Car Trouble

October 13, 2014

We left Cochiti this morning and drove south to Albuquerque where we stopped at Rich Ford to have the oil and air filter changed. Almost exactly two years ago, we had our other motorhome worked on here a couple of times. The service area is huge and they wash the floor after every car goes through. They also have a great Mustang Restaurant between the sales and service areas that we had eaten in before. It was a little early for lunch but we decided we might as well eat before we hit the road again so went in. The menu is mostly Mexican and is some of the best food we have eaten. After we waited in the waiting room for them to finish before heading south to Elephant Butte.

We were within thirty miles of our destination when we pulled into a rest area. When we got out to stretch our legs, we noticed that the car was smoking. Ted had just had the transmission fluid changed a couple of days before but we knew it was definitely a problem with the transmission. It was only a few minutes before five so the service department at Rich Ford was already closed. Ted called roadside service who dispatched a tow truck and then called a Ford dealer in Arizona (a different time zone) to get advice on whether we could still tow it. They said it couldn't make it any worse so we cancelled the tow and after waiting for the car to cool down went to the nearest campground which was way off the road, down steep, narrow, winding road and across a wide valley on a dirt road. We were able to get a pull through site so we wouldn't have to unhook as we weren't sure we could drive the car and it was dark out by then. Thankfully I had just made a big spaghetti sauce so we just had to heat up dinner and made an early night of it.

Never a Good Sign

October 14, 2014

Ted checked the transmission fluid level this morning and it was very low so we stopped at the nearest town of Williamsburg for motorhome gas and to find the fluid. It takes a very specific type of transmission fluid so we had to drive a few miles to the town of Truth or Consequences to find an Autozone. We put in almost two quarts and drove on. We pulled off in the town of Hatch where there were all kinds of shops with wreaths and hangings of chiles. One had a whole roof of chiles drying in the sun. The Ford dealer in Las Cruces couldn't look at the car for a couple of days so we drove to Demming where the guy said almost immediately that he thought we would need a new transmission. He needs to talk to Ford and do some more tests and will let us know tomorrow. In the meantime, he said it was all right to drive the car to a campground so we could take off the kayaks that would be in his way when fixing the car. We did that, paid for a week and went back to get the motorhome. So here we are, no car and nothing to do but catch up on our blog, watch a little TV and wait for news of what we will do next. The great thing is, we still have our own bed to crawl into every night.

Chiles Drying on the Roof

Chiles Everywhere