We were up at five Monday morning to drive to Tucson for our 8 a.m. appointment at the Dodge dealer to get Speedy fixed. We had two problems we wanted them to look at, the leaking power steering fluid and the squeak in the front suspension. It also needed an oil change.
We got there on time and fell in line behind several other vehicles. Tucson Dodge is huge. They have about two dozen service bays (but, of course, only one lift that can take our heavyweight van). They took the van and we settled in to await the diagnosis. I thought that the leak was only in a line as that was where it seemed to be and that the squeak was a single steering bearing at a tie-rod end.
Once again, I was wrong. The leak was in the "new" steering box. The seals were leaking and the seals and steering gear (a single package) needed to be replaced (to the tune of $550). This was replaced just over a year ago. In addition, both tie-rods needed replacement, just about the only steering parts that were original (to the tune of another $900). Finally, they said that both Pitman arms need replacing (since there is only one Pitman arm—it connects the steering box to the rest of the steering gear—I think he meant the two idler arms which have been replaced twice already, the last time was in March of this year) to the tune of another $550. The oil change was $35.
If we were on our way home, I think I would have chanced it and taken it up with Mass Tire (who have a fair amount to answer for), but we have about three more months to go—at least 10 more trips to Tucson and we'd hoped for nearly as many weekend jaunts, not to mention the trip home. Our only choice seems to be to have the work done. At first the dealer said they could do it that day, but came back a bit later to say it would have to stay overnight as the only big lift was currently in use. This was not possible so we will made an appointment for next Monday for the work to be done.
In a very black mood, we left the Dodge dealer and headed south on I-19 to Tubac, stopping first in Sahuarita at the ultra-large Fry's market to do our weekly shopping. I was not focused on shopping and managed to leave my (beloved) coffee thermos bottle in the cart (having refilled it at the in-store Starbucks) when we left. I didn't discover it was missing until we got to Tubac. After much grumbling, I called the store, a cart return person had found it and they were holding it at customer service. We decided we'd stop back on our way back to the refuge tomorrow (only 30 miles out of the way).
We were going to Tubac to go on a weekly bird walk on Tuesday morning that is led by Rob, one of the local volunteers at the refuge. He's been inviting us each time we saw him. It sounded interesting so we had decided to do it this week. Tubac is an unincorporated town which is sort of an art colony. At least they have a lot of galleries (that mostly seem to have the same stuff). There isn't really a campground there, but there is a State Historic Park. We had stopped by on our way to Madera Canyon to ask about overnighting in their lot. They said it wasn't really allowed, but no one ever checks at night. We found a space in a gravel lot next to the park at the Anza trailhead (a portion of the Anza National Historic Trail). It was a very quiet night.
It was actually too quiet early in the night, at least when it came to eating. There are only a few restaurants in Tubac and most of them are closed on Monday night. The choices were a Mexican restaurant, the local saloon with BBQ and an Italian restaurant, the Italian Peasant. Normally, we'd prefer either the Mexican or BBQ, but my stomach was a bit upset from the Speedy diagnosis, so we opted for Italian. Even this, however, was thwarted. (What a day!) The entire restaurant was reserved by the Corvette Club for their holiday party. At first we thought it must be the Tucson Corvette Club, 60 miles away, a nice drive, but it was the Green Valley Corvette Club, about 13 miles up the road. Sounds a tad tame for a sports car club. The restaurant did let us sit in the pizza area where they had a bar and a couple of small tables, but we could only order pizza. So that's what we did. Ellen was able to get a decent glass of a Montepulciano, though.
We walked back to Speedy, drove over to the parking area where it was dark and quiet and spent a good night.
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