Goal: Get Clyde a front end alignment
In spite of being out last night at B.B.Kings, we rise early to get Clyde to the shop. We have an appointment at Landers CDJR in Southaven, Mississippi. These days Southaven is the continuation of Memphis, Tennessee as the “city” crosses over the boarder into Mississippi.
The drive from the Elvis Presley Boulevard RV park to Landers Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram is 20 minutes. However, we have a 7:30 AM appointment. Therefore, we rise early, grab coffee, and dash off to make this appointment time. We arrive at Landers at 7:25 AM and are greeted by a nice young woman service writer.
Unfortunately the young woman then proceeds to tell us that we can leave the truck, and that in a week we will get the recall work done. Ahhhh… Nope that isn’t going to work. We try to explain that we had called and called, and spoken to several people. We even spoke to the guy in the parts department who assured us that Landers had the critical Drag Link part.
The young woman however was insistent that there was absolutely NOTHING they could do that would take less than a week or two! We don’t have weeks in our schedule, and we don’t have any alternative transportation. She certainly wasn’t offering up even a way to get around for the day, let alone the weeks she was claiming the service would require. She eventually storms off in a huff.
Luckily for us and Clyde, the service manage comes out to see what the hubbub is about. We explain the entire situation and that we had tried to get Clyde an alignment in South Carolina and been told that Clyde required an entirely new Drag Link as the original one had been welded too many times. He listened and then a lightbulb went on. We needed Clyde working. We were not just looking for a free “Corporate Recall Fix”. Rather we needed what ever needed to be done to get the steering to work, to work properly! With that a new service writer was assigned, and we climbed out of Clyde.
Rob and I settle in to the service waiting area, to hear what might be found by a service technician. Time passes, and some more. No service writer letting us know what is going on. (BIG contrast to the service writer in Stroudsburg, PA.) Rob goes and hunts down the service writer who is sitting in his office. Rob returns with the news that the service technician is just now looking at Clyde.
Rob and I decide that we had better go get some breakfast at this point, or we will be REALLY grumpy. We pack up our iPads, and Deryl’s MacBook and walk the 2 blocks over to a Dunkin Doughnuts. There we order our usual Dunkin breakfast, and sit down to dine and use the Dunkin WiFi service.
Breakfast over and we march back to Landers. Rob finds the service writer. Yes, the service technician found a problem, and is working on the issue. No details… But hopefully something is happening. Therefore Deryl and Rob settle back into the service waiting area. And time passes…
Finally about 2:00 PM Rob goes looking for the service writer AGAIN. Clyde is now sitting outside the shop, but the service writer had not come looking for us! What is going on? As Rob is searching for the service writer, the service manager informs Deryl that Clyde is all set, and the service writer will finish up with us.
So what WAS done? Lots of paperwork to tell us that the front wheels were toed-in. Yea Rob could tell that based on how Clyde handled. What the service technician did was cut the wields and perform an alignment. No they did NOT replace the Drag Link, just did the standard alignment for this generation of Ram truck. (Ram has a recall which requires the Drag Link to be welded after an alignment). We finally pull out of Landers at 2:30 PM. The alignment done but no replacement of the supposedly “must be replaced” Drag Link. Sigh…
Remainder of Day:
From Landers CDJR, Rob and Deryl decide that we should eat a real meal. Dunkin has worn off by now. We decide that we will try the Cracker Barrel restaurant right by the interstate which will take us back to the trailer.
Rob and Deryl both select the Fried Chicken. Rob accompanies his with mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn bread muffins. Deryl selects the fried okra, broccoli, and biscuits. Our poor waiter apologies that the kitchen is making fresh chicken for us, so our meal is delayed. Then our meal arrives, and Rob’s corn bread muffins is still in the oven. What ever, having Clyde fixed, our stress is so low that we don’t care how long it takes to get our meal.
The chicken is however quite delicious, and perfectly cooked. The mashed potatoes are real potatoes! The green beans are ok, while the broccoli is perfectly steamed, and the fried okra is acceptable. The biscuits and corn bread muffins are excellent and worth the wait.
Home Again:
Finally back nesting in The Roost, Rob curls up for a nap. After working on the website for a while, Deryl decides to stream the new Tom Hanks movie “Finch”. Definitely a good movie to watch.
Rob rises from his nap, and we talk for a while, planning more details of the trip west. Finally we head for bed.