We made it to New Orleans .. well sort of ..

We are, as you can see on the map, in New Orleans, but we are a bit later than we originally planned and unfortunately the van is not with us. When we drove, Sunday evening, through Mobile, Alabama, it suddenly started to make really strange noises and we stopped to look at the “liquids”. Nothing looked wrong, but the grinding noise from the back was not to be ignored, so we stayed at a random parking lot until the next day.

Monday morning, at 8am, I went to a transmission shop and asked for help. They pulled the van over and took a quick look at it and said “it’s the rear end, it’s gone” – no clue what they really wanted to say. (Sabine’s comment: no, it’s not – I can still see it!)

After some talking we started to understand what they meant – the rear differential (Dansk: bag differentiale / Deutsch: Hinteres Differentialgetriebe) was broken and they wanted to find us a used one, but honestly we didn’t like them much and after talking with our local mechanic in California and a Dodge dealer here, we decided to go to the Dodge dealer – he could offer us 12 months warranty on the repair – now we just hope that this will not be a complete waste when we sell the van.

Anyway, we’re now waiting for the bus to be done. We’ve rented a car, and are staying in a hotel in New Orleans and are over the (bad!!) sticker shock. At least it is only money. Thursday or Friday this week we should be on the road again using our own wheels.