The worst weekend I can remember in a long time

It started when I went to the beach Saturday to hit the negative tide (the tide goes out farther than normal exposing more of the beach) to do some metal detecting. I found some deep buried pull tabs, the old beaver tail type, a cool piece of sea glass, a piece of mystery metal that I'll have to clean up to identify, and one lonely clad quarter. No luck with the treasure hunting so I head home at sunset.

I'm cruising on I-95 at 70 mph and my truck sputters and dies, fuel pump went out. I coast over to the shoulder at exit 173, Malabar/Palm Bay. Thankfully I have a smartphone with internet access and I do a local search for towing companies, Luke's Towing was the closest so I give them a call. I tell them where I am and that I need to be towed to my mom's in St. Cloud unless they knew of a local shop that was still open at 7:30 on a Saturday night. No shops open and the towing bill would be $225. Not very happy but not much I could do.

I get to mom's house around 9:30 and discuss Sunday's repairs with my stepdad. Lucky for me, my brother's truck is there for my son to use when he has to babysit his cousins so I have a ride to my house where my medicine is, otherwise I would have just stayed at mom's.

My stepdad calls me up Sunday morning and thinks it would be easier to remove the bed rather than drop the nearly full gas tank. I agree because I did a little research online when I got home Saturday night and the majority of what I found said removing the bed was the best way to go.

Removing the bed was far easier than dropping the tank (we did this on his Tahoe 2 summers ago). The bed was kind of heavy but the 2 of us were able to do it. $290 later, my truck is back together and running good. I meet up with my mom and kids at the local fair and spend a couple hours looking at the exhibits. Driving back to mom's house for dinner, I get a loud bang followed by a continuous banging/grinding noise. My first thought was my u-joint went out and the driveshaft dropped.

Of course that wouldn't be the problem because it's too easy and inexpensive to fix. My rear end is finished, differential is toast. I pull into the parking lot of a small plaza and call my stepdad. He calls his friend that he loaned his car hauler trailer to and finds out that he is done with it so he can come pick it up. That saved me another towing bill thankfully.

This repair is beyond our knowledge and mechanical capabilities though so I take out what I need for work and the truck stayed on the trailer so my stepdad can take it to the shop in the morning. 

The mechanic takes the differential cover off and just as suspected, it is mush. If he ordered new parts and rebuilt the rear end it would cost about $2500. He was able to find a used one with a one year warranty for $800 and labor would cost $400, a savings of slightly more than 1/2 for a brand new one.

The truck is in the shop still as I right this and I'm still borrowing my brother's truck but hopefully I can get mine back by close of business Friday.