6/21/2024
I left Denver on the night of the 19th. Yesterday, I was struggling more and more frequently with the van. It was throwing that error more often and it started leaking oil pretty badly. During one of the stops I tried to figure out what the issue was and found that it’s probably a corroded transmission control unit (TCU) plug/wire. One of the possible solutions was to disconnect the battery for a half hour to drain the system and reset the TCU. Once I did that I didn’t have the error the rest of the way home.
I stopped in Aberdeen, SD for the night. I was expecting to have an easy drive back to Fargo today. Everything was going well until I got to Ellendale, ND. I was behind a semi truck and we both turned onto the same highway out of town. I passed him and got up to highway speed, 65 mph. He kept getting closer and closer to me so I sped up to 75 to get some distance between us. As I got near my turn I signaled and had to slow for oncoming traffic. He apparently didn’t see my signal and hit the rear corner of the van as I was making the turn. I pulled over and he kept going. He said that he didn’t even feel the hit.
I turned around and took off after him. I caught up to him and got him to pull over eventually. He was fired up that he had somewhere to be and that I should know trucks can’t slow down very fast. I wasn’t going to fight with him and I called the sheriff. After about 15 minutes the sheriff shows up, takes our information and stories, takes pictures, and lets us go. My grandma only lives about 40 miles away from the crash, I was going to stop in to see her anyway, so I drove to LaMoure, ND. I chatted with my grandma as I uploaded the dashcam videos to the sheriff before heading back to Fargo.
Luckily for me there wasn’t a lot of damage. It could’ve been way worse if the truck hit me straight on at 75 mph. He busted the taillight and plastic, pushed the door over, and messed up some of the metal on the corner. The back door is a pain in the butt to get closed now.