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Writer's pictureJill Clark

Everything Comes in 3's

What started out as a normal trek, one we had made many, many times, from Arizona to Kansas would soon become a trip for the books. And not in a good way.


It's graduation season, and in our family, that meant two High School Seniors on each side of the family a weekend apart. It was a simple plan. 5 of us drive out for the first one and then 3 would fly home (the 6th grader here still needed to finish school), and then 2 of us would head to the other graduation and drive home. A perfectly crafted plan. Or so I thought.


It all started when we decided to stop for fast food lunch before we got on the freeway. Big mistake. Especially, since we had just said…no fast food! By Flagstaff, my husband was not feeling well and asked if I could drive. By Gallup, he was in a bad way and by Alburqueue, he was full on sick. Food poisoning is what we had guessed. As we had already planned ahead and booked a hotel in Santa Rosa, NM, we forged on. Of course, my poor husband had moved to the back seat by this time and we were stopping every 20-30 mins for him to be sick on the side of the road. He was miserable. Oh, and did I mention it was raining? We couldn't get to our hotel fast enough.


We got checked in quickly and they put us in adjoining rooms which was helpful. Poor guy was sick all night long. Of course, I told my daughter there was a good chance we would not be able to drive the next day if her dad was still sick. She was frustrated. So was I, but we had left a 1/2 day early and her cousin's graduation party wasn't until Friday evening. We could still be there in plenty of time even with a day delay.


As guessed, we weren't going anywhere the next morning as my husband was still terribly ill. So, I paid for another day at our Hotel, Santa Rosa, and tried to figure out what in the world we would do for a day in this metropolis. My daughter had a terrific idea, "let's go see the Big Blue Hole, we see it advertised on the freeway every time we drive through, lets go see what it's all about?" After a "delectable" breakfast in the hotel lounge, we set off to do just that. It took us all of 10 mins to find the Big Blue Hole, which wasn't really very big…at first glance. By the way, did I mention it was still raining? We parked and got out of the car and walked over to a hole that was about 60 feet across, but we learned was over 80 feet deep. In fact, it is one of the most sought after diving spots for scuba divers apparently. Fascinating. After our 5 mins of pics, we decided to check out the rest of Santa Rosa, which took another 5 mins, however we discovered a Dollar General and stopped in to pick up snacks and odds and ends I had forgotten for our travels. The day dragged on, and after an exciting lunch at Subway at the nearby truck stop a few movies and a nap, my husband was starting to feel better. Yea! Our trip could continue and we all agreed on getting on the road bright and early by 8am the next morning in order to make our nephew's grad party.


After a good nights sleep, a quick breakfast and getting the car loaded back up, we were ready to hit the road. We stopped at the gas station and quickly filled the tank before jumping back on I-40 and making our way to Kansas. We had also been tracking the weather and road conditions as several freeways, including the I-35 which heads north from Oklahoma to Kansas, had been closed in at least one section. A detour was planned and upon review, we concluded it wouldn't take us off our intended arrival time - 4pm Central.


I decided to drive the first leg, my daughter would do the 2nd and my husband would do the last. It was a short 8 hours. We jumped on the freeway and had only gone about 100 yards when the car started making a bing, bing, bing noise as the check engine light came on. I quickly said, "it's overheating". My husband, said to find a place to quickly turn it around and get back to Santa Rosa. I found an "official use" turn around and had no longer pulled out unto the highway when the car started to lose power. I got it off the highway just as smoke was rolling from under the hood. My husband jumped out, opened the hood and before I could say, "let me get you a towel for the radiator cap", he had already loosed it and it blew everywhere. Did I mention it was still raining? Luckily he did not get burned. I'm not going to lie, I probably said a few choice words at this point. My daughter quickly thought of the case of water we just bought the day before and she and her dad, after letting it cool a bit, started putting water in the radiator. We let it cool to about 1/2 way on the gauge and then we repeated this process one more time. My daughter quickly looked up the nearest service station and as luck would have it, it was right off of the exit. We only had to go a little way to get there. On the last go, we made it to Silver Moon Repair and Towing.


We all filed out of the Yukon and made our way into the station. We were freezing as the temps were in the low 40's (that's cold for Phoenicians) and seemed to be dropping. The receptionist told us the mechanic was on his way and should be there in about 15 mins or so. She was very pleasant and made light conversation as we waited. As soon as I saw the mechanic walk in the garage and look under the hood, I thought ok, he can get this fixed and we can be on our way. However, he came into the waiting area with a basic explanation of several things, and if it was one of them, it might not be good. In only a few minutes he returned to tell us that we had a cracked head on the engine. A look at my husbands face said, "that ain't good". I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. The mechanic gave us some options, none of which included us driving away in our vehicle. It was finished. After 10 years and over 190,000 miles, I guess it was time. Just, did it have to happen on this trip and out in Santa Rosa, NM of all places? Surprisingly, no panicking. Ok, think. We can rent a car. "Is there a place to rent a car here?" "No". "Can we rent one in Tucumcari (the direction we were headed)? " "No, this is a small town, the only place to go is Alburqueue." Fantastic. That is only 2 hours back in the opposite direction. We really didn't have a choice. The receptionist handed me a number and said, "call this man. He gives rides to Alburqueue for a charge. It's a Prius (of course it is), so only a couple of you can go."


My husband, son and my mother-in-law stayed in Santa Rosa and my daughter and I chose to go pick up the rental. I quickly got online and reserved a van. We soon met Hogan. We decided he was our hero. We made it to Alburqueue, learned a lot about Hogan and Santa Rosa on our drive and picked out a pretty snazzy rental van to continue on our trek. Ah….we are back on track. On the way back to pick up the rest of our gang, my daughter received a group text message from our oldest daughter who had stayed home to dog watch and attend her friends college graduation. Upon returning home from work that morning, she found the door to the garage completed clawed up, the door handle broken and the door trim completely ripped off on one side. Our dogs, who thought we were in the garage, got a little upset apparently when upon unlocking and opening the door (you read that right) found out we weren't there!


They say things happens in threes, and I was counting that as #3. The rest of the trip was a bit less uneventful…full of family and fun, but uneventful. By the way, did I mention that it rained the rest of the way to Kansas and we arrived at 1 in the morning? It was wonderful seeing family on both sides and being there to congratulate a nephew and a niece as they take that next step in their education and lives. Thank you to my brother-in-law for the use of his truck for part of our trip. The following week, my daughter and I made the drive home by ourselves in a little over 16 hours. We decided to have a little fun and vlogged about it all the way home. The lessons learned along the way? Planning. Patience. Perseverance. Prayer. And not necessarily in that order.

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