Before I get into what happened to the truck, I want to say that having a used vehicle is a fairly new experience for me. I used to have an ancient Honda back in the day, but since 2004, I’ve had new vehicles, plus the motorhome that came with a full maintenance history. So I’m used to being able to budget for vehicle maintenance.

What happened yesterday has taught me that the $50 I’ve been putting aside each month for truck maintenance isn’t going to be enough and I need to adjust the budget. I’m just glad this happened before I started to spend a lot of time enjoying New Orleans.

The problem with the truck really isn’t that major. The throttle cable broke and the whole assembly needs cleaning.

So:
$76.28 for the part
$163.50 for the labour
$59.99 for the cleaning
Total: $300, plus tax (Mom thinks that’s highway robbery, but I’d rather pay the Ford shop premium and get the job done right)

They will only be able to order the part on Monday and get the truck back to me Tuesday.

Add in:
$90 for the tow
$40 per day for the car x 5 days = $200 (but they might adjust me down to the weekly rate which is a little cheaper)

Total: at least $600.

Needless to say, I am scaling down my New Orleans plans drastically. 🙁 I am only going to be doing a self-walking tour, a guided city bus tour, and a guided swamp tour. That’s better than nothing, but don’t expect any major restaurant reviews as I am going on the peanut butter diet (figuratively speaking) for a few days to avoid adding any more debt. But I can at least be satisfied that I can weather this crisis, albeit uncomfortably!

Now, it’s 11:30 and the city tour I want to take starts at 1:30, so I am going to call to see if it’s too late to make it! They do hotel pickup, but that won’t work for me out here in the wonderful swampy boonies, so I may have to get closer to New Orleans, something that could take me an hour. If I can’t get on this afternoon’s tour, I will book for the 9:30AM one tomorrow and just go explore the French Quarter this afternoon. I’m so grateful to have gotten the news about the truck early enough to salvage the day.