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13 more miles for a gentler slope
Monday, May 9 2016
The guy we know who runs the muffler place on Albany Avenue had quoted us a $1100 to replace the clutch on the Subaru, so, on a lark, Gretchen went on Craigslist to see what replacement Subarus could be bought. She found a 2004 with 200 thousand miles on it for only a little over $2200. That's a lot of miles (our 1998 Subaru only has 150 thousand), but the car looked to be in good shape, with almost no rust, so it might just work as a replacement beater. The plan was to maybe drive to Danbury Connecticut to pick it up tomorrow, but this would mean we would need plates from the old Subaru, which was still at the bus turnaround down the hill on Dug Hill Road.
A little after 5:0pm, during the middle of my workday, Gretchen dropped me off at the bus turnaround on her way into Kingston so I could attempt to drive the car home. I knew I wouldn't be able to climb Dug Hill Road, so I went downhill to Hurley Mountain Road with the idea of climbing the Hurley Mountain escarpment on the gentler slope of Route 28, a route that would turn a 2100 foot drive into a 13.25 mile one. Early in the drive, I realized the clutch was now much worse than it had been yesterday. Evidently it had been further damaged by my foolish attempt to charge up Dug Hill Road carrying two dogs and 30 pounds of topsoil, and now it would slip out of gear at RPMs as low as 2000 on trivial grades that only bicylists are aware of. Luckily, Hurley Mountain Road is generally flat, but Route 28 rises relatively steeply from its intersection with Hurley Mountain Road. I thought it best to head a little east on Route 28 from there so I could build up some speed before climbing that slope, which wasn't even the steepest part of 28 I had to drive on. The moment I was on that slope, I had to downshift and turn on my hazard lights, which stayed on for the rest of the drive to the Stewarts at the Zena Road intersection. I don't know how the car was able to climb the grade from the Barnyard to the Tibetan Center, but I remember doing all of it in first and second gear, rarely going faster than 20 miles per hour. Cars built up behind me and filed passed, some more patiently than others. My gut was beehive of nerves; I kept wondering if this drive was even possible. But once I got to Zena Road, I knew that any hills between where I was tended to be low. The gas tank was so low that I put two gallons in it so I wouldn't have to worry about running out. The Subaru was now having trouble climbing even extremely gentle grades, though if I was in first gear, they were all still possible. There were also some nice downhill straight stretches on Dug Hill Road that allowed me to get up to 40 miles per hour, but by the time I made it home, I was sure I never wanted to drive that car again. I don't know if I've ever driven such a marginal vehicle such a distance (though the last two drives of my old Toyota pickup come close).
This evening I took my first bath since Eleanor died. One of her favorite things to do was to lick the water from my legs after I got out of the tub, something she'd done half-heartedly after my last bath (an indication she was on her way out). But now she was gone and nobody was there to lick my legs. Ramona will occasionally do it, but, unlike Eleanor, she won't come running over with determination in her eyes the moment she senses I have just emerged from a bath.
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