Off Like A Herd of Turtles

After our Albuquerque start, Eric realized that he forgot his toiletry kit with his glasses, contact case, razor, etc. Our dogsitter brought it down to the DQ just off the hill . Slowly but surely we will get the road trip started...

Three weeks before, we discovered the Eurovan's engine was about to die. It started stalling and our mechanic highly recommended we not drive it on our road trip. We sad about not having the camping and comfort of the Eurovan but knew making it home with three little kids was more important. So we got a Honda Pilot -- no engine worries, super safety, and lots of room for almost four weeks of car traveling.

Exhale, here we go! Summer Road Trip 2010! Time to drive north towards our first destination, Fort Collins, Colorado. It was a gloomy day in the car with rain and clouds so we took it slow. As we drove over La Veta pass, the tire pressure gauge, came on. "What is this little light thing?" I ask. New fancy option of the Pilot. I thought, "Oh no, we got a defective car. This light is mistakenly coming on." We drove the rest of the way to Walsenburg, CO, stopped of gas, and Eric said, "Lynn, we really have a flat tire!" Eric knew he could fix it but there was no tire plug kit at the gas station or any of the gas stations nearby. It was Saturday evening, rainy, and the lady in the gas stations gave us the number to an emergency mechanic who said he would charge us $50 just to come and look at it. So, we waited. Eric asked every truck driver who stopped and they said, "I just drive 'em, they don't let us fix 'em." So, we waited some more. Finally a nice minivan pulled up next to us with an older couple who had an old repair kit in their tool box. Eric and the nice man fixed the tire and, as we waved a big thank you goodbye, I looked at their plates...they were from Wisconsin! :) Another reminder why we were headed home -- helpful people!