Wednesday, December 14, 2011

12/12/11 Day 7 Brownsville, TX to Fort Stockton TX 591 miles

In the morning Kris went back to the US/Mexico border to get our vehicle permit cancelled and get our $200 deposit back, but before he left we unloaded everything out of the back of the car to make the inspections go quicker. While he was gone we opened up the big suitcase of toys and the boys worked together to make a huge track for their Thomas trains. Kris returned shortly after 10am and we loaded the car back up and got on the road.
Color Wonder Stamps- FUN!
Color Wonder Markers- perfect for my can't-always-stay-on-the-paper 3 year old
Sadly the transmission started slipping again after we’d been on the road only about 30 minutes. So instead of going 70mph we could only go 55mph. It certainly seemed like we were crawling. Kris called his brother on the phone (love that our US phones are working again!!) and Danny did some research online. We stopped for lunch at the Kenedy County Rest Stop and Danny called back and walked Kris through some type of transmission adjustment over the phone after he’d just watched a YouTube video about it. We got back on the road and the car was running perfectly!! We consider it nothing short of a miracle!!
Back up to speed we were making good time. Texas is big and flat, We passed what we think were the arms of one of those huge windmills that are used to make electricity. They were being towed on huge semi trucks with really really long trailers and we could see the tail ends whipping around in the wind!
We got into San Antonio around 4:30pm and filled up with gas. A couple hours later we stopped at a McDonald’s for dinner. As the boys climbed into the booth Kris looked at Aaron and noticed he had something in his mouth. Turns out he’d found a French Fry somewhere on the table, seat, floor… we’re not sure- and put it in his mouth! EWWWWW!!! Boys are so gross! Kris made him spit it out and we ordered our food.
Big windmill arm
We thought we might drive all the way to El Paso, but the weather turned very foggy making it difficult to see. Shortly after we were back on the road, the car started acting up again. So we pulled over and Kris did his adjustment trick and we drove the rest of the night without any problems. We decided to stop for the night in Fort Stockton, TX and stayed at the Deluxe Inn for $55. The room was big, clean and had just been remodeled. The boys had fallen asleep in the car and so they transferred to the bed easily. I slept well for the first time in about 3 days, the room was warm and quiet. We left Brownsville that morning in short sleeves, and by the time we stopped in Fort Stockton, winter arrived. We got out of the car and BRRRRR it was sooo cold!! I guess it really is December! Time to put away my sandals!

Though we've had a few problems, we are so thankful for our Superb 'Burb!! She's had a tough road trip on the way home, but she's hanging in there! Thank you Lord for our car!!
The big and very dirty 'Burb!
The mirror that was cracked by the swinging cable in Mexico

Thanks to a rock kicked up by a semi-truck on our last day driving through Mexico- it was a BIG rock!

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