Blessings in Disguise

One of these days I'm going to get used to the "mysterious way" God sometimes works. Today, I believe, has been what we sometimes call a blessing in disguise.

Today was the day we left Minnesota for Spokane. We pulled out of Le Sueur at about 10:30 in the morning, and barely got past Mankato before Mark started noticing problems with vibration and acceleration. Below 1,600 rpm the coach would shudder; above 2,000 rpm we lost power and couldn't get above 40 or 45 mph. At the junction of Hwy 60 and Interstate 90, we pulled off into a truck stop for fuel and decided to call our roadside service (CoachNet) and talk to a technician. They recommended we try to make it to Sioux Falls, as it was a bigger town and more likely to have a truck service business that were open on the weekend.

Mark and I discussed whether we should try to go further, to Mitchell, SD, our first scheduled stop, since we had found a truck service company there, and so we sailed...well, more like limped past Sioux Falls. In the meantime, we called the company in Mitchell, only to discover they were booked up through next week. They recommended I-Truck, a company in Sioux Falls. I-Truck would have the diagnostic tools to tell us what was wrong. So we turned around and headed back, pulling in at a little after four o'clock. One of their service techs came out, did some nosing around, and told us that our turbo charger was coming apart. Literally coming apart. We needed a new one. Nothing could be done today as they closed at six. Tomorrow they were closed all day. An appointment was made for first thing Monday morning.

Our turbo charger was shot! This was not discovered when PPL (the dealer that sold the motor home to us) looked at the engine. It was not discovered when we took it to Boyer Ford the first time for the "tune up" in September. And, it was not discovered when we took it back to Boyer this week for the radiator work. Why it wasn't discovered any of those times is a mystery to me. But apparently, the good Lord was not about to let us tackle the Rocky Mountains with a turbo charger that could blow out at any moment.

So here we are, sitting in the I-Truck parking lot where they graciously gave us permission to stay until Monday morning. We had a delicious dinner of BLTs and left-overs. Mark is using this pause to try to get the Dish Network receiver working (he's on the phone with their tech support as I write). In a few minutes we'll put out our slides, and it will feel like home again...in spite of the view.

All of the RV parks we had lined up for our stops this week have been called and cancelled. God willing, the engine will be fixed on Monday and we can be on our way again.

But tomorrow we'll go to church (probably online) and thank God (formally) for His loving providence.

Then we'll get in the car and see what Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has to offer on a Sunday.