My poor car...

Susan and I had plans to go to the Jemez Mountains in Northern New Mexico a couple days ago and had no idea what kind of craziness was about to ensue.

Our plan was to drive in my "trusty" subaru outback wagon and climb in the Jemez for three days, maybe get a trail run in or two and possibly soak in the San Antonio Hot Springs. Some of these things happened but not all and it was all after a pretty epic start to the whole thing.

Friday night we made it all the way to Albuquerque without any excitement. Just the normal sitting in the car on the freeway for 4 hours. Yee Haw. Once we made it to Albuquerque everything changed.

I won't drag on about the ins and outs of the mechanics of what was going on with the car (partially because I'm not sure what the hell what going on anyway...) but it was loosing power and almost stalling on hills. We exited just north of Albuquerque and stopped at a gas station to assess and talk to a gas station attendant about sleeping and auto repair options. At this point I was worried that my car might not make it out of the gas station.

After getting some beta on where to go I bravely/stupidly started the car, limped out of the gas station and drove toward the hotel. It was about 5 miles to the hotel and for the entire distance I was worried about making it. On every uphill I was sure the car was going to stall and I had to run one red light just to keep the momentum and I was prepared to run more. Luckily, it was the middle of the night at this point so I didn't have much traffic to worry about. We made it to the hotel and Susan and I decided to stay at the first one we stopped the car at.

The next morning we somehow were able to creep the car along to the repair shop a few more miles away with a few more stressful moments and one big one less than a quarter of a mile from the shop. We had to go over one last hill and boy did we barely make it. Barely...

We did get the car to the repair shop though and at least we didn't have to worry about moving it again. The shop wasn't open of course (as it was a three day weekend holiday) so we had to leave it.

We thought about all of our options at this point. What would we do now? We almost rented a car and went right back to Flagstaff to lick our wounds and wait for the car to be repaired. We figured we would figure out a way to get back there and get it in the next week or two. Instead we found a pretty cheap rate and rented a car for a whole week and decided to keep the dream alive and continue on with the trip.

When it was all said and done, we still got some wonderful climbing in at a a scenic alpine sport crag called Las Conchas (sorry no photos-I forgot the camera...) for two days and did a nice trail run before returning home. We were hoping to climb at a place called Gilman Tunnels but that place blows. They gave it 5 stars in the guide as an area but we were not impressed. Las Conchas was 100 times better.

So, for now, it's a waiting game on the car. I have the rental car for a week to get around which is a nice luxury and then I'll drive it back to Albuquerque and pick up my car on Friday, fingers crossed.

Who knows how much it will be to fix it. It could be some silly fuel or air thing that I couldn't find or it could be a f-d up engine for all I know. Time to spend some money....

On another sad note, there is a big fire near Boulder, Colorado right now. Information here. Let's hope they get it under control soon...

I think I'll end this with something a bit more motivating. I watched this trailer this morning and got fired up to watch the movie. Who knows if it's any good but I got psyched watching the trailer. Check it out.



See the movie at Hulu here.