Volkswagens may be a headache from time to time, but damn if they're not persistent. After our whirlwind tour of Glacier, we decided there was nothing to do but drive. We had AAA. We had a car full of friends following us. We had determination and all the time in the world to slowly coax Butterball back to Missoula. And she didn't let us down. That is, until we got the news from the VW mechanic that the problem was not a valve, or something in the drive train, but rather a head or a rod deep, deep within the engine compartment. Meaning: drop the engine. Disassemble. Rebuild. And 5 days and $1500 later, we could return to Bend.
Needless to say, this didn't fit our vacation plans nicely. The mechanic suggested we rent a car and have Butterball towed back to Oregon on a flatbed, so we could deal with the issue on home turf. That didn't sound ideal either. We decided to deliberate the issue over the weekend and enjoy the Fourth of July instead.
Missoula is a great town in that it has an outdoorsy, quaint, small-town feel without the pretentiousness of Boulder or Bend. It's all blue collars, cowboys, and hippies (oh---and Kevin, too). On Thursday, we hit the riverside park for the weekly food & music fest:
... and rode the historic carousel:
... and abandoned shopping carts:
... and even managed to check out the local bars that night while Reid & Ken babysat:
Quite a day, considering we had just left Glacier at 10:00 that morning.
Coming in the next installment: the Chillable flows in abundance on the Fourth!
2 comments:
Wow, you have a lot of energy, sister!! I'm glad you didn't have to abandon butterball or tow her on a flatbed- ha. That seems like it would cost more than $1500 alone! Good choice on getting her fixed!
Ah, but we DIDN'T fix Butterball...at least not in Missoula. You'll have to wait for the rest of the story to find out, though!
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