To finish the saga of getting to Caliente, I got to Discount Tire and the flat tire was not reparable, was covered by warranty AND they have the size I've been running in stock, a slightly better tire than what I've been running. So $27 later for mounting and balancing, and I'm now in Caliente.
However, as to the sunrise, as easy a town the border town I spent last night in should be to get around (streets are mostly either numbers or letters), I still have no idea as to where the motel is that I stayed in is or which direction anything I visited is in that town. My solar powered internal compass did not serve me well.
2008-12-02
2008-12-01
Never on Sunday
So, for those that haven't heard, Grandma died Saturday. My wife flew home to be with her siblings; I on the other hand decided to drive. The plan was simple: take off after church, and 11 hours later arrive. As David & Sarah were heading back to school, and it's "along the way", we drove in a caravan.
The easy to drive northern route was closed, so we took the alternate route through the mountains. What should have been the first two hours of the drive, took 4 hours (and that's the second hour of the drive took 3 hours): heavy traffic, snowpacked roads (but open, unlike the northern route), and just ugly conditions. We can tell by looking at the oncoming traffic (which was also backed up - only more so) that turning around was not an option.
We had just cleared the worst of the "bad roads", and I was able to get up to speed (65 mph) when I noticed the car handling a little funny... then that tell tale sound from the rear of the car... I had a flat tire.
Changing a tire in a Honda Insight is a major production. You have to first open the hatchback, clear out all that's stored there; open up the "secret" compartment, empty the compartment (about 1.2 cu ft of emergency supplies & junk), remove the compartment liner, then you can pull out the tools needed to change the tire and of course, the spare tire.... which was flat, too.
Coincidentally, Sarah's car has a tire bolt pattern that matched mine, and was gracious enough to lend me her spare tire. Not wanting to drive very far on a donut, we stopped at every major town in the next 150 miles to find a truck stop that could fix a flat tire.
We finally figured out that my spare tire would work just fine if we put some air in it, so doing so, we put my spare on, and gave her back her spare. I decided to camp until I could get my tire fixed. Tire stores open in the morning, and in case the tire can't be repaired, I checked the Discount Tire web site to see how much the replacement tire would cost. A replacement tire is $94 plus the extras... and they can have one available in two or three days.
Here's to hoping it can be plugged. For now, 10 hours after leaving home, I'm now 4 hours into an 11 hour drive.
I think I will not be traveling on Sunday again without an exceptionally good excuse.
Mileage: 11/12:Mutual 8.5, Sun 11/16 8.5, Wed 11/19: Mutual 8.5; Thurs 11/20: all over the ward delivering thanksgiving baskets and making calls, and I forgot to track mileage; 11/23 8.5, Sat 11/29 & Sun 11/30: printing programs, directories & church: 56 mi. MTD: 326 miles
The easy to drive northern route was closed, so we took the alternate route through the mountains. What should have been the first two hours of the drive, took 4 hours (and that's the second hour of the drive took 3 hours): heavy traffic, snowpacked roads (but open, unlike the northern route), and just ugly conditions. We can tell by looking at the oncoming traffic (which was also backed up - only more so) that turning around was not an option.
We had just cleared the worst of the "bad roads", and I was able to get up to speed (65 mph) when I noticed the car handling a little funny... then that tell tale sound from the rear of the car... I had a flat tire.
Changing a tire in a Honda Insight is a major production. You have to first open the hatchback, clear out all that's stored there; open up the "secret" compartment, empty the compartment (about 1.2 cu ft of emergency supplies & junk), remove the compartment liner, then you can pull out the tools needed to change the tire and of course, the spare tire.... which was flat, too.
Coincidentally, Sarah's car has a tire bolt pattern that matched mine, and was gracious enough to lend me her spare tire. Not wanting to drive very far on a donut, we stopped at every major town in the next 150 miles to find a truck stop that could fix a flat tire.
We finally figured out that my spare tire would work just fine if we put some air in it, so doing so, we put my spare on, and gave her back her spare. I decided to camp until I could get my tire fixed. Tire stores open in the morning, and in case the tire can't be repaired, I checked the Discount Tire web site to see how much the replacement tire would cost. A replacement tire is $94 plus the extras... and they can have one available in two or three days.
Here's to hoping it can be plugged. For now, 10 hours after leaving home, I'm now 4 hours into an 11 hour drive.
I think I will not be traveling on Sunday again without an exceptionally good excuse.
Mileage: 11/12:Mutual 8.5, Sun 11/16 8.5, Wed 11/19: Mutual 8.5; Thurs 11/20: all over the ward delivering thanksgiving baskets and making calls, and I forgot to track mileage; 11/23 8.5, Sat 11/29 & Sun 11/30: printing programs, directories & church: 56 mi. MTD: 326 miles
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