Monday, May 18, 2009

Trouble with a CAPITAL T!



17 May 2009 266.7 miles
Carlsbad, NM-to the Caverns-back to Carlsbad then to Big Spring, TX

The day started out great, and ended with a capital T—Trouble finding camping and Trouble with the car!

We sat out a rain and high wind storm in Carlsbad, NM Saturday night, and woke to clear skies, so we headed to Carlsbad Caverns. Much like the Grand Canyon, pictures just don’t do it justice. We got there early in the day (and the week before the daily crowds begin) so we were virtually alone along the walk down through the natural entrance. Simply AWE-INSPIRING! This park is a MUST DO for your bucket list!

After the caverns, we headed east. In Hobbs, NM, the car started running hot, so we stopped to cool it down, added some water, and let Dave do his trouble-shooting; Dave thinks it was just a stuck thermostat, and we continued on our journey. We headed toward the next town, and a local county park that we were told has camping, but when we got there, it was RV’s only—no tents—so we continued on. About 15 miles west of the next town, and our stop for the night, something happened with the engine. At first, Dave thought it was the distributor, so we pulled into a hotel parking lot and he changed this out—didn’t work. He is now thinking it is a piston (#4 is not firing), so we are looking to trailer the car to my sister’s house in Houston (about 500 miles away) where he can pull the engine apart and see what is going on. This is kind of hard to do in a campground or hotel parking lot. We are currently weighing our options.

In the mean time, it turns out that a group of Texas Community College criminal justice instructors are starting a conference here (Big Spring, TX) on Monday. Through conversation about the car and other topics, they learned that Dave is recently retired from California ABC, and since they had one of their presenters cancel at the last minute, asked Dave to present on “something related to CABC.” For doing this, they have offered to pay for our hotel room for the night—which was very nice!

2 comments:

  1. Great pictures! Peggy, those of us in the Yuba City ABC have voted you as a real "trouper." Hope you have no more "interesting" experiences. Fun is in order, no mechanical problems allowed! Be well & be safe!

    Glynis
    Yuba City ABC

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  2. Holy Cow! Did you consider driving another car behind this one just in case? For situations like this one? Or is this what you mean by trailering the car to your sisters?

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