Truck update - - Day 947 (Year 3, Day 214)

Bastrop, TX

Mitch finally went back to work this afternoon, so he lost a total of 3 days (1/2 day Mon and 1/2 day today).  Fortunately, he still had some vacation time left, so he used that so we wouldn't lose pay.

So two problems found: first involves lack of pickup and power -- the catalytic converter needs to be replaced.  We can still drive it, but definitely not recommended to do while towing, especially in the mountains or even hills.  We would have had them do it, but they probably couldn't get the part in until late in the day and it would take several hours of labor, meaning at least one more full day off work.  We decided to wait a few weeks and find a place that does work on Saturdays so we can leave it on a Friday afternoon.

The other problem - why it kept dying - is due to being out of gas, or at least that's what the computer thinks; we're really not sure.  It's either a faulty gauge not telling us we're low on gas (tank reads full) or a faulty sensor telling us we're out of gas when we're not.  Either way, it would require an extensive amount of work and expensive parts to fix the problem.  For now, we decided to just keep very careful track of how much gas we're using.  We know how many gallons each tank holds (and this actually may only be a problem with one of the 3 tanks) and approx. how many mpg we get (about 10), which tells us how many miles we can go before we start running low.  So as long as we're vigilant in keeping track, we shouldn't have this problem again.  This also happened on 1 specific tank, so we'll be careful not to use that one except in an emergency (unfortunately, that's the 75 gallon one.  The others are 35 and 15).

In other news... we got a call from one of the campgrounds a bit closer to Austin that they now have an opening for us (we were on the waiting list at about 6 places).  The campground itself isn't nearly as nice as this one (although this one is only average), but it's 26 miles closer to the city.  Considering Mitch is now commuting about 90-120 miles a day, in addition to walking 5-10 miles carrying heavy gas sniffing equipment, this will be only half the travel distance.  Granted, he won't get as much pay since he gets paid for mileage, but being closer is well worth it.  Plus (and most importantly), the shul will only be 12 miles away instead of 44, so we'll have a chance to go to services again.  Plus, there's a store with a huge kosher section, Trader Joe's and a few Dollar Trees within 5 miles (currently about 40).

We had an amazing sunset last night.  Unfortunately, the camera (Mitch's phone) didn't really do it justice.