked if they could please see what might be causing a "clunking" noise under the front end of the car when I turned the steering wheel at low speeds.

Upon checking the suspension, they found my car needed to have the strut bearings and mounts replaced. It must have needed them for quite a while judging by how long I've been hearing the noise and seeing the "wear" on my left front tire. Unfortunately the price is quite a set back at $600.00. I couldn't leave my car with them overnight because I had to drive back to the 5er.

This morning, we took my Escape back to the dealership. They needed it all day. This afternoon I got a call from Grande Ford telling me while they were making the repair they found a cable chain (?) that was ready to break. That necessitated them ordering the part to fix it.

When the package with the part arrived at their repair shop some of the components were missing from the package. They had to send it back and order another part because the components that were missing were essential to the repair. My car won't be finished until tomorrow.

That had a domino effect on my plans for tomorrow. Peri and I planned to do a 10K Volksmarch in New Braunfels, Texas. That has been successfully rescheduled to Thursday.

Amazing how dominoes fall in order. The other domino, which had to be taken off the table due to the expense of the car repair, was our trip to New Orleans. We had planned to leave Saturday and visit with Bob's great aunt who lives in New Orleans, then spend three days exploring the area. We will have to reschedule that trip into the future. "Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future." (Lyrics from Steve Miller Band.)

Today the chores descended upon me: vacuuming, laundry, chopping pecans and walnuts for oatmeal and salads, making hard boiled eggs for egg salad sandwiches, and backing up my computer.

Talk about tight camping sites...a MH just backed in behind us. There are only a couple of feet to spare. I was nervous as they backed in because it's a rental MH and they were getting really close. I went outside and the young lady asked me if it was okay that they parked so close. I told her, "Yes," but only because if they didn't, the nose of their MH would have been in the entry drive. They are from Switzerland. I don't know how good their English is.

Looking out our back window.

 Here are a couple of bird photos from our 5er window.

Common grackle.

Female cardinal with nut in her mouth.

Let's call it a day shall we. Have safe travels.

Travel Bug out.