Transmission Accomplished

So I'm driving west to Dickinson, ND on Sunday, and it's hot out, and I'm going up and down the hills of the Valley City/Jamestown area on Interstate 94, and I've got the air conditioning blasting at top speed, and life is good. However, just on the west side of Jamestown, I started to notice that the Explorer wasn't pulling up the hills; it was really slowing down when trying to go uphill. Then I noticed a white fog billowing out from the back of the vehicle, and I decided I ought to pull over. I took the Cleveland, ND exit, stopped at the stop sign at the end of the exit, and couldn't get the vehicle to go forward. It was still running fine, but there was no pull when I pushed the accelerator. I was stranded at Cleveland (highway sign: "No Services") on a hot summer afternoon without a way to contact help.

A gentleman pulled up in his pickup and offered to give me a ride to a closed gas station to use the pay phone outside, but we discovered that the phone had been removed. So he drove me to his house to use his cell phone. When I walked in, his parents and some guests were sitting at the kitchen table, and they said, "Hi! Pretty hot out there, huh?" They just started visiting without even asking me who I was! Love that North Dakota hospitality. I phoned my sister-in-law Cheryl in Mandan, and she said, "Let this be a lesson to you: You need to get a cell phone!"

I was able to contact a service station in Jamestown, and a young man came out and towed me to the Ford dealership in town. Then he drove me to the station so I could pay for the towing and then back to the dealership so that I could grab some things before walking across the street to the Quality Inn to spend the night (assessment: not so much quality). The next morning the mechanics at the Ford shop told me that the aluminum of the transmission case expanded in the intense heat and released the transmission fluid. They filled it back up, drove it around for a while, and returned, suspecting that it should allow me to get to Dickinson before investing in a full-scale transmission repair.

They were right. I arrived safely and went to the Ford dealership in Dickinson, where an overworked and tense shop foreman was rude, rude, rude. So I took the Explorer to Schmidt Transmission instead, where the service was friendly and efficient. They weren't able to work on it that day, but I brought in the vehicle Tuesday morning, and they had it ready (they rebuilt the transmission) this morning. Here's hoping for no more vehicle problems as I traverse the sere and searing plains and valleys of North Dakota.