[ccjohnson]

What a week! Will definitely have some great stories for entertainment at next rally! As we were heading to UT on Wednesday morning heading out of NM on US 180 (very steep grades) the temp started to rise as it normally does, I started dropping gears as I normally do. Temp continued to rise. At +/-225 I pulled as far to the right as possible, turned off key as I glanced down at temp pegging past 250. A glance in rear view mirror saw greyish to dark grey smoke billowing at rear of coach. Set brakes & ran to get fire extinguishers & check engine compartment. Good news no fire! It appeared pluse or minus 2 qts coolant had escaped the over flow & ran down highway. After allowing things to cool down, a touch of the starter indicated the engine was locked. I opened radiator cap & added 2 gal of coolant. Oil level in crankcase rose significantly. No cell service. Had to unhook tow car & drive to top of hill, bars of service, but no call out. Looked at gas gauge on tow car, very low on fuel. Had to drive back down to Reserve for gas & was able to call out heavy haul wrecker from Silver City. Notified the Catron County Sheriff's Dept of my plight & advised a wrecker was on the way. For most of the day they had 2-5 officers directing traffic around our coach until wrecker arrived. ( Not one asked for DL, registration or proof of insurance) Follwed tow truck back to Silver City (VERY slow due due grades & curves) then went home to Deming. Yesterday we finished towing to Stewart Stevenson Detroit Diesel in El Paso, TX. (+/-3K on tow bill I think). Perhaps luck is changing, a bay had opened just before we arrived & they got the coach inside right away to start on it. Hopefully I got it shut down before really major damage was done. Will know more on Monday as they get into the diagnostics & repairs. Hoping for just blown head gasket. Cracked head may be 3-4 weeks for parts. Re-man engine 4-6 weeks for parts. Will post more as info becomes available.