The old tow truck, as opposed to the new tow trucks that the other drivers got to drive. When you’re the new driver at the company, you’re stuck with the oldest truck. Just one of many things I never expected to learn this day!

I set out from Phoenix with a song in my heart, headed for Taos - a good 9-10 hour drive, in preparation for our Santa Fe & Taos trip. I never made it out of Arizona before the car overheated, and I had to stop. Those little red lights are never a good thing! Then it happened again. Then again.

Happy to see the tow truck

That’s when I called AAA. Since I just had my car fixed the day before, I was afraid something got screwed up in the process, and I might just make things worse if I continued. Not to mention that I’d never make it to Taos if I had to keep stopping every 5 miles!

That brings us to the tow truck… I was so happy to have cell coverage out there on the highway, and reach a friendly voice at AAA. A very nice (even if not high on the totem pole) driver whisked me away (well, it was sort of a slow, lumbering whisk) to a shop in Payson, AZ, where I was fortunate enough that they could squeeze me in right away.

A few lessons I learned (taken from my Twitter stream):

1. Never drive anywhere without AAA. Worth its weight in gold today!! I could do a commercial.
2. There are lots of good people out there. So far 3 sets of people have stopped to offer help. How nice!
3. I’ve got to upgrade to AAA plus version since problems do happen far from town!
4. One way to meet interesting people you’d never normally meet - hang out with the guys in a small town car repair shop
5. If you arrive in Taos at midnight & everything seems closed, check out the Alley Cantina. Yes - here at last!
6. It’s somehow comforting to be broadcasting your woes & status to Twitter when something happens like this. It made me feel less alone, standing there by the highway.

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End result from the repair shop?

Inspection shows visible signs of coolant loss at radiator cap.  Cap tests bad.  Need to replace cap, fill with coolant, and re-test.”

Cheapest car repair I’ve ever had!

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Since everything turned out OK, I’ve decided to view this as just an extra adventure. According to my Philosophy of Adventure, this is one of the “cunningly disguised adventures“.