Arrived Thurs morning before lunch. I was trailering my bike with my wife, son and my wifes boston terrier along for the ride. I took them out to Fontana dam,thru the hellbender, and thru the dragon before heading across the parkway to our cabin. Stopped and talked to the photographer from US129 on the dragon about the pics and the weather. Just before we arrived at our cabin my truck started acting funny. I had to climb a few rather steep hills to get to the cabin and it seemed to have no power. The truck is a 02 Dakota RT so it has a 360 engine with a 3.90 rearend ratio, no problem with power here. Well, I unloaded the back of the truck took the bike off the trailer and planned to run into Pigeon Forge and get a bite to eat before hitting the dragon. PF was about 7 miles away, so before I even made it there the truck started to lose power, like the trans was slipping, the engine would rev for a second but no acceleration. I limped back to the cabin hoping it would pull the hills, which it barely did. Took the truck to the dodge place at 8am this morning, a bad O2 sensor and a blown intake gasket. The family was left at the cabin until about 2pm with only snack foods and I was out over $300. I was glad they could fix it on a Fri. with no app. because I didn't have any tools. After we ate and got back to the cabin it was after 3 and starting to rain. I had the cabin rented till Sun. but after blowing all the spending money on the truck and rain for tomorrow we packed up and came back home. Everyone had enough, no food for them, me sitting in the dealership all day and no money left to go shopping with. We had set aside the money for this trip over the last month or so. With me and her both in the construction field its hard to have any spare money these days and we both agreed to put nothing on a credit card just in case one of us stops getting a pay check. I was looking forward to meeting more of you this time but seems like I just can't catch a break anymore. Hope to be there in the spring, may just put on the backpack and leave everything else at home( truck, wife and dog, but mainly the truck). Ya'll stay safe, saw a can am in the ditch just past the overlook on the dragon, he was alive but didn't look to good.
