AN UNEXPECTED VACATION

Everything started to go as planned: we woke up bright and early and headed out at 5:15 (only 15 minutes later than planned), not bad, eh?. It took us about 1 hr to get out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex area and we were finally on our way to Juarez (or so we thought). 3 hours into our trip, we heard a loud “pop” sound coming from the car… did Huevo fart?, Did we blow a tire?. No, we blew the transmission. It was about 8 a.m in the middle of Texas, and it was already hot (and it would get hotter pretty soon.) Luckily we were very close to a rest area (about 100 m), and Gera had no problems getting there to call AAA. 2 hours and 3 “good Samaritans” later, we were on our way to the mechanic in Abilene. They wouldn’t be able to check the car until later that afternoon, so we went to a hotel to “regroup” and weigh our options (can you imagine getting Huevo in a taxi?). Go back to Dallas? Rent a truck to tow the car and put all our stuff in? (don’t forget we were hauling a 5x8 uhaul trailer); rent a suburban with a hitch? Finally, many phone calls and 3 different uHaul reservations later, we had a plan: Rent a 14’ truck with a dolly to tow the car. The next morning, we had to do some driving back and forth in Abilene before being on our way (again). The acrobatics went something like this starting at 6:45am: Gera got a cab and went to get the truck; he came back to the hotel and picked up the rest of the crew (Huevo and me); we went to the mechanic, unloaded the trailer and loaded the truck (it was pretty big for the few boxes we had left); Gera removed the trailer from the car and attached it to the truck; we drove the truck to the uHaul center to return it and get the dolly to tow the car; we drove back to the mechanic to attach the car to the truck (with the help of the mechanics). It all took about 2 hours and we were finally on our way (this time for good). After an unexpected vacation in the town of Abilene, TX, and 8 more hours of driving, we arrived in El Paso on Thursday july 27.