I feel like a guy who lines up for the 100-yard dash and, as the starter’s pistol is raised, notices that his shoelace is untied.
The truck has sprung a leak in the fuel line. I noticed a dark spot on the pavers on Friday when I took the truck out for an errand, but it had rained earlier and I dismissed it as runoff. But when the spot was still there when I returned I could no longer dismiss it as water. I got down on my knees and looked under the truck. Yup, something dripping. A slow drip. Put my finger on it, smelled it. Diesel fuel. Crawled under the truck and looked. There is a funny radiator-type thing under there and the drip is emanating either from that or from one of the fuel lines attached to it.
A little Google research revealed the radiator thing to be a “fuel cooler”. Never knew I had one. Don’t know why the fuel needs to be cooled. But whatever. It is not an expensive part and is probably easy to replace. But we have no time. If I can’t get the problem fixed on Monday (unlikely) then I need to know whether it can wait a week until we get to Virginia. It may be a minor leak (I think maybe a cup has spilled onto the pavers), but any problem in a vehicle that will be hauling a 15,000-pound trailer 1500 miles is potentially a big problem. I have arranged an appointment at the GMC dealer for Tuesday, but that is the day we are supposed to leave. So I plan to take it into a local garage tomorrow (Monday) and see if I can at least get a professional assessment of how worried I should be.
Keep your fingers crossed.