Driving Day 4 - Albuquerque to Amarillo, TX

When we set out today, we thought it would just be a long, boring drive.  We were very wrong.  Upgrading my AAA membership to the Premier level paid for itself today and for the next 2 renewals.  We are fine but had a slight setback in our timetable.

We left Albuquerque about 10 am MDT and we expected to arrive in Oklahoma City about 7 pm CDT.  We stopped in Tucumcari, NM for lunch and Olga took her turn at the wheel.  All was well for about an hour, when we started losing power - first the radio, AC and windows.  We saw a sign for a Stuckey's & Shell station 9 miles ahead in Adrian, TX.  I told Olga to keep driving but stay in the slow lane and just as we were pulling into the gas station, the car died completely in the driveway - it was the alternator.  We were an hour away in either direction from Tucumcari and Amarillo, so it took the tow truck driver a little over an hour to get to us.  While we were waiting, we met a woman who was traveling from Chicago to Tucson and she had the cutest Yorkie with her - Diablo was his name.   We chatted with her for quite a while and learned that she was a bead artist - jewelry and Indian power dolls.  The man who managed or owned Stuckey's took a look under the hood to see if  the problem might be a belt, but they were all intact and looked new. 

We also met 2 guys who were towing 3 horses back to Texas.  The horses were mustangs and the guys said they were good mountain horses.  Bear, Crow and Vegas (l to r) are their names and I took this picture mainly for my niece Amy because she loves horses. 

Dennis from All Right Towing was our tow driver and he was sent from Tucumcari rather than sending someone from Amarillo.  He was a character but quite fun to talk with - this made the hour drive back to Tucumcari enjoyable.  He's from Alabama but has lived in NM for about 17 years - he got there by way of working on the highways and towing cars in the winter.  The tow truck wasn't your typical AAA yellow - it was pink and red because the company is owned by a woman.

Going back to Tucumcari turned out to be a good decision as my original thought was to be towed to a Ford dealer in Amarillo.  The first reason is by the time we would have gotten to a dealer it would have been about 6 pm local time - the time changes at the TX-NM border.  We would have had to wait until tomorrow to have it fixed and who knows how long that would take.  Since Dennis came from NM, I hated to see him drive an hour to Amarillo, then 2 hours back to NM - so I asked him if he knew a mechanic in Tucumcari who could help us out.  He made a phone call to a man named Chris who said he work on the car and would stand by for us.  The Stuckey's manager/owner was outside talking to the lady we met and asked where Dennis was taking us - he approved the choice.  This man also has the Stuckey's in Palomas, NM and said he sends people to Chris' Auto which is where Dennis took us.  The second reason is we got to a mechanic I knew wouldn't gouge us and he didn't.

Chris is 70 and his wife Ida is 63 and they are very interesting and kind people.  Ida is Chris' assistant and helps him out - we called her the "surgical nurse".  First Chris replaced some parts on the alternator, then Ida and I went to Napa Auto Parts to have it tested - it failed.  So, I bought a new one and we went back to the garage - actually Chris has all his tools and parts in his truck and he worked on the car in the parking lot.  There was a storm approaching and we all hoped it would hold off till he was done.  After about 2 hours we were on our way and saved well over $100 from a dealer repair - Chris only charged me for one hour's work and I have a new alternator.

While Ida and I were gone, Olga and Chris had quite a conversation.  He talked about his great-grandson Devin who lives in Las Cruces and showed us his picture - very cute with a devilish grin.  You could tell that Chris and Ida adore him.  Chris' Auto is an old shop and looks like the kind of place you'd find in out-of-the-way places.


We got out of Tucumcari just as the storm was about to hit and we got ahead of it.  We are staying the night in Amarillo.  Instead of getting to Memphis on Wednesday, we probably won't get there till Thursday.  Our primary interest is to tour Graceland so we'll be fine.  We have plans to get to my brother's house in Troy, IL on Friday.

Anyway, we are both safe and we had an adventure today.  We had 4 caring people looking out for our welfare and everything turned out okay.  Stay tuned....