It's one of six places in the world where past volcanic rocks have left groupings like this that look like a city (I thought it was a far stretch, but I also have a lame imagination). It was a striking contrast to the desert.
The mechanic told Matt that he saw several gaskets out of place and misfiring. He muttered, "you may want to sell this thing fast!" Not what we want to hear.
Now, remember its NYE, and everyone is getting off work early and no one is working New Year's Day. We hoped the new oil might be a fix enough to drive into Arizona where we planned New Years celebration with Grandma and PaoavEd. We took the RV for a test run down the road. It died on us twice. We knew that we were out of luck. As we pulled back into the truck repair shop, the RV died once again. Luckily, we have good Sam's membership which gives us towing for free if our RV is non-drivable. We called them and they set up a tow truck to arrive from Las Cruces, New Mexico, which was 60 miles south.
So we hurried and packed some bags and decided that the tow truck would take the RV back to Las Cruces and we would head on to Arizona in the car. About two hours later, we got a phone call where we learned that the RV would have to spend the night in Walmart in Las Cruces because the diesel mechanic there had left for the night and locked the gates. We were uncomfortable with this thought and so we decided to stay with the RV. By now we had been in a broken down RV all day long. I was proud of the kids though. Stray dogs and toys helped to entertain them well.
The tow truck driver finally arrived at about 5 o'clock that night. He looked to be about 14 years old to me. He told Matt that towing an RV is his worst nightmare. Nothing like putting our mind at ease after an already stressful day. It took him almost 2 hours to disable the driveline and get the heavy RV hooked up to his semi truck.
After seeing the age of this driver and his inexperience, Matt quickly got out the manual for towing the RV and helped the young man throughout the process. They were both frozen to the bone by the time they were done. And it was dark. We drove south to Las Cruces and arrived in the Walmart parking lot to spend one more night there. The driver jacked the RV up on blocks to make it easier to for him to pick it back up on Friday. So we slept in a slightly elevated RV that night.
Seeing that it was New Year's Eve, we went into Walmart and let the kids pick out some snacks. We were all so exhausted that we only lasted until about 10:30 PM, and then fell fast asleep.
However, the next day the kids loaded up on Nerf guns using Christmas gift cards that were burning a hole in their pockets. We all had great Nerf gun fights in the parking lot.
Turns out, Walmarts pretty dead on New Year's Day at 8 AM in the morning.
Because we had limited water at the state park, and I had chosen not to require showers before we left TX. It had been about four days since any of us had showered. We appeared to be a homeless family as we walked the aisles of Walmart with our scrubby, greasy hair. Elise found a Christmas dress on sale for two dollars. She was so excited to wear it, she put it on, dirt and all with her tennis shoes. I had to capture a picture.
We knew we needed showers and a good nights rest, so I booked us a room at the Sleep Inn. We seriously stunk so bad that the room was unbearable to stay in until everyone had showers. I'm still in awe at the stench that can be emitted from a preteen boys tennis shoes.
On a positive note, Matt found an Albertson's here in Las Cruces on "Idaho" street. He went out and grabbed us some dinner and even found a dozen freshly made donuts. Happy New Year's day to us!
Gas prices are a surprising low as well.
All in all, not a bad diversion. At least we hope not. Tomorrow we'll hear the damage and face the music. Like my dad always reminds me, "it's just a dot in the big picture of life". Love a wise father.
