January 10, 2006

January 10, 2006

Las Cruces, New Mexico to Van Horn, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 207

 

Today was sunny and warm. It was an interesting day of problem solving adventures.

We were awakened this morning by the phone ringing. It was a call from General Motors in Oshawa, phoning in response to my e-mail yesterday. Not surprisingly, they were not much help. A few minutes later the phone rang again. It was the service manager from the GM dealer in Stony Plain, Alberta, also phoning in response to yesterday's e-mail. I had sent the e-mail to him as well as to GM Of Canada. We had a discussion about the ongoing starter problems. I told him what my theory was. He disagreed. Based on my description of the symptoms, he feels that the problem is one of heat damage to the starter. He asked if my truck has a heat shield between the starter and the engine. I don't know. He was going to do some research to find out if my truck is supposed to have a starter heat shield. He phoned back a short while later, to confirm that my truck should indeed have a starter heat shield. He thinks my problem might be that the heat shield is missing, and perhaps has been since before I bought the truck. He wants me to take the truck to a GM dealer within the next couple of weeks to have the starter replaced, and to check if the heat shield is missing or damaged. He wants to co-ordinate with whatever GM dealer I go to in Texas, and with GM Of Canada. I am impressed with his helpfulness, and hopeful that we may finally be able to solve the starter problem once and for all.

We prepared for departure and headed out of Las Cruces, driving east on Interstate 10. While we were driving, the phone rang again. It was Lorri. Amelia ( Joanne's 4 year old niece ) wanted to talk to us and be reassured that we were okay. She was worried about the coyotes getting us. I mentioned in a blog entry recently that there were coyotes right outside the trailer. Joanne explained to Amelia that the coyotes couldn't get to us inside the trailer. As soon as we crossed the border from New Mexico into Texas, we stopped at Camping World on the west side of El Paso. I bought a fluorescent light fixture to install over the dinette table, and some closet door latches for the bedroom. We drove through El Paso on the Interstate, and on the other ( east ) side of El Paso we stopped at Flying J to fill up with diesel, and have lunch. While I was filling the tank, Joanne noticed a large screw head embedded in the outside rear tire on the driver's side.

After filling the tank, I pulled over to the side of Flying J's lot, parked, and we had lunch in the trailer. After lunch < sigh > we changed the tire. Unhitch the trailer, get the spare tire out from underneath the truck, jack up the truck, remove the rear wheel < sigh >, install the spare, lower the truck, put everything away, and hitch up the trailer again. An hour and a half of hard, physical labour. But ... I must be getting better. The first time I had to change a rear dually tire, including unhitching and rehitching the trailer, 16 months ago, it took 2 hours. The tire with the screw in it was not flat, but it seemed unwise to continue driving on it. We decided it's better to solve problems on our terms, rather than deal with unplanned roadside problems. We exited the Interstate and drove into El Paso to find a tire repair shop. Before we found one, we found a Checker Auto Parts, and I went in to buy some ThreadLocker I need. I asked them for a referral to a nearby tire shop, and they directed me to Oasis Tire about a block away. Oasis Tire was next door to a Mexican Bakery, ( how fortuitous ! ) so while I got the tire repaired, Joanne bought Mexican pastries in the bakery, where the woman behind the counter spoke no English. The same was true of the service men in Oasis Tire. Only the woman behind the front counter in Oasis Tire spoke English. I was stunned when I found out that the six huge, assorted Mexican pastries Joanne bought cost $2. While I was watching the tire being repaired, I noticed that they had an assortment of used hub caps and chrome wheel trim rings. The trailer was missing 2 chrome trim rings. They helped me find 2 chrome trim rings for the trailer that fit and matched.

By the time all this was finished, and we left El Paso, it was late afternoon. And ... when we crossed the border from New Mexico into Texas, and El Paso, we passed into another time zone, so we "lost" another hour. We drove another couple of hours east on I-10, to Van Horn. It turned dark shortly after we left El Paso. We arrived at El Campo RV Park & Chapel ( HUH ? ), and got set up on a site. While I reset all clocks and watches, Joanne prepared supper. After a late supper, Joanne went to do a load of laundry while I worked on today's accounting and journal entry.

It seemed like a long, hard day. Mind you, that's relative. I wasn't unloading trucks in freezing rain.

DSK