<p>The latest update:
Car repairs were finished late yesterday afternoon. There was a little bit of panic about payment. The mechanic had told my son that the garage accepted American Express. Then payment time came and oops, their credit card operation was not set up to accept Amex. My son called us and his voice sounded very shaky but my H calmed him down and the garage used my son’s debit card. Whew!</p>
<p>My son drove the car around town and on the interstate for about an hour. We told him if the car acted up, to take the car back to the mechanic and get on a plane for California. </p>
<p>But luck was with us! DS just called us a few minutes ago; he is 30 miles away from Salt Lake City. Car is doing fine.</p>
<p>These adventures are good for learning how to deal with some really tough times–and how important your parents can be. I got stuck on a trip from Wisconsin to Mexico on the way west near Salt lake. Needed a new VW alternator which was about $100 then. My parents had to wire $100 by Western Union as this was before kids having credit cards and the ATM was just being invented. 1 day hanging around a VW shop near SLC waiting for the $$ and we were on our way. Not bad all in all. The rest of the trip was legendary.</p>
<p>Yes, it will! And here my son thought a trip across the country would be a wild fun adventure! When I talked to him, he complained about how boring it was. I told him next time take some time to explore and take a buddy with him. (And drive a better car!)</p>
Yeah - if all you do is stay on the freeway the whole way it’s not too exciting but if he wanted to explore some mountains, hike, see some National Parks, etc., there’s a lot that he’s passing near that he’d find interesting.</p>
<p>Wooo! Hoooo! He made it to California yesterday evening. He was positively bubbling when he called us. And he actually loved the trip through the Salt Lake flats; he stopped several times to take in the amazing view. But he was relieved to see civilization when he got to the Reno/Sparks area.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for all your support! I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>I’m surprised ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad did not mention it, so I will. If he had the head gasket replaced, the head gasket bolts should be retorqued, if I remember correctly typically about 1000 miles after the job is done without looking up the specs for the particular vehicle. It’s a fairly simple procedure and should be inexpensive. He can wait till he arrives at his destination and have it done there.</p>
<p>Depending on the engine, the gaskets used, and the sequence used to torque the bolts they might not need to be re-torqued. Hopefully the mechanic provided some instructions to him on this point. If not, it’s a good idea for the OP’s S to give the mechanic a call and ask about this to see if it’s necessary in this particular case.</p>
