Is It Hot Out Here, Or Is It Just Me?

On Friday, Dan and I packed up the car, with a break to run out to buy one of these, and a mat that you fill with water for your dog to lay on that helps keep him cool.  I was worried about driving in AZ and keeping the dog cool (and I was right to as you will see).  We also hit the movie theater to see a matinee of Despicable Me and for Dan to use the rest of his tokens for the arcade.  Despicable Me was fantastic and I heartily recommend it to anyone.

By the time we finished packing the car up it was 11:30.  We had a lot of trouble getting this attached to the car, so I stopped by the Toyota dealer to ask them to take a look at the straps and make sure they were tight enough.  After that we filled up the car and bought ice for the cooler and headed out of town. 

A couple of hours into the trip, though, things started to go wrong.  First the AC started blowing hot, then it would blow cool for a bit, then hot again.  Then the fan stopped working.  We saw a shopping center from the highway that had a PetSmart and a WalMart, so we got off the highway hoping to get some ice and have someone look at the fuses.  I dropped Dan and the dog at the pet store to take advantage of their AC.

Miles away, at the other end of the shopping center, the guy at WalMart's tire and lube center couldn't help me with fuses, but let me know of a couple of options nearby, I got a bags of ice however, and headed back across the center to Auto Zone.  A very nice man there figured out where my fuses were and sure enough, the one for the AC was blown.  He sold me a couple of fuses and popped one in and I went back to get Dan and the dog.  I blew and replaced the fuse again - at some point in this saga, and having gone through nearly a half dozen fuses, I finally realized I could have the AC button pushed in, or the fan on, but not both at the same time.  Dan dumped the ice in the cooler, and we used the water spritzer-fan thingy he got at Universal to keep ourselves and the dog cool (coolish? warmish? not hottish?).  He had a cut-down paper cup in the cup holder in front of him and he was drinking regularly, and every time he started to pant, Dan would spritz him with water.  We arrived at my friend Betsey's house outside Phoenix, hot, drained, wrung out and tired, but alive.

Bets and I have been members of a mom's email list since our kids were babies (she since before her kid was born), we've never met in person before, but we did not feel like strangers, but good friends.  Dan was nervous about spending time with a family he didn't know, but the 5 of them were soon getting along famously.  We lazed about with them on Sunday morning until noon, and Dan didn't want to leave, but we had to reach Albuquerque at a reasonable time to get a good night's sleep.  Plus Sunday was 7/11 and we wanted to find a 7-11 in Albuquerque for free slushies (they give them away every year and it's a thing with us.)   Well, people make plans and fate laughs its tush off, right?

I had hoped that having a chance to cool off (HAH - it was over a hundred when we left, so the car was probably not any cooler than it had been when we turned it off) would give us back the AC.  No dice, and I blew the second (and final) fuse I had picked up at Auto Zone.  As we buzzed along the highway, windows down, using the spritzer (Dan filled it with ice water before we left, smart fellow), we passed a Toyota dealer.  We pulled off the next exit, used the GPS to find our way back to the dealer.  And realized it was Sunday.

I did find a gas station with ice and fuses and filled up the car.  We put most of one bag of ice in the cooler, with the last couple of handfuls of ice left in the bag, which we put next to the dog.  Dan kept an eye on him, dropping the occasional ice cube in his water.  He seemed comfortable enough - no panting.  Dan kept the second bag of ice, sometimes on his lap, sometimes beside him, passing it to me for the occasional hug.  He gave me cubes to suck on too, and kept adding cubes to the spritzer and passing it to me when I needed it.  We popped in a fuse and ran the fan with no AC and pretended that the KoolerAire was helping.

Around three we saw that there were clouds ahead and areas that were in the shade of those clouds.  We were so glad to see that we would be in the shade of those clouds soon and it did get a little cooler.  We stopped at a McDonalds, so everyone could potty.  I snuck Dumble in and stood by the door with him, but he was shivering in the AC from being damp from the condensation from his ice bag.  McD's sold us lunch and more ice, and I ended up wearing the last of Daniel's first bag of ice on my head (so hot at this point that I cared not how I looked).  Icy water leaked from the bag onto my neck and back - heaven!  As we drove higher, headed towards New Mexico, it got cooler, and we passed through some showers even. 

Around 7 or 8, we commenced the great bathroom search, as three consecutive exits had only establishments that were closed or out of business.  We finally hit a dingy truckstop and grabbed some snacks, as the dubious restaurant had already closed.  We continued on in the dark.

There was a loud thunk and the battery light on the dash went on.  I don't think I hit anything - there was no bump.  I called Blair, it was after 11 his time, and he was starting a new job the next day, but I didn't know what else to do.  Dan searched through the car's manual - but the description of what causes that light was no help.  Was it a pull over right this minute and get it looked at light, or a finish driving to our destination and get it looked at in the morning light?

Blair was googling like crazy and found a question on line asking about the light in a 1991 Previa (mine is a 93) - I was amazed at his search engine prowess!  Blair the might internet hunter.  From the answer, we decided that as long as I didn't turn the car off, I was probably OK to continue towards Albuquerque.  I saw "towards" rather than "to" because we were not fortunate enough to get there under our own power.  Blair also looked up the addresses and opening times of the two Toyota dealers in ABQ, and my plan was to take the car there first thing in the morning.

We'd slowed down considerably while talking to Blair, and instead of arriving in Albuquerque before midnight as we'd been on track to, it was now nearly 11 and ABQ was about an hour away.  I saw that there was a McDonalds at the next exit, and decided that we'd be OK to go through the drive through.  As we turned at the bottom of the ramp, I realized I had no power steering.  Who knows when it went though, since I'd been driving arrow straight roads at highway speeds for the last several hours.  But as we turned on to the ramp to get back on the highway, the ABS light came on.  Further down the ramp, I realized the headlights were out, and that the car wasn't responding to the gas pedal.  I continued off the ramp on to the shoulder and puttered along there for a bit before drifting to a stop.

It was now a bit after 11 mountain time.  There was nothing Blair could do, so I didn't call him.  AAA promised a tow truck by 20 after 12.  By shutting off everything in the car, we got the blinkers to work.  About 45 minutes later, they were quite dim, and I lit my only flare (good for about 15 minutes of light.)  When that died, I put the blinkers on again, but they didn't last long.  Another call to AAA, to find that they had gotten my phone number wrong and the tow driver was trying to get a hold of us.  I explained my worry about being invisible, and the operator offered to call the local cops to come, but as we were talking about it the tow truck driver arrived.  He'd been told to meet us behind the McDonalds, not on the highway beyond it.  He got the car loaded on to the flatbed and we started off.

A one hour plus drive to the dealership later, followed by a comedy of errors involving the car locking itself, or maybe the tow truck driver hit the lock button on my key fob (but thank goodness the side door needs to be locked manually sometimes), us unloading our overnight bags and puppy necessities so Daniel could scramble up front to unlock the doors and retrieve the keys, and the trailer hitch hanging up on the pavement with the car half off the flatbed (first he tried to slide the flatbed out from under my car, then he pulled it back up on the bed and moved to a part of the parking lot with a bit of a slope, there with much manhandling he managed to unload the car.)  I called a taxi when we arrived, so the cab driver saw part of this floor show.  By the time Daniel and I got to our hotel, checked in and got into bed it was 3:30.  I left a wake up call for 5:30 so I'd have the time to call for another cab, take a shower and get to the dealer a half hour before they opened at 7, so I'd be early in their queue.

I left Daniel and Dumbledore sleeping and went to the dealer.  I'd told him the night before what my plan was and told him if he woke up before I got back to walk the dog and eat free breakfast.  I got to the dealership, checked in and explained the history, then walked across the street to BK for breakfast.  Back to the dealer where GMA was playing in the waiting room.  I'm glad they caught that barefoot bandit kid before he managed to get himself killed, and wondered how on earth he became a folk hero?  Because he's white and cute?  He's an amoral thief for heaven's sake.  I actually exclaimed out loud when I heard that Switzerland won't extradite a man who drugged, raped and sodomized a child (someone younger than my Daniel is now).  WTF?  White and cute (talented?) again?  And speaking of white, cute and talented - how big a loser is Mel Gibson?

But I digress.  The AC compressor is gone.  There's a mixture of two refrigerants in my AC system.  (I got my AC upgraded from freon before I left CT, and serviced in CA, could the CA guys have used a different one from the CT guys?  Did that cause my problems with the AC?)  They need to get a part (parts?) which will be here around 2.  They hope to get me fixed today.  I extended my hotel reservation (which reminds me, I need to move tonight's reservation in Dodge City, KS to tomorrow night, and I need to revise the rest of my itinerary).  The dealership gave me a ride back to the hotel, where dog and boy still sleep (at quarter to 10), and they'll fetch me back later.

I think I'll take a nap now.