God has other plans - we're still in Texas

Breakfast at buffet at HIE. Grabbed enough to take for the road to be lunch!! On the road, coffee in hand, by 6:50am local time. Only 720 miles of Texas left to go!! Should be in New Mexico by 5.

Mom started driving – was raining. Rush hour in San Antonio was fun – took a wrong turn but made it work just fine. Started to see landscape changes, wide open spaces, really cool mesas, longhorn cattle (they’re not just a rumor!). For awhile, along the tops of the mesas we saw many, many windmills – the new modern-looking ones! Such a neat sight! Mostly only big-rigs travel Route 10 at this point. BOY DID WE FEEL SMALL!

As the storms were in front of us and the sun was behind us, we saw a BEAUTIFUL rainbow. Tried to get a pic – but couldn’t remember how to work my camera. At this point in the trip we were listening to Amy Grant Christmas CDs while playing Millionaire and crossword puzzles on the laptop – I think we’re addicted. The games DO help pass the time quite nicely, though. We started using town names for our “name” in Millionaire.

Stopped for gas in Fort Stockton – potty break, too. This looked like the last place before we got to El Paso 250 miles later!! About 190 miles down the road, I needed a potty – which was odd, because I hadn’t been drinking much all day. But, nature called – and so we looked for a gas station or rest stop.
We missed exit 85 because we weren’t watching.
Saw a sign for a gas station at exit 72, so we moved over to the right lane and started to exit Route 10.
As we were driving down the exit ramp, the car seemed to loose power steering all together. I held on tightly and managed to get the car into the Shell station just down the road.
The temperature gauge read 260 degrees – ooops!
So, we decided that we’d overworked the poor overburdened car and it was crying out for a rest. So we let it rest. Once we checked the coolant (and found that it was BOILING!), we sat back and enjoyed an unplanned break in our driving.

About 15-20 minutes later we turned the car on to check the engine temp and found that it had gone down a little, but not as much as we’d hoped. We followed the directions we found in the owner’s manual – and turned the car on, let it idle, with the heat running. This was supposed to draw the heat away from the engine and help it to cool. Unfortunately, the temperature ROSE! We stuck our heads back under the hood and found that, even to the untrained eye, the belt (Fan, I think) was looking a bit like spaghetti – not at all what a fan belt should look like. Mom tried to call AAA from her cell – and found that we had no signal. She was able to connect on a pay phone – and I started packing up our stuff, knowing that we would be changing our plans soon.

The tow truck was promised for 90 minutes – so we wandered over to the restaurant next door – Angie’s. Now, in case you pulled out a map and are looking for Fort Hancock, let me assure you that it is a small, but friendly little border town. Angie’s Restaurant has maybe 15 tables and is owned and operated by Angie herself – in fact, I think she does pretty much everything there. And still has a smile and cheerful word for neighbors and passers-thru alike. We were welcomed as friends and invited to stay as long as we needed to. The salsa, which we didn’t have the opportunity to try, is rumored to be world-class. The ice cream, which we did try, was cold, sweet, yummy and CHEAP – 75¢ per scoop! And it was a LARGE scoop!

Almost exactly 1 hour after mom’s phone call to Shanda of AAA – the tow truck arrived. AGAIN, we were greeted as friends. The gentleman from Sanchez Towing in Sierra Blanca TX was sweet and friendly. He chatted and reassured us as he drove us to El Paso. We got to hear about the local history and some of the local forts – might have to come back and seem them someday.

We arrived at Pep Boys in El Paso and Hector assured us that the belt and the pulley needed to be replaced and then we’d be on the road. He thought they’d need awhile – so mom and I walked to Peter Piper’s Pizza to eat and chat. The place was a bit like Chuck E. Cheese’s – and the pizza was very good! There were 2 teenage boys who were playing a dancing video game – WOW!. Very good…and quite a workout. While we were eating, we got a message from Hector at Pep Boys. When we called back, Hector had left for the night, but Joe explained that they had some not-so-good-news. The tensioner also needs to be replaced in my car – and they don’t have one. They will call around in the morning, but do not know what the exact situation will be until that time. So, we went back to Pep Boys, got our stuff out of the car, found a hotel that was reasonable and right down the road. One of the other customer’s was very friendly and helpful – told us about the area and helped us find hotels nearby. One of the Pep Boys boys, Luis, gave us a lift and here we sit. In the hotel by 8pm – and no chance of being on the road until at least 10am.








Here's a picture of my car...