Yesterday duty called from Stillwater, Oklahoma and so I loaded up Little Red with a backup computer and headed that way.
About ten miles south of my destination, Little Red overheated, as she (yes, she) had been doing more and more lately.
Luckily, she overheated right next to the Forman Harley-Davidson dealership from whence I got a ride from the nice manager lady back in September after my walk to Stillwater.
Now I want one of those smaller Harley’s. I didn’t know they made smaller Harley’s. Anyway, I had a nice discussion with that nice manager lady.
I started again and then overheated right next to one of our client’s places, the Mission of Hope homeless shelter. That’s the place I couldn’t stay after I walked to Stillwater.
While Little Red was cooling off, I went in to see if MOH needed any computer work. They did. Well, I guess I was supposed to stop.
When the work was done, I headed for my final destination, the reason I was going, COCAA’s community health clinic. Little Red overheated again… and this time I stopped by the Oklahoma State University swine research laboratory (aka, the pig farm). The picture above is Little Red cooling off there.
Debbie from the clinic came to pick me and the computer up. I fixed her computer problem (without needing to install the computer) and we started talking. Her main man, Doug, is a car fix it guy, so he came out and looked at the car.
We tried replacing Little Red’s thermostat, but that didn’t fix her. I couldn’t drive home, so Doug and Debbie invited me to stay the night.
In the morning, I called mechanics around Stillwater telling them that I needed a price on a water pump replacement.
Now, on a 2003 Dodge Neon, the water pump is all mixed up with the timing belt and anything having to do with the timing belt is expensive. All quotes were between $400 – $500.
I decided on a shop near the Mission of Hope, Carlile Automotive. The mechanic on duty, Steve, said that perhaps he should take a closer look at my car before ordering the parts. It turned out the problem was a hole in a hose. It certainly wasn’t an obvious hole — I didn’t notice it — but it was enough to screw up the pressure in the line and keep water from pumping.
It’s always refreshing to run across honest people. It could save you a bunch of money to find an honest mechanic. He easily could have just replaced the pump as I had asked him to do.
The owner of the shop, Rick, is a really nice guy. He used to own a hobby shop and has since moved some of the hobby into his lobby. He let me play with his remote control model airplane and helicopter simulator.
They have a cat.
The three of us had several good discussions about cars and the Internet. Since they helped me so much with my car, I’m going to help them with their Internet.
If you’re within 600 miles of Stillwater, Oklahoma and you own a car, then you should probably familiarize yourself with these guys. You know how I’m a computer geek? These guys are auto geeks.
FTC disclosure: Yes, I had to pay for their services. They’re running a business, right? The bill was $147. This is mainly because of the time Steve had to spend to track down the problem. It was well worth it… paying him to find that hole saved me $323 or so.
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