So, left Pothole Reservoir early. Car seemed a little sluggish, but it had been that way yesterday, too. Heading up a long pass on I-90 near Kittitas, WA and the car stumbles on the on-ramp. Odd. Then another mile or two up, I lose power and the check engine light flashes within sight (!) of the rest area on the mountain’s crest. Turn off car and it won’t re-start. No smoke, no leaking fluids, no funny smell. Good news, I guess, but can’t push it uphill to the rest area :(.

Call AAA, my home Saab dealer, and my parents. Wait 1/2 hour, occasionally trying to start the car (crank but no start). Then, it starts! I called Bill at Sports Car Service to describe the problem, and he says it sounds like a hot/bad crank sensor. He said it was okay to limp the car along, so I cancel the AAA call, and head down the pass to Elkensburg, thinking I might be able to limp the car to Tacoma.

To be safe, mom & dad are coming with the hitch-equipped pickup, and we’ll drive over the pass together (they with the trailer behind the pickup and me alone in the Saab). They’re ~3.5 hours away (so thank you mom and dad!!!). I’ll drop the Saab off at “Autobahn Specialists” in Tacoma, and we’ll all move on to Winlock together.

Mom and dad just called. They’re on their way!

By the way, my mom’s vote for when the car would breakdown was 3000 miles (so it would break down near them). She got it almost on the nose

Also pictured below is “the look” Glenn rightfully gave me for the “breakdown”. I will remind our kind readers that no tow-trucks were involved in this breakdown (for the Saab, anyway), so I’m not entirely comfortable with the term…
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