Day 3
Again it was a hot day. It was very sunny and it demanded the use of our a/c to make sure the cat (and Bijan) didn’t over heat. I enjoyed the green scenery and the different towns that we passed through. I liked seeing all of the different houses and different stores. I had never driven through the United States before and I was taking in all of the differences. I knew that as we went south the differences would be more and more pronounced. In the afternoon we started to experience some cloudy stretches and rain. The truck was still giving us some grief and we still experienced moments of power loss. I was getting a bit pissed about the truck and was not liking that we were going to Mexico with a truck that was not reliable. Our third day of driving was not too memorable. The landscape changed a bit but we saw mostly farms. Green Green and more Green!
We made it to Childress, TX that day and found a motel. They advertised clean rooms but they were far from clean. The carpet was sticky and the walls were dirty. The bathroom was incredibly gross. We did not touch anything. I even covered the bed with a blanket from our truck. We were in a motel that was directly on the highway so Ziggy stayed in that night.
Day 4
We walked to Walmart that morning in Childress and got some cat supplies and some food. Then we started driving towards Brownsville. It was a cloudy day and we were doing well till the truck started to lose power again. This created anger and fear in both of us. I was driving and Bijan’s frustration caused him to raise his voice in anger towards the truck. I had to pull over as the truck slowly died on the side of the road. We were 20 miles away from Fredrickburg. I let the car rest a bit but it would not start. The engine would turn over but it wouldn’t start. Bijan checked the fuses and wiggled a few wires, checked the air filter, and then crossed our fingers and prayed. WHEW!!! The truck started. We got in and Bijan drove. We both prayed that we would make it to Fredrickburg and I was hoping to see a Chev dealer so I could get it looked at.
Wow what luck. The truck made it to town and just as we rolled in there was a Chev dealer. The car was still acting up and we drove it to the service bay. An awesome lady there accommodated us. They let us take Ziggy into the waiting room and we had a coffee. After a while, the car was taken to get diagnosed. We were getting hungry so we went across the street to Porky’s for some burgers. This was a nice surprise. The restaurant was an old house converted to a burger shack. We ordered two cheeseburger specials and were surprised by how much we ate! After dinner they gave us a marker to leave a message or your name on the wall. There’s a ton of them all over the place and even on the ceiling. We sat in the far right corner stall as you walk in. Look for Bijan and Michelle going to Mexico 2009 in pen.
After our huge lunch we went back to the Chev dealership. The nice lady had some news for us. The car needed a new fuel pump. It was Friday though and they didn’t have one and needed to order it.
They didn’t work on weekends and it was too late. We would have to wait til Monday. Bijan asked if there was another dealership and to our astonishment……there was! Only it was in the next town down the road. Now, we needed to be towed BUT we would be able to get it done by Saturday morning. It cost us $140 to get it towed, $40 for the diagnosis and the car was still not fixed. We left with the tow truck driver and headed to the next town.
We met a very nice salesman there and he tried to accommodate us as well as he could. They took the truck inside and started their diagnosis. Then they drove us to a nearby hotel for the night. We were leaving our truck and all of our belongings at the dealership so we grabbed the bare minimum that we needed to get through the night. Bijan felt we needed a break and bought six beers. We are not drinkers but we drank them all that night. The hotel had a pool and we sat by it watching the sun go down. The water was getting cold and the air was cooling off too so going for a dip was not really attractive but sitting there was nice.
Bijan walked back to the dealership to get my laptop so we could see a movie and he grabbed his camera as well. On his way back he took a few pictures and saw a couple monarch butterflies mating. The butterflies remind him of us. They are migrating from Canada to Mexico every year. Back and forth they go. We were making the same trip at the same time as they were.