It is good to have a good mechanic.

The first evening we were out delivering phone books, I noticed a clatter under the Explorer as I walked near. Wife said it's been doing that "a while."

Last time it clattered like that, we took it in to be checked and it turned out to be a c-clamp on the muffler pipe that had come loose.

No charge.

This time, I can see it will not be so simple. The muffler has rusted out where the pipe feeds in (or out, actually) and the pipe is clanging free.

This is not good.

This is Wednesday. They can't get the parts shipped and get us in until Monday.

On Friday the wife is complaining how she has been having such horrible headaches, and now the boys are getting them, too.

I must have been looking at her with my "Did you say something?" stare, which she misinterpreted to be my "I can't believe you haven't figured out what is going on" stare.

"Oh, of course!" she says. "The leaking exhaust! We're getting headaches from the fumes!"

Wow. I'll bet she's right. Not that I'll let on that I didn't have that pegged right away.

So we went to Central City on Saturday, and drove all the way with windows open to avoid leakage from below. No air conditioning. No fun. Car finally went in to the shop on Tuesday.

Got car back after wife got off work and immediately used it for another fun evening of delivering phone books.

Fumes are horrid! Literally unbearable. Wife and which ever son or godson was bagging books kept windows up and air on so they could breathe. Major pain for me & other son/godson when we need to refill our hands with bags of books.

Crawled under vehicle, and could barely breathe. Terrible fumes, rolling smoke under the chassis.

And the vehicle has no power. No "get up and go."

Damnit! They messed something up!

Tell wife to call the shop and get this fixed. Thereby done with my responsibilities.

So the pickup is going in to the shop to be serviced last Thursday, prior to the camping trip. And I ask the wife if she ever called about the fumes and lack of power on the SUV.

Nope. She wants me to do it.

So I tell Mike the Mechanic he must have my wife really intimidated, 'cause she won't tell him about the problems they created with the Explorer. He is all apologetic, sure they did it all right, but wants to see the vehicle right away. Will squeeze us in on Friday, even though they're scheduled full.

When I take the Explorer home, I give it the gas on the old highway. Plenty of pep.

Get home and crawl underneath. No fumes, no smell. Could have a picnic under here.

So we stop by Thursday pm to get the truck, and are discussing travel arrangements to get the Explorer in. Wife mentions the power is back. Wonders if we could have gotten bad gas in Central City, 'cause it ran okay since she filled the tank here at home.

And I mention the smell is gone.

Mike the mechanic could have gotten us to haul the rig in, and made a few bucks (or few hundred...would we know?), but you can see the light suddenly go on.

Apparently new mufflers come coated with a chemical protectant. Which normally burns right off with use.

But we didn't drive off and burn the plasticized coating off. We immediately took the thing and started crawling and parking, block by block in town.

Mechanic's sure the fumes were the coating smoldering off. And the power problem probably was the gas from Central City. But he'll check the car out, just the same, if we want.

Nope, we're happy.

And glad he's our mechanic.