Adventure, Part II
My God, the road is beautiful.
This is my fourth cross-country drive as an adult and I don’t know if it’s all the meditating I’ve done or what but I was blown away by every part of the country I passed through. This is new - I usually have an area *Kansas* *west Texas* where I am bored and ready to view it in the back mirror.
Not this time.
I drove through gorgeous mountains, and trees, and deserts, frequently interspersed with portions of historic Route 66 - very different in different parts of the country - and admired everything.
The first week went by without me listening to anything.
No music.
No podcasts.
No audiobooks.
Just me, Maggie, quiet, and the road. I made up my own songs that got stuck in my head. We slept in the van in pullouts, rest areas, truck stops, reservations, and at least one hotel parking lot. The west is notorious for relatively easy boondocking. Cracker Barrel is one of the few national chains still welcoming overnighters.
Meandering off the main interstates often paid dividends. Old highways paralleled the faster and more crowded I-40 on my first leg and I-70 on later portions. More sparsely traveled, they helped me escape feeling pressured by the speed of other cars on the road. I watched gorgeous sunsets in my mirrors as I more or less continually moved eastward.
My final destination was my father’s, who has lived alone since my mom died in 2012 in the house they purchased for us in 1996 in ruralish Maryland. I set out on this trip not planning to dilly-dally too much but also find some spots of enjoyment along the route.
As far as the van goes, well, I had a parasitic draw on the battery that meant I was afraid to stay parked with it off for more than 5-6 hours for fear it wouldn’t start again. I had help trying to track it down, and we all failed, so we installed a battery cutoff switch to make it easy for me to break the circuit and make it impossible for the battery to drain. However I also had a broken hood latch, which I fixed by examining the mechanism and attaching a combination of zip ties and ribbon that I then left hanging out of the hood in order for me to reach and pull when I needed to get in to turn the battery off. That made for a few exciting nights. I once accidentally chopped through the zip tie and got to Harbor Freight within 15 minutes of it closing before a holiday to buy the longest reaching tools they had to fix my problem with. Seeing me holding my flashlight under my chin and poking underneath my hood, a newly-sober man named Bobby stopped to help me on his way to deliver alcohol to someone else, but was little help. He did not return in time to see my victory, if he ever did. I’ve since learned a lot about hood mechanisms because of the Astro van.
A little indulgence. I decided I was stretching near enough to some of the biggest hippie meccas in the United States, first one being Sedona, AZ to let them guide my route a while. Sedona is reputed to host healing energy vortexes.
My heart was stolen on the way by Highway 89A, which after lacing up a series of switchbacks in a National Forest (I touched snow in Arizona!) spit us out into my new favorite town in the WORLD (knocking Katoomba, NSW, Australia down to number 2 at least some of the time…): Jerome, Arizona. Truly the best things and places I’ve discovered in my life have been through stumbling magical destiny more than planning.
I did get to Sedona. We got in late, so I used my intuition to lead me to a perfect place to park for the night, which it always does, and which you’d think I’d remember to use more often instead of stressing and trying to figure things out first. Sedona was fine. It was hot. The crowds reminded me of Cape May during tourist season. I got a satisfying palm reading in a coffee shop called Synergy while enjoying a sipping chocolate, which seemed on brand for what I knew of Sedona. I tried to go hiking but it was too hot for Maggie. We drove on.
Somehow I ended up back near I-40. 50 miles shy of Gallup, NM a check engine light came on in the van. After reading my engine codes I called my mentor Alan (who is still in San Diego, hit him up for your car needs) and he diagnosed a few possibilities. I know I was 50 miles shy of Gallup, because that was where the nearest Auto Zone was.
I stayed in Gallup for nearly a week.
During that time I parked in a Tractor Supply parking lot. An employee named Eric stopped to talk to me at the absolute peak of my stress and I cried and cried. He gave me the most perfect cardboard in the world to slide around on underneath the van and some other materials to place my tools on. He asked if I needed dog food for Maggie. After he left, Orlando the locksmith pulled up and gave me a bunch of kindness, and gloves to use in my van repairs and told me what great people worked at Tractor Supply. More people stopped by in this parking lot over the next few days. They all offered moral support or curiosity to a woman working on her van. They were all men, which I didn’t notice until I thought about it now. One guy told me about how you can ship a van on a truck and how I should probably do it. But he got me at a time I was feeling confident and inspired with Alan’s words and my many trips to Auto Zone and O’Reilly’s, so I brushed off his advice. I did laundry at the laundromat in between the two auto parts stores and met a Navajo grandmother who drove 50 miles to Gallup to do her laundry. I still wonder what advantages that had over using her bathtub, but I was grateful she let me help her put things in her car for her. Felt homey. The blessed nearly constant winds made the heat bearable, even in the van with no shade to cover us.
There couldn’t be a better place to break down.
Tractor Supply welcomed me. Within walking distance was the laundromat, at least 4 auto parts stores, Home Depot, and Harbor Freight. I was in DIYer central.
It seemed like I had the van fixed, and Eric said I should stop by after my test run. He gave me an envelope from the store with $100 cash and $25 for Starbucks in it and said they hoped it would help cushion my trip, of which I was only 800 miles deep out of 3000+. I felt so loved that I cried when I got back to the van.
It turned out it wasn’t the 2 solenoids or the transmission fluid or the fuse that I replaced. I barely got out of the parking lot when the fuse blew again, the check engine light came on again, and it was time for me to learn about looming and electrical shorts in an engine. I was getting pretty good by this time at removing the doghouse to get an inside look at things, and the ever-chipper and wholly confident Alan talked me through all the things I needed from Harbor Freight to close this next chapter. I found a shady spot this time and truly did fix the problem. If you ever need wiring diagrams for your vehicle check out charm.li.
Gallup wasn’t done with me yet. I was at Panda Express when a guy tapped me on the shoulder. It was the man who suggested I put the van on a truck. Remember him? He was a contractor working on a project in town. He knew electrical and understood what I told him I had done. This man paused, then asked if I needed a shower. Guys, I had truly, truly never been crustier in my life. I was days out from my last shower. I was completely covered in grease and oil. Even my hair had gotten doused in transmission fluid! It was the kindest thing since the day before when Eric gave me the envelope at Tractor Supply. He gave me his card and hotel key, told me I could go use his hotel room, and to call him when I finished so he wouldn’t come up on me. You wouldn’t believe the amount of crud that I scrubbed off in that Hampton Inn shower. I emerged a new human. He met me in the lobby and wished me luck on my way. Then, in the parking lot, my locksmith friends Orlando and his buddy flagged me down to say hi and tell me the best way to get back on the highway to test the van and still be able to get back if I needed to. I saw them one more time in downtown Gallup, just chancing on good vibes everywhere I turned.
I plan to summarize larger chunks of the trip in the next chapter, but I met so many good people and things I find it hard to cut them all out!