Failure In New Mexico

We have had a few failures on our trip. Some have been our fault, some were just bad luck.

We did a lot of planning ahead of time so that we would have reservations where we wanted to go, for instance, but the geographic reality was not always clear. The original plan had us staying in Arches National Park the nite after we left Yellowstone National Park, but that is a twelve hour drive, so we scrapped Arches altogether, stayed in Jackson, and went straight to the next reservation in Zion National Park.

Also sometimes the equipment requirements were not clear. When we picked up the trailer, my spare tire prevented the hitch parts from fitting, so we had to get special extensions. I think that failure is mostly the fault of the RV dealership, who are professional hitch installers, because they were not listening carefully enough when I said the hitch would be installed on a 2005 Jeep Liberty, which has a spare tire. I didn't know that spare tires would be a problem, but they should have.

We also discovered that our trailer wiring was not done correctly by Mike Hatch Jeep in Juneau. I paid them to wire a seven-pin connector, but they only wired five of the pins. I had the rest wired up when we were in Las Vegas, at hefty expense. I left a message for Mr. Hatch but have not heard back from him; I need to call him tomorrow.

Now, today, we had the biggest failure of all: the Jeep is broken. Driving south on route 285 into Carlsbad, New Mexico today, a beep alerted me to an overheating problem. I popped the hood and sure enough it looked like the cooling system was having a problem. We tried to limp the rest of the way into town, but it overheated again. This time, when I looked under the hood, I noticed that the serpentine belt was not properly placed on the center pulley, which I think is the camshaft pulley. I reset it and tried again, but when it overheated again and I looked under the hood, the pulley was spitting oil around. I called AAA; they scheduled a tow.

A nice local guy, David, 28, stopped to offer assistance. It turned out he had a few connections in town, so we unhooked the trailer and he towed that into a safe parking lot in town. The tow truck came and took my Jeep to the local Jeep dealership, Ross Hyden.

So the engine failure was compounded by a few other failures: in Carlsbad, businesses don't do crazy things like, you know, stay open on Sunday. The mechanic and the car rental, Enterprize, are both closed on Sunday. That's a problem in 104 degree heat in a western town where everything is driving distance.

Another failure is getting to our reserved tickets to see Carlsbad Caverns, 23 miles south of the town of Carlsbad. I bought tickets a month ago. It is one thirty right now, and we could take a cab to the caverns, if we wanted to pay fifty dollars each way. What kind of cab ride costs fifty dollars to go 23 miles?

So here's the bottom line: everyone is safe, hot, and pissed off in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The Jeep is a sad little car. The trailer is placed conspicuously in the front of a local business. It's too hot to walk anywhere and we can't rent a car. Pity us.