The first major disaster of the Mayathon occured this afternoon, but there were a list of fortunate items that went with it. While getting off I-470 to the Turnpike, my van suddenly and casually refused to move into third gear. It would keep reving. I called Verne on the radio and informed him I was having vehicle issues and we stopped off on the side of the road. The van wouldn't get into third gear. I could move throughout drive, neutral, and reverse with no problems, but when it got to third, it would suddenly rev up very high, then drop into gear hard. Obviously I elected to find the closest shop I could find. Unfortunately, it was Memorial Day, so nothing was opened. We found a transmission shop right off the highway, so I unpacked the van, loaded it into Verne's car, and left the van behind at the shop who I'll call first thing in the morning to inform them of my situation. In the meantime, I'll chase the next couple days with Verne and Michael in the Suparu and hopefully by Thursday, can return to Topeka to claim my van and pending repair costs and future setups, will likely head home Friday and begin the close-to-home setups to wrap up the final week of Mayathon.
In the meantime, a couple good days upcoming before things finally settle down. While I'm not sure of what the days beyond Wednesday hold, I'm hoping there will be the chance to head east to Topeka to claim my ride back and head home. The Front Range holds potential over the weekend, so we'll see about that.
I'll update again in the morning with a status update on the van as well as the forecast and target for tomorrow. We're all looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow as we took all day to drive from Southeastern South Dakota all the way to Southwest Kansas to our hotel in Liberal.
