Two Good Samaritans
When we went out to the truck on Tuesday morning at 9am the first thing I noticed was that it was a little chilly (the truck doesn’t like the cold weather) & that we had a flat tire! SO I loaded everyone up, ran back into the hotel to find the nearest tire place & then returned to the truck in order to make our way 1 mile down the road. BUT that was not going to happen. The truck would not start! I had had to park across from the hotel so had not being able to plug in the engine block heater 🙁 Ran back into the hotel again to see if anybody had a truck & jumper cables to help me. Now, the truck wouldn’t start because it was cold & so jumper cables were really not the perfect answer but everytime I tried to start it after allowing the Glow Plugs to warm up of course it was draining the battery. We think our Glow Plugs need replacing but only just found that out last week so too late to do anything about it!
The maintenance man had a truck but no jumper cables but a guest overheard our conversation & said he had both. He came over to the truck & it took us about 30 mins to get our truck started! By this time his co-worker had joined him & once the truck was going he gave me the jumper cables! I have no idea who these two guys were but I was very thankful for their help.
From there we drove slowly to the tire place. Could only do this because the tire that was completely flat was on the Dually back wheels so the second tire beside the flat one was holding the weight. Thankfully the only problem with the tire was a bad valve which had dry rotted & so easily replaced. Finally left Elk City at 11am but we still made it to Albuquerque with plenty of time to spare.
Had a great time with Kevin & Toni – SO good to see them after all this time. They were very gracious hosts & were not too perturbed at Caleb removing all their ornaments one by one! No, he didn’t break any but it was easier & much less stressful to move them out the way then constantly tell him “No.” He thought they were toys put at his level! The poor cat just went & hid! We had a lot of catching up to do after nearly 30 years!
Left there earlythis morning & are now in Needles, CA. I had forgotten until we entered California, the ridiculous Diesel prices & the unreasonable speed limit (55mph) for all towing vehicles. I got TOTALLY screwed on the diesel as I filled up tonight to save time tomorrow & paid $4.99 a gallon. This truck is doing less than 10mpg on this trip & when I drove a little further down to the hotel it was only $4.59 a gallon which is still expensive but not quite as bad. Oh well we got a better hotel room than we should have though.
Richard had called up & booked it for us but when I checked in, the gal on the front desk said that he had booked it for tomorrow but she could change it for us. When I saw the price I was a little amazed as Richard doesn’t normally pay that kind of money for a hotel room but figured that was maybe all he could get. Hah! When I called him from the room he said that he had booked the room via the phone & told the guy “Tonight” & for nearly $40 less than what the gal had got me to sign for! He called them right up & told them they needed to correct their mistake. A few minutes later I got a call from the front desk asking me to come down & swap keys as she had given us an executive suite rather than a standard room. I was like, “But I already have the kids in the bath!” “Oh!,” says the gal, “Then I will talk to my manager & call you back.” I have not heard from her again so I guess she has sorted. Will find out in the morning!
Take care,
Liz