When Your Plans Take a Detour Be Glad for Alternatives

 This picture was taken in December but it does show the vehicles that are featured in this blog. The vintage 1974 International Harvester Travelall on the left in the background has been a very reliable vehicle. We have had the 1981 dark green Suburban for about 25 years and it has also had a great record of reliability.

On Saturday Russ and his friend Richard decided to go to Pennsylvania.  Richard would be driving so Russ only had to go to Edinburg to ride with Richard.

Russ hopped into the International early in the morning and took off for Edinburg. I left home soon after that to go to a flea market so I remained blissfully unaware of any problems until I returned home.

When I returned home both the International and the Oldsmobile were gone. This confused me until I read the notes left for me in the house. The International had started to sputter and cough within 5 miles of the house. He was able to get it to our son's house. He gave our son an early morning wake up call and got a ride back to our house. He then hopped into the Suburban only to find that the battery, which was less than 6 months old, was dead. He left me a couple of notes explaining all of this and took off in the 1979 Oldsmobile which got him to his destination.  He was happy to have the alternate car to drive.  The rest of his day went on as planned and he and his friend had a great time.

A new coil was needed for the International. The battery for the Suburban, which was under warranty, is being returned today. We usually have only occasional problems with one car at a time so this was one time that we were happy that our garage contained lots of old vehicles.

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