In the 505

Here we are in Albuquerque!

On Wednesday we woke up in Fort Stockton at our hotel and got on the road.  We got a good early start and were set to get into Albuquerque around 4:30.  Ten miles east of El Paso on I-10 (where the speed limit is 80 mph), my rear tire blew out.  I managed to get us to the side of the road and stopped safely.

  

We had to unload the full trunk to get to the spare and started at it.  I managed to loosen all but one nut on the tire and could not get the fourth one to budge.  Lissa waved down a truck and a nice rancher lady from Arizona pulled over to help us out.  We worked with my tire iron and then hers for 10 minutes and couldn't get it to move.  Finally, we managed to get it loose right as a policeman pulled up to help.  Rancher lady got back on her way and Texas Cop started helping us out.  He didn't like the jack that comes in my trunk, so he called another officer for help.  Before we knew it, there were three police cars and a Texas Department of Transportation truck parked behind us.  

Lissa, the girls and I stayed out of their way and let them change the tire.  Then we got all loaded up again and headed into El Paso to get a new tire at WalMart.  Two hours later we were back on the road headed for Albuquerque.  We got in at 9:30.

Lauren did ok on Thursday morning but woke up from her nap with a fever.  She spent most of the rest of the day napping.  Ben got in late Thursday night and she felt much better on Friday morning when she got to spend some time with Daddy.

Last night we went to dinner at Ortega's, which was great as usual.  Today Ben has been working on my car trying to get a rattle fixed and figuring out what he's going to do about the dent the policemen put in my car when they were trying to jack it up to change the tire.

I am looking forward to the Bee on Monday!