.Yup…we’re in Texas, and I’m toast (is this a cool rest area, or what??).  The good news is that we’re no longer in Arkansas!  This morning at 8:45 I got the call from Orr Honda – the Pilot would be ready in a half hour!  Ben and I dashed over there to pick it up, returned the rental car, and went back to the hotel to load up.  We were on the road by about 10:30.

I spent the first hour obsessively checking the dashboard for warning lights, but the only one that came on was the maintenance light which is actuated by certain mileage and not by a sensor.  We stopped at Whattaburger because it seemed like a fast-food experience we shouldn’t pass up, and made a quick stop at the family home of a friend who lives in San Miguel.  Despite the sorting and purging during our stay in Texarkana, we still had too much stuff in the car so we left some of it in New Braunfels for pick-up later on.  I’m hoping that once we get the car organized tomorrow we’ll have enough room for the remaining stuff, 5 people, and Wally.

Tomorrow is a big day.  We have to leave the hotel around 7 a.m., drive an hour and a half south to Laredo, and be at the warehouse right when they open at 9 so the truck can be unloaded as early as possible.  While that’s happening, I’ll be at Firestone trying to get them to balance the tires, do a front end alignment, or somehow make the annoying shimmy go away.  Then we return the truck to Penske and cross the border (our furniture will hopefully follow us next week).  If we can get through Customs and Immigration quickly enough, we will head to Matehuala to stay overnight one last time.  If it’s starting to get late, maybe we’ll only get as far as Saltillo.  Regardless, barring unforeseen complications we’ll be in San Miguel on Thursday.  I CAN NOT WAIT!!!

When Norah saw this contraption in the rest area, she asked, “Is that for HANGING people???”

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Yesterday we dropped the car at Orr Honda and left a note explaining the symptoms and mentioning the long road trip, kids, cat, etc.  I tried not to spend the night thinking about what the possible problem could be and googling the warning lights, but I did feel a little sick about the “what-ifs.”  I mean, if the car was damaged beyond repair, it’s not like we could just buy a different one because as a permanent resident I’m not allowed to drive a US car into Mexico.  I just went to bed hoping for the best.

The service department opened at 7:30, and I immediately started getting texts from my new friend Darryl explaining that the service writers would be in shortly and I should come over to get the process going.  He said that the service manager was expecting me, and gave me the names of all the other service guys who could help.  He was very reassuring and it made me feel hopeful that at least someone was taking the problem out of my hands.  He even sent me a cat emoji.

I went over to the dealership and chatted with one of the service guys, who told me that he had driven the car that morning and it drove ok (so I didn’t kill it), and it was in line to go in as soon as the service techs arrived at 8.  He told me he would call as soon as they ran the diagnostic codes.  A half hour later he called to report that the problem was the accelerator position sensor, and unfortunately nobody nearby had one.  It had to be overnighted from California, but the car should be ready to go tomorrow morning.

I returned the obscenely expensive Hertz rental car and picked one up from Enterprise for $100 less on our corporate plan.  I extended our hotel stay and the Penske rental by one more day, notified the TX-to-SMA mover, caught up on some work, and took the kids to Target to let them spend some of their money on last-minute necessities like Swedish Fish and Nerf bullets.  We’re headed across the street to a BBQ joint for dinner, and hoping to eventually find the guest laundry room available.  The luggage and all of our other stuff is organized, and we’re ready to hit the road as soon as we get the call.

To be honest, once I knew that the car would be fixed tomorrow and at a cost of <$500, hanging around Texarkana for the day wasn’t so bad.  It’s almost like we’re getting back to Mexican Time.  Everyone here has been very friendly and kind…I think 3 days is enough, but it could have been much, much worse.  Hopefully everything goes smoothly tomorrow, and we’ll be in Laredo to leave the contents of the truck with the movers on Wednesday morning, arriving in SMA Thursday afternoon.

Here’s what Norah wrote in her gratitude journal (posted with her permission):

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As you can probably guess, today did not go as planned.  As soon as we started to drive out of Texarkana, a bunch of scary warning lights came on in the Pilot, and the car had almost no power.  I was able to quickly get off the highway and into a church parking lot, where we analyzed the situation.  I had Aliya, Norah, the cat, and a car full of stuff that wouldn’t fit or couldn’t go into the moving truck.  Ben had Adlani (the birthday boy) in the truck and was in the church parking lot with us.  It’s been a LONG time since I’ve had a breakdown, although I remember it happening pretty often when I was a kid.

The best thing about being a kid – which kids don’t realize at the time – is that you don’t have to worry about stuff like broken-down cars and the cost to fix them, not to mention the cost of a rental car, hotel, extra days with the moving truck, etc.  Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want them to worry about this stuff…I just don’t want to have to worry about it either.  Isn’t there someone I can call to rescue us so I don’t have to figure anything out by myself?

I couldn’t find a mechanic open today, and some of the rental car places were even closed.  The Penske truck has room for Ben + 1, so Ben drove Adlani back to the hotel, got our room back, and left Adlani there.  He came back to the church – about 10 minutes away, and took Norah, then came back for Aliya and Wally.  Finally, he came back and drove me to the airport to pick up an obscenely expensive rental minivan.  The airport is tiny – in fact, the rental car lady told me that she had the rental pulled up to the curb where it sat right in front of the terminal door unattended until I got into it.  Meanwhile, Ben was in a parking lot just short of the terminal…an Arab in a rented box truck in front of an airport might get some unwanted attention.

We went back to the hotel and left the truck, then drove the minivan back to the church parking lot, called AAA, and loaded most of the crap from the Pilot into the rental.  AAA showed up about an hour later and towed it to the dealership where I wrote what I hope is a note that will inspire the technician to get right to work, figure out the problem, fix it in record time, and charge us very little.  Yes, I know.  Probably unlikely.

By the time we had dropped the car at the dealership it was around 2 and I had not had anything to eat or drink.  I’m not ashamed to say that I cried when Ben directed me to Starbucks which appeared to be inside of Target which meant that they probably wouldn’t have breakfast sandwiches.  It turned out that Starbucks was a half mile away, not inside of Target, and I got my slow-roasted ham and swiss (and stopped crying).

Back at the hotel, Aliya and I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through some of the crap that had been thrown into the Pilot because we hadn’t had time to finish packing it properly.  We got rid of some trash and have a basket of stuff to donate.  I don’t know if the weight of all of the junk contributed to the car problem.  Hopefully not.

I took the kids out looking for dinner but nobody could settle on what they wanted, so we had pizza delivered after eating ice cream.  Whatever; it’s Adlani’s birthday so an ice cream appetizer is the least I can do.  Other than that, the kids have watched the Olympics and hung around.  When we broke down Norah said, “Everything happens for a reason!  Now we have time to go to the pool!”  I have been working so that when we finally get back on the road I won’t have to worry about any deadlines.

More to come tomorrow…hopefully good news.

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Today we had every intention of getting on the road early, but everyone was exhausted from yesterday’s trip and it takes time to cycle 5 people through their morning routine in 1 bathroom.  We got out of the hotel by 9, but then Ben needed gas, and because we went to the gas station instead of directly onto the highway, Adlani spotted Krispy Kreme.  Meanwhile, Norah was trying to take a Dramamine pill because she she has gotten carsick several times lately.  I don’t know if it’s just a fear of getting carsick or if she’s actually got motion sickness, but I do know that when she takes a Dramamine it knocks her out for a while and she can’t obsess about the possibility that she’ll throw up.

So…I’m chomping at the bit to get on the road, Ben and Adlani are in Krispy Kreme, Norah is standing outside my car window crying while trying to take the Dramamine, and Aliya is trying to help hold the whole thing together.  Finally I made Norah get in the car without taking the Dramamine, and tried bribery, threats, and even reasoning with her.  The pill got “powdery” from being held in her hot little hand, so I had her put a new one in the water bottle cap and tried to get her to throw back the pill like a shot, with a water chaser.  After almost 2 HOURS – really! – she finally took the pill, and then immediately passed out.

We tried to keep the stops to a minimum, and combined the gas, food, and bathroom stops as much as possible.  The best part of the day (other than arriving at our destination) was when we crossed into the next time zone and got an hour back.  Suddenly it felt like we were on track – not a familiar feeling lately.  I’ve noticed that with these long stretches of driving that my eyes get really dry and tired, so I’ve started taking 15-minute catnaps every few hours.  It’s kind of amazing, actually, how I can pull into a rest area, kick the kids out of the car, set a timer and immediately fall asleep for 15 minutes.  It really helps!

We made it to Texarcana, although our first stop in town was the wrong La Quinta, at 5201 North State Line Ave, Texarkana, Texas instead of 5102 North State Line Ave., Texarcana, Arkansas.  The hotels are literally across the highway from each other – very confusing.  It’s not as nice as last night’s La Quinta, but I’m not picky.

Tomorrow’s challenge will be to make room in the car for 5 people to ride from Laredo to San Miguel, along with the cat (Ben and Adlani have been riding in the truck so far, but we’ll be returning the truck in Laredo).  In our rush to leave Framingham on Thursday, we threw in the last few boxes without even sorting them.  We can’t just put them on the truck because a) it’s full to the brim, and b) only the things that are on the menaje de casa can go on the truck (more on that later).  We hope to deal with that issue early, so we can get going at a decent hour.  Send positive organizational vibes our way!

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We left Scranton at 9 a.m., headed for Knoxville, Tennessee – a manageable drive of less than 10 hours which somehow became 14+ hours.  We need to get a handle on coordinating the bathroom, gas, and snack breaks, because it seems like someone is always in desperate need of stopping.  One of the major delays was the hour spent at Cracker Barrel, but it was unavoidable because I’ve been promising Adlani for literally 3 months that we would go.  Wally and I ate breakfast in the car, while the rest of the family ate inside.

The weather was great today and we didn’t run into any traffic or car trouble.  The main problem – other than the too-frequent breaks – was the fact that I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. working and I was SO TIRED today.  It felt like the trip was taking forever and for the last 4 or 5 hours I had to stop every hour or two to close my eyes for 15 minutes.  It worked, though, and I eventually got a 3rd wind and we made it to Knoxville.

Several people have asked how I can possibly work on a road trip like this.  My job is hard to walk away from because there’s nobody to watch the shop for me.  So every summer we have been going somewhere for a month, where I work part-time and use a couple weeks of vacation time in small chunks.  This summer has basically been the same except that when I wasn’t working I was dealing with the hoard instead of touring ancient kasbahs.  I also worked extra-hard before I left to get ahead on some things, and I’ll spend a lot of time next week catching up.  I think it’s a good compromise.

Last night’s Days Inn didn’t really work for us – at one point Aliya asked if it was ok to put her head on the pillow – so tonight we are at a La Quinta Inn.  We usually stay in Marriotts but we needed a pet-friendly place and La Quinta allows up to 2 pets per room at no extra charge.  For some hotels the pet fee can be as high as $150/night!  It’s our first time in a La Quinta, and it’s nice!  Wally is being a total trooper…spending very long days in his carrier and nights in the bathroom.  He’s going to be so excited to get to SMA and hang out in the yard!

We’re hoping to make it to Texarcana tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!