DAY TWO: LA SAGA CONTINUE: STROKE OF BAD LUCK

what a monday:
i'm up at 7am for an oil change and out the door by 7:30; on the highway by 7:40 and into 3 hours of freezing rain by 8. . . priceless

welcome to texas...?

first of all, i didn't realize it was cold in texas. ever. sure this acknowledges my ignorance, but it should go without saying that most people probably think the same. which again acknowledges another kind of ignorance, i admit, but i wouldn't have a good lead into this post without it.

i probably accumulated about an inch or so of ice on my van during its (the freezing rain's) duration, which would have been considerable even for kentucky. as it turns out the ice was the least of my worries.

the first of my stroke-of-bad lucks happened a couple hours into the frain (obvious portmanteau of freezing rain). my car stalled out while i was cruising at 70 mph. technically it was still running, the engine was just getting enough fuel to keep it idling- nothing more, nothing less. it was more like a wash of bad gas, i imagined, creeping into the engine -or water that froze -or something like a gremlin hiding under the hood, wreaking the first of many purported havocs.

after 5 or ten minutes of cleaning ice off windshield and wipers, and poking around under the hood like i know what i'm doing to any passerby (which only really included making sure my belts were still attached to their appropriate "wheels") i get back in and do the next logical thing: try again that which previously was not working and i push the accelerator to the floor. this time it rushed fuel into the engine and vvrroooomm! wow, i thought, whatever i did worked! (note to self: don't break my arm patting myself on my back). so i was back on the road and roaming free.

enter again, the gremlin... and again. and again. after another couple of times of the engine virtually stalling out (though still barely idling), pulling off to the side of the road and poking around under the hood at nothing, inconsequentially, i break down at an actual exit with actual gas stations and restaurants. i wait again just long enough for the engine to decide it likes gasoline, and get it to a service station. of course at this point it's not acting up and the mechanic is at a loss to help me only beyond what the computer in my '97 chrysler town & country lxi can tell him (which is barely better than what i could describe to him what was going on when the gremlin was acting up. barely, just barely; i don't want to fain superiority here).

long story short, i am the proud owner of a new fuel pump and fuel filter. most people might have guessed that's what was going on (i had an inkling), but when it's your vehicle you kind of tend to think the best until it's too late. so here i am traveling half-way across the country only 2 days into my journey-come-adventure. luckily it wasn't too late for me and i'm not stuck in the middle of west texas in the middle of the nite waiting on some trucker to pick me up, hoping he's not one of those guys they'll make a movie about in a few years on down the line.

i finally pull into mike & steph's apartment complex at about 10:30pm in el paso, texas.

this is basically what i wake up to the next morning as i climb out of my van. . .

tuesday i take it easy. . .

wednesday i climb!