Day Two: Albuquerque, NM to Oklahoma City, OK

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The longest day of our lives. It all started very well. We had breakfast, fueled up the truck, and headed out at a decent hour. Our plan was to be in Oklahoma City by dinnertime.



Service Required

Just after leaving Albuquerque, the check engine light came on. As most of our day was going to be spent in the middle of nowhere, we called Uhaul and found a service station in the dusty town of Santa Rosa. The mechanic discovered we did not have any oil in our engine. Zero. We were now an hour behind schedule, and no less frustrated, and so continued on through Texas toward Oklahoma.



Service Really Required

Just beyond the Texas boarder, one of the rear tires blew out. It felt like an isolated earthquake that only our truck was experiencing, and the bits of rubber flying out from under the truck was a dead giveaway. We stopped right in front of a mile marker sign, so at least we were able to provide a proper location for service. And so we sat there, in the middle of no where, crippled by our derelict moving truck. A State Patrol officer stopped to make sure we were ok, and escorted us a mile down the road to a picnic turn-off, for our safety. We were quite thankful for the help. During our wait, we started "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" audio book, to make some use of our time. The 90-minute service estimate crept into two hours, and we discovered that the simple instruction of "We're at mile marker 12 on I-40 East" was not sufficient and the service crew was looking for us some 15 miles down the road. When they finally arrived, service was quick, but we were informed one of the lug nuts was stripped and might fall off, which was also a serious safety hazard.



Lunch and Vanonos

After the tire repair, we picked up some sandwiches and got the heck out of Texas. What was means to be a 2 1/2 hour breeze-though Texas was a grueling five hours. To be fair, everyone we met in Texas was very nice, which was the only thing keeping my head from exploding. We finished our audio book before arriving at our destination. It was dark when we arrived in Oklahoma City.

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Photos

"You are here"
Our view for two hours as we waited for service

Flowers
Being broken down gave me time to practice some photography shots

Welcome to Oklahoma!
... finally