Headed to Obsolete Ford Parts, difficult to find, as my catalog was so old the store had moved. We finally found it and bought a few things. Now we had to find Terry’s trailers. The freeway construction and Aaron’s map reading skills were so bad that we trusted the GPS, which was set on their address. We found a major road and headed east for a while and finally turned north. I spotted a Korean store, a store that caters to the Korean population with culturally specific items. I needed a special washcloth that I use to have; but it had worn out. So time for a pit stop.

We entered the store and asked the lady for a washcloth. She led us around and pointed to the back of the store "You wash you hands there". Hmmm, not what we wanted. The Husband (?) asked what we wanted and I explained. The then spoke to her in Korean and she led me to another part of the store where I got my washcloths. (These washcloths are Japanese made of a plastic, and while rough, lather real well and get grease off pretty darn good).

We continued to head north and hit one of the roads on a map I had, turned right and after a few miles, found Terry's Trailers. The GPS works quite well. Read about my review on Terry’s Trailers and see my new trailer  here.

We picked up the trailer and drove across the street for lunch; after lunch we put some of the stuff from the back of the truck, filled up with gas and hit the freeway. Almost near Clinton Oklahoma, we saw a car alongside the freeway with the hood up, so we pulled in to help. The car had originally overheated and the lady had been setting there an hour and a half. Somehow she somehow had gotten her mother out of the car and to a safe destination, but she was still there with her grandson, age about 3. She had a spray bottle with water and would mist him, so they were doing ok in the heat.  Aaron entertained the child (or did the child entertain Aaron?) I filled her radiator with antifreeze and got the car running good and cool. The little boy was showing Aaron his "gun" (a b-b gun?) and telling him how "Ya shoot the snakes and then step on there heeads".

We followed her to the "Cherokee Trading Post" in Clinton,  (http://www.cherokeegifts.com/) and although I refused payment, she threw 20 dollars in the truck. I gave it to Aaron and he bought himself a big rattle (well, an Indian Rain Stick)

The truck started acting up again, and we pulled some small town and barely made it to an auto parts place. I put in a new filter, but this time it didn’t cure up the problem. It was running a bit better so we drove on a bit farther and decided on dinner. We pulled into Elk City and saw a spotted a Texaco with two empty repair bays in it. We had a quick dinner at McDonalds, and went back to the Texaco. The lady called in her mechanic and told me "This guy owes Daddy some time so you don’t let him not work on it." It seems as though he owed the boss time, and he’d rather work it off at home watching TV. As soon as he came in he looked at the truck and said, "No way, ya shouldn’t have called me." I never heard of someone turning down work because it was too hard, that’s why you charge by the hour. I wanted the tank dropped and cleaned and he told me how hard it was. I told him it wasn’t that hard, I’d done it last summer. We continued to discuss the job and it was evident that I knew more about what to do than him. He finally told me it would cost 35 dollars an hour, and I asked if I could help. My reasoning was that two people could work a bit faster and I knew how to get it down easier. He said, "No, insurance won’t allow it" and I said no way, I’ll figure something else out. He might have thought that I couldn’t have afforded it; and he was way wrong on that part. I just didn’t want someone yahoo who thinks the job is hard doing what was easy and charging me for that. He doesn’t know how he lost out by not being sociable and accommodating. If he had been willing to do this and let me help, I would have slipped him 100 dollars under the table, for his attitude. So not only did the owner of the shop loose money on a repair, he did too. (And he looked like he could have used it)

We got back on the freeway and the truck started running better. As Aaron slept, I decided on a plan. I’d drive to Cannon AFB New Mexico, and see if the Auto Hobby Shop was open on Sunday. (On most Air Force Bases there is an Auto Hobby Shop, a do-it-yourself garage that you rent the tools and space for a few dollars an hour. Aaron and I would drop the tank and see what was up). We stopped at a town named Hereford Texas and got some ice-cream, and discovered that the town was correctly named (peeewww!!). Made it into Cannon AFB, and I checked at billeting, no room at the inn, but she helped me find a room downtown in Clovis, (8 miles in the direction we just came from). She also had a couple of friends that almost lived at the auto hobby shop, and they verified it was open on Sunday. I offered them some money if they wanted to help me pull the tank and they said "sure".

25 June, 2000

States visited today: New Mexico.

Total states seen: 7

Day 6

The next morning we found the Auto Hobby shop, and sighed in. I tried calling the two other guys, several times, but the line was always busy. We had to fight to get the spare tire down and the aft tank but we did get it. When we removed the pump, there was very little sediment in it. We put it all together and put a pressure tester on it and it read within the limits of the book for fuel pressure. We cleaned up and packed up and hit the road. We missed the exit for our road and went 15 miles west and had dinner made reservations at Carlsbad, New Mexico, then headed south to reconnect with our route.

We had almost made it to Elida, New Mexico (maybe 30 miles from Cannon AFB) when the truck died. No limping, no moving, no nothing. For the heck of it I changed the fuel filter again, no luck. I checked the spark, and it did look weak. Suddenly it hit me perhaps it wasn’t a fuel problem, but a coil problem. The truck ran well at the cooler parts of the day, and died whenever we stopped and it was hot. We walked a small distance into Elida to a policeman who was stopped along the road. He gave us a ride to a convenience store for some fuel additive. He told me that that vapor lock was a common problem in these parts. We got some and he took us back to the truck and we put it in. After 10 minutes of waiting we tried, and it ran. We made it 100 ft before we died again. I explained to him my theory about the coil and we were going to wait until the sun set some and give it a try. He said he’d keep an eye on us

So we waited 20 plus minutes and gave it a try and she ran. We hit the road and waved at the cop as we headed out of town. We made it about 5 miles and she died again. The sun wasn’t fully down yet so there was still some heat in the air. We set a while longer, and another cop asked what was wrong. We explained it to him and he said he’d keep an eye on us too. Soon we tried again and it ran good. We made it to Carlsbad and found our room.