What a Long Strange trip it's been, and we are not even half way there. We left Jackson,MS at 7pm on Thursday, February 26Th. I had a fresh oil change and had it looked at by a mechanic. It seemed to be road ready. However, after about 100 miles on the road almost to Monroe, LA it overheated. I pulled over let it cool off added water that I kept in the trunk, in case of an emergency, then drove to the next exit. I thought the thermostat was defective causing it to overheat. Therefore, I attempted to remove it, which my being impatient resulted in a few burns. It was as simple as removing two bolts. The top bolt was easy; however, the bottom one seemed to be taking forever. Finally a nice old man truck driver asked me if there was anything he could do to help. I asked him if he add an extension for my socket. It was such a tight fit that I kept burning my hand. He came back with a flashlight, a pair of gloves , and an extension. He may have been an Angel. It took me about 5 minutes to finish removing the thermostat. He along with all my friends and family that I had called and texted while we on the side of the highway begged me to spend the night in Monroe. Nevertheless, I decided to continue our journey. As I was driving through Monroe, the car seems to be running fine. I knew the heater would not work without the thermostat, but it was 70 degrees out. I figured, if I kept going, I could stop somewhere further down the road whenever the part stores would be open and buy one then. Somewhere, between Monroe and Bossier City, it overheated again. Again, I was on the side of the highway. A really nice old sheriff man stopped and offered us a ride to town. I declined. He was really nice though. I added more water and drove to the next exit, to a truck stop called Benny's Get and Geaux. They were nice there, too. I asked a young man that worked there if there were any mechanics around. At first, he said, "we usually work on our own, me and my dad, but he don't know much about them sideways engines." Later, he did give me some extended directions to a guy that knew all about cars. We had added water, let it run, it seemed okay. From that point on between every 25-50 miles I had to pull over, let it cool, and add more water. I was determined to keep going until I could find the right person with the right answer. In Kilgore, TX, I stopped to refill the water and buy a box of Baking Soda. Why did I need Baking Soda? Well, the dog had been cooperative and walked on his leash; however, the cat was mad at his leash and maybe at me too, because he certainly did not cooperate or go like he was supposed to on a walk like the dog did. He chose to go in his cage, which reeked so that it blurred my vision. The Baking Soda did help. As we drove through Dallas, which should have been around our 6Th hour on the road instead of our twelfth, we woo-hooed and woke up Destin, Annie and Allie were awake. The kids were so excited. They had never seen such a city. The buildings are big and beautiful. They were taking pictures while we were driving down the highway. We were headed toward 287N somewhere near Fort Worth, we were on 183W. We stopped at a car lot, again, to let the car cool and get a refill of water. I had never seen such a car lot. The cars were really old. I took some pictures of them, then the camera stopped working. I think I was more upset about that than I should have been. I guess because I wanted to take more pictures of those old, I mean really old cars. It is okay now, It turned out that we had been using the internal memory because the memory card needed reformatting. Through this part of town, every block or so had some sort of car fix-it place. Most of the signs were in Spanish, but one was Aaron's Auto car, sounded English to me. Well, one guy could sort of speak English. Not the mechanic, but at least he had an interpreter. I figured out aqua and caliente. It seemed like he would talk for 10 minutes at a time and the man would condense it into one sentence. The mechanic would then point and say head gasket, head gasket. I cried for a minute, wiped my eyes, and said thank you. It may be the head gasket, but that was not the place I wanted us to be stuck; consequently, I again filled it with water and continued on our journey. The kids were having so much fun looking for roadkill as if it were a competition. It reminded me of my childhood when my sister and I, scanned the road ahead for VW Beetle Bugs. I can say that on that stretch of highway, I saw more skunks, although dead, than I have seen throughout my entire life. Later, I was on the side of 287N when I nice man headed to Amarillo from Lafayette,La in a van with wide wheels stopped as I was refilling the radiator. He offered to follow me to Amarillo, another 250 miles. About 25 miles later, we were in Wichita Falls, TX, I pulled over and told him thank you that I was going to stop here. He continued on his way. It seemed like a much smaller town than it actually is. I didn't know it, but we were kind of on the outskirts. We were sitting in the car, and I was trying to decide whether or not to get a motel room, because I was getting tired even though I was nowhere near my planned destination, Tucumcari, NM on Route 66 to spend our first motel stay. While I was deliberating and surfing motels on someones wi-fi on my laptop, a man parked next to me rolled down his window and asked if I needed any help. I asked him if he lived here; he said yes. I asked him if he knew a good mechanic, he said, "well, we usually work on our own cars." Talk about deja vu! It was almost funny even then. He suggested the dealership across the street. I said, no they will probably rip me off. He said, "There's no probably about it." He pondered a moment then suggested that I try the next town BurkBurnett. So off we went. It turned out to be at least 10 more miles. I had to stop on the way and refill the water. The first place I went to had a pad lock on the door with a paper taped on the door saying, "gone to get parts." The next place only did oil changes, but gave me directions to another mechanic down the road this way and then that way. He seemed friendly, but he didn't work on foreign cars. I have a Toyota, Camry. I went back to the oil changer man, and he told me about another guy that was down the road from the other guy except around the corner. I drove around until the car overheated trying to find that one to no avail. At that point, I decided to check on the one that had gone for parts, so I went back. He was not back yet, but there were a few phone numbers on the side of the building. I thought that I would get his number and give him a call. The only problem was no area code on the numbers. So, I went back to oil changer man and asked him the area code, which was 940. I drove back down the road to get the numbers and the man was just getting back. I told him about my problem, and he started trying to figure out the problem right away. There is a leak. He could not tell exactly where, because if he took it all apart I would be stuck and he would not be able to get it done until Monday and he did not know how long it would take and whether or not he would have to order parts. He offered to give me all the jugs he had so I could keep going or I could get a motel and wait until Monday. I thought about, deliberated for a good five minutes, decided that he was the right person and that this was the right place to stop and hope for the best.
What a trip... I've driven that one myself and just getting thru texas seems to take forever. I can't imagine doing it with car trouble, 3 kids and 2 animals. Where in Cali is your final destination? I'm guessing that you are moving out there since you mentioned the kids school, I lived in the south beach area for awhile and loved everything except the traffic.
Karen Newman
non-member comment
What a trip... I've driven that one myself and just getting thru texas seems to take forever. I can't imagine doing it with car trouble, 3 kids and 2 animals. Where in Cali is your final destination? I'm guessing that you are moving out there since you mentioned the kids school, I lived in the south beach area for awhile and loved everything except the traffic.