Stuck In Kearney
 

We took my grandson to Sidney NE to meet his dad so he could spend a month with him this summer. On the way back my transmission crapped out. :cuss: I was able to limp it down the road to the Elm Creek exit. Of course in doing so I picked up a nail or something in my passenger rear tire so it went flat.:banghead: Thank god for OnStar. Called them and they sent a wrecker and he got there in less than an hour. He hauled the vehicle and us to Kearney and he dropped us at the hotel before he dropped the vehicle off at Midway Chevrolet. So far we've made the best out of a bad situation. Now I need to decide if I want this Chevy Dealer to fix my Tahoe or have it hauled all the way back to Springfield, MO. If I just fix it here how long will that take and at what cost? Do I just hang out in Kearney for a couple days? If it's going to take a few days do I rent a car and drive home? :huh: :#:cuss::banghead:

Call your insurance. They may cover a rental.

Also I can empathize. Sidney is a long way from anywhere that isn’t Cheyenne WY.

Prayers sent

The Amigos!!!

Better to be stuck in Kearney than Kearny NJ

Heh. A few days before Christmas of '85, I was driving from Norfolk back to Missouri in my old beat to shit '77 Monza. Was a broke-as-**** newly married E-3. I knew the car was on its last legs, but we had to get it back to Missouri so my FIL would cosign the loan on a new one. At pretty much the halfway point, just west of Charleston, WV, the engine died. We were ****ed. Ending up selling it to a guy who worked at the gas station for $100 and a ride to the bus station.

This message brought to you by your friends at the Shit Could Always Be Worse Department. :)

For what it's worth, the reviews for that dealer look pretty good on Google, where they average a 4.6. I'd probably let the dealer fix it and hang out for a day or two at the nearby Big Apple Fun Center, which features bowling. You hit the jackpot, really. You can also get over to the Trails and Rails Museum, which looks pretty interesting. They get a lot freight trains going through there every day, as it's on a mainline of the Union Pacific with triple track, so you could take up trainspotting. :)

You can expect a day or two to swap out a trans. Biggest question is do they have a replacement trans on hand, if not how long until they do? Could turn into 3 or 4 days pretty quick

Sorry, forgot the complimentary "watch your cornhole bud"

I'll do that first thing in the morning. Right now I think I'll just chill.

We walked over to Cunningham's Journal Tap & Kitchen. Really nice place I did not expect to find here. My opinion of Kearney Nebraska is moving up on the scale.

Rent a car and go to the Jesse James Farm.

Sorry...was thinking Kearney, MO.

Looks like that is right about in the butthole of Nebraska. There is some kind of kayak route through town. Classic car collection on hwy 30

Sorry about the tranny. Bad problem even near home. Super annoying stuck out of town

Yeah I know. It's a bad week for trannies. Our company service van shit it's tranny out in the past week as well. One place wanted $5,000.00 to put in a new one. I said sure you do but no thanks we'll look elsewhere.

LOL I wanted a Monza Spider when I was 16 and looking at cars. That was 1977. I ended with a Chevy Concours and that I think was a blessing. That hatchback Nova was an awesome 1st car. Especially for a golfer who always gave his teammates a ride to and from the course.

OnStar covered the wrecker bill and I've used points from my Amex for the room so thus far I haven't spent a dollar. I bet before tomorrow is through my ass starts to pucker.

Those 70s aluminum block engine little Chevys were absolute dogshit. First the Vega, then the Monza. I had the misfortune of driving both. At least the Vega was my parents' beater, which I drove in high school. Until it died.

You want a useless Chevy vehicle?

The Chevy Chevette.....didn't have enough power to make it up a steep hill.

Also, how long until they can get to his vehicle? I've called around my Podunk area and have had to wait multiple weeks to get in before.

I'm pretty sure Kearney Nebraska is where I finally annoyed my parents into buying me Pokémon on a road trip to yellowstone when I was a kid.

If you have time, check out Loup River Distillery just north of Grand Island. Really good Nebraska made spirits. Absolutely recommend their Rye and their Gin. Good luck man. There's actually a lot to see out there.

Who's Kearney?

True but my uncle opened a shop 65 miles away from where he lived and drove one 5 days a week for 4 years. I was like wow it lasted that long. How about the Oldsmobile putting gas heads in their Diesel engines? Maybe around 1984 or so.

This Kearney lived near you?

One of my old roommates from college was from Kearney. I've actually been there before. On the drive back to Manhattan (we went to K-State), his girlfriend hit a deer.

Now that I think about it, if you have a car and you don't live in Kearney, stay away from it--something is bound to happen to your car.

That's where I get my meth from

Answer below

Have you tried to email [email protected] ?

In high school I had a friend who's mom had a Chevy monza with a 396 in it. ****er would scoot. Would have to drop the engine to change the plugs.

I've been in kearney for that last 9 years. My kids go to elm creek and my folks live in sidney. Odd coincidences.

Avoid the Midtown western inn hotel on 2nd and 14th. Unless you want hookers and blow.... the town recently bought the property and are going to demolish it soon.

If I had more time tomorrow, I'd offer to drive you any place you needed but this is our week for all our doctor and dental appointments.

I don't want to scare you, but I knew a guy named Kearney once, and he died.

I've done caught ya, what now Sonny Jim?

Why can't he just stay at your house.

Have they discovered fire yet in Kearney? Please report back with your findings.

And it's customary to walk into the lunch box Cafe in June and yell "Tom Osborne created gay history month". You'll fit right in.

He’s dead Jim.

That sucks Philfree, I had a similar thing happen. I lost the transfer case on my Yukon and was stuck in Guymon Oklahoma for five days… it sucked. Best of luck to you.

Kearn-evil-9

When I was young and not old enough to drive I remember my brother and his friends saying things about the 'Kearney Queens'. Kearney being a street on the north side of town where kids would "cruise" looking for fun. I never really did that. Living in the burbs when I was old enough to drive I would always head out to the country away from trouble.

Welfare check on philfree and fam. We can send reinforcements if needed.

How can that be during Pride month???

I actually saw a Chevette on the road the other day. Shocked the shit out of me that one was on the road at all!

Well, I had the misfortune of going to Creighton for awhile (which is in Omaha, NE). So I do have some familiarity with the region.

It is, I suppose, POSSIBLE to find your way back to civilization.

I wish you luck. You'll need it.

Wow...I bet they have had to do a lot of repairs...

I once had one of those....got rid of it after a year....taught me a lesson in listening to car salesman at an early age.

Ahhh the special memories

The outhouse is currently flooded.

First GF in HS had a used chevette. Biggest POS I ever saw in a car until the next GF with a Pontiac something. Jumped that ****er many times out in the freezing cold.

Can't blame them personally, it was their father's that picked out the vehicles. But I should've took it as an omen on what them gf's were like.

I saw a Pinto last week.

Kearney's not a bad place to be. Ain't the most exciting place but it ain't bad. :)

I'll go you on better...I saw a Pacer Station wagon.

I'll be damned - my grandparents lived in Kearney for about 30 years. Went up there about 2-3 times/yr and spent a whole bunch of time out at Harmon Park (their house was literally across the street.

Nice enough little town for being out in the middle of nowhere. I saw some solid hockey at that little arena they have up there. You'll occasionally see some pretty good prospects come through the USHL so those are fun games.

Kinda sad knowing that I'll almost certainly never go there again - grandparents live in Kingman, Kansas now. And lemme tell ya, Kingman is quite a downgrade on Kearney.

That's quite a haul out there and back. If your insurance would tow it for you, I'd go ahead and have that done but if I had to pay for it it's probably gonna cost a small fortune (that's, what, 8 hours from Kearney to Springfield?). And I certainly wouldn't want to make that haul there and back twice in a few days.

If the mechanic can have it fixed in a day or two, I'd just stay in town. There are worse places to be.

Yeah it's decent. I grew up all over Kansas. From the tiny village of eskridge to bigger places like hays and kc. Kearney has some nice restaurants like Cunningham's and alley rose. The tri-city storm hockey team is nice to have. It's kind of a college town with a nebraska University branch here and the community College.

You could easily retire here as it's pretty safe and has just enough stuff and you're not too far from other places. I'd prefer a beach and warmer weather as I get older but it's not bad.

We used to have a pontoon boat that had what amounted to Chevette engine it. That's right! An inboard pontoon boat. 1980 28' Harris Float Boat. Good times!

We good! Guess I'll just sleep until the dealership calls me with a prognosis.

Stuck in Kearney with the Western Inn Blues.

Good to know you woke up with both kidneys!

Fish bowl on wheels. There’s a cherry Gremlin sitting about 10 miles up the road from my house. It’s been there for over 2 years, so it either doesn’t run or the guy wants too much for it. I never bothered to stop because I’ve been told the guy is a bit off.

Fish Bowl on wheels....never heard that before.

Now if that Gremlin was a Javelin....that might be worth stopping for.

He should write a song

The Gremlin with the 304 cu in was a fast mofo.

My circle of friends and I ran the gamut of shitty 70s cars back in high school. I drove a Vega and later a Monza. My first girlfriend had a Gremlin, my future ex-wife had a Pinto, and another friend had a Chevette. Ugh.

Between the Vega and the Monza I drove a '71 Maverick. That was probably the best of the bunch.

Had a 71' Maverick Grabber w/ 302cu. Not the best built car but it was fast as hell.

Mine (well, not mine, but my parents' replacement beater after the Vega died) was pretty bargain basement. It just had a straight 6 with a one-barrel carb.

It was certainly peppier than the Vega, though.

Yea, my friends family had the 4 door maverick 6cyl.

I swear on every damn one of those Mavericks the front sway bar bushings squeaked like hell on every little bump or turn. Drove me crazy.

I honestly don't recall having any major complaints about it, but that was 40+ years ago. Remember, the car I drove prior to it was a Vega, so basically anything would be a step up. It was faster, roomier, and didn't have a stick, so I was pretty happy with it.

No telling when this dealership can fix my Tahoe so I'm going to have it freighted back to Springfield. The problem I have now is renting a car for a one-way trip. The Enterprise car rentals in Springfield aren't accepting vehicles from one-way trips. WTF! Thrifty gave me a price of $600.00. $600.00? Hertz was about $400.00 and then are they even accepting one-way drop offs? The freighter is $785.00 compared. :shake:

They're all inkahootz I tells ya! Conspiracy!

The world is resisting my every move it seems.

Amtrack? Kearney has a regional airport but could be very limited where they fly. If they don't fly where you need to go surely they fly to Lincoln or Omaha check if they fly to Springfield. Or rent the smallest Uhaul truck then drive to Sydney and load up at Cabelas then drive it home.

I've been looking at a couple of those things. It's $1,000.00 to fly two of us to Springfield. U-Haul is over $600.00. I can afford those things but damn.

There are ways to get from Kearney to Springfield, including one way trips tomorrow.

Might be worth calling customer service at AmEx and see if they have any advice or benefits worth knowing about. Sometimes premium credit cards have some nice benefits for stranded travelers. At the very least, you should be able to have status with a rental car company, although that mightn't help much in any given situation.

By the way, I'm not endorsing Expedia. I just used them to verify that there are flights available. I typically find out which carriers are available and then book directly with them.

Oh, right, two tickets does add up. :doh!:

Damn, if I had to sink more than a thousand getting my vehicle and loved ones home, I might want to hear from the dealer about any trade-in deals available, either the vehicle or the loved one. ;)

LOL I thought about buying a car and then selling it when I get home. I don't know but somehow I'm getting out of here tomorrow.

You can’t spell drunk without UNK. Top ten party college in the 90’s

Now all you need is the ghost of John Candy to hook up with you. :)

I have a 62 LeSabre that at some point I need hauled from Kearney, NE to Springfield, MO

You are giving me good data for the costs!

Loved living there. 1995-2007. Miss the morels and the sand pit fishing and all the pheasant/duck/goose/turkey hunting. Met a ton of great people, too!


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A plan is germinating here.