Two days ago we posted our hope that The Big Kahuna would be ready for the road in a day, possibly two.  That hope proved, as we secretly suspected, overly optimistic.  This morning, even as we waited for our taxi to arrive and take us to 5 Star Diesel, the service manager called to report continuing transmission problems.  Though they had road tested everything on Friday and all looked positive, further testing resulted in ongoing transmission sticking when shifting between reverse and forward gears.  So as of now they have accomplished the following:

• Repaired/adjusted throttle linkage (original problem that got us towed here)
• Replaced both drive shaft u-joints (pointed out by wrecker driver)
• Replaced solenoid switch assembly with manufactured new one (long-standing problem, also aggravating our compressed air leak problems)
• Replaced oil pressure sender (old one was sending incorrect oil pressure to gauge and alarm)
• Changed transmission fluid (still tracking down the actual leak)

So… we are still in Odessa, and as a minimum we will be here another two days, though or concern is that it will be even longer.   As such we are redoubling our efforts to make the best of it, if that makes sense.  During our first week in Odessa, though we scored a great deal on an equipped suite, we didn’t really accomplish much other than catch up on this blog and do some laundry.  I guess we had not really accepted and committed to our stay; it might not have been real to us as we kept thinking we would be out tomorrow, and then tomorrow, and then tomorrow.

We are trying to make up for that a bit now. We can at least do two things here that some people, those of an unnecessarily critical mindset, those without the perspective to see what is important to us, well, those people might say these things are frivolous, even counter productive. Nay I say!  Nay!  These things are important!:

1. Filling in our one dimensional, Miami-oriented wardrobe, one that is abysmally unsuited for anything other than very warm weather.  Additionally, my footwear consists of flip flops, dress and semi-casual shoes, and one ragged pair of Saucany running shoes with holes spreading in multiple spots.  Totally unsuitable for hiking and other rugged outdoors activities.  So we have been hitting the discount clothing stores and sales racks to fill in our sartorial gaps, particularly those that will get us in a more rugged, boondocking mindset.  Yes, I know, the less enlightened will simply call this “spending money because they are bored” but that is just not true! We need these things!  Plus we managed to keep the whole two day spree under $275.
2. Catching up on TV shows that we have missed during the last few months. Without cable or high speed unlimited data internet we have missed the new seasons of Justified, Downton Abbey, Archer, Walking Dead, The Americans, House of Cards, and probably a few others.  Again, the less expansive, the more judgemental among you might dismiss such things as trivial, even frivolous, but as we mentioned as far back as December 2013, we are TV people, believing that we live in the golden age of quality television shows.  Besides, we fully anticipated being hooked up with satellite TV by now.  Sure, we convinced ourselves that we didn’t really miss it, but every time we would run across an ad for one of our shows we would cringe a bit inside.  We may have saved three months worth of satellite costs, but there was a tv sized hole in our souls.  So now we playing catching up, starting with Walking Dead.

We will see where we stand on Monday, hopefully back on the road and on the way to various phenomenal national parks.  Until then we will hang tight here in whatever affordable, military discounted, breakfast and WiFi included, cable TV providing hotel we can find.