The truck breaks down

The Ford F150 we bought two weeks ago specifically to make the cross-country trip began to smoke heavily, overheated and eventually died near the town of Firebraugh, CA (approximately 150 miles from Santa Clara) at about 2:00am on Wednesday, April 4th.

I put the truck in neutral and coasted as far as I could. We came to a stop less than a 1/4 mile from an exit that had four gas stations and a hotel. We all looked longingly at the hotel, as none of us had slept in a bed for nearly a week and were all quite exhausted.

Deciding to let the truck cool down some before we tried to make the last stretch , we slept in the cab of the truck until a cop rousted us around 5:30am. When the truck wouldn't turn over, we were all pleasantly surprised when he offered to give us a jump start and started whipping out the cables. Hats off to the Firebraugh Highway Patrol.

We were able to start the engine and limp in to the exit where again the truck died and we were able to coast to a stop right next to a McDonalds and a hotel.

It being now around 7:00am, getting a room was oujt of the question, so we got some breakfast and eventually called AAA as it turns out that none of the four gas stations at the exit have repair facilities!