A Sad Day

Yesterday, John came home with some bad news from our diesel engine mechanic. Following our third re-build this year, he is now convinced that the motor itself is fine. There seems to be other problems. The backing plate between the transmission and the engine seems to be warped, perhaps indicating alignment problems. George is hesitant to work on a fix. In addition, he is wary of our exhaust system. The multiple 90 degree elbows and convoluted routing system could also be causing problems. Although these seem to me like fixable problems, he and John are both convinced that we'd be throwing good money after bad. So...we're finally considering re-powering. The bad news is that a new engine is not in the budget, and would require us to delay our departure by another year, in order to save enough money for the engine. The disappointment is overwhelming.