Here we sit...

When we arrived in Alpine last Friday, it was obvious that we had a clutch problem. We could hear it, we could feel it, we could smell it. Monday, we managed to drive the car to the one local garage, Castle Rock Dodge. We considered having it trucked to Teton Motors in Jackson, the nearest Subaru dealer, but the logistics were just more than I could deal with. I am still feeling pretty fragile and vulnerable. So I opted for the simplest solution: we left the car there at Castle Rock, walked to the Coffee Cabin for breakfast, and then walked to the public library and hung out there for the day. I used WiFi to send out notices of Betsey's passing to friends, made some calls, and arranged for Betsey's obituary to be published in the Brattleboro Commons. It will appear today. We had a pizza at nearby Tootsie's. Jenny picked us up at 5:45pm., just before the library closed, on her way home from work. 

It turned out that the problem was the clutch throw-out bearing, as I suspected. But the clutch was burned, and we opted for a new clutch. It will cost us $1200 and I've got my fingers crossed that Castle Rock mechanics know what they are doing. I guess we'll find out on the way home!!!

So we're home-bound with no car yesterday and today. The car should be ready today. We'll pay by phone and pick it up tonight after hours. We've been taking it easy, reading and watching the convention. But we also realize that we are still pretty fragile. That has been manifested in several ways. We hope and expect that "this too will pass."