Getting Home for Christmas
Throughout our 7 month road trip in Canada and the United States, we had been blessed. With good weather and safe travels through 40 States and 7 Provinces, we could not have asked for a better experience. So when we turned north to head home for Christmas, we were feeling great.
Our drive home would take us through Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Alberta. It was December and we wanted to make sure we were in the best shape to tackle what might have been snowy winter conditions as we headed further North, so we decided to get our brakes done while we were in Texas. We found a shop which had great online reviews and they were able to get us in for same day service in San Antonio. Perfect! We dropped off the van and UBERed over to the Alamo and we thought we were good to go. After all, we had left ourselves 10 days to make the drive home, hopeful to arrive a couple of days before Christmas, but with a few slush days built in case we needed to sit out bad weather. “Lots of time”, I thought to myself.
On day two of our drive home, as we were driving down a secondary highway in rural West Texas, we felt a “CLUNK”. Dave pulled over and hopped out to take a look. Tires were in tact, but Ole the Van did not feel right. So there we are, sitting on the side of a road in the shadow of wind turbines and oil pumps with nary a town in sight. Thankfully we had cell service so we were able to call AMA. The tow truck came quite quickly (given we were in the middle of nowhere). The driver loaded up the van and insisted we wanted to go to Snyder, Texas to Nix Auto. We were pushing for a larger centre, Midlands, or maybe even Abilene – I mean, who has heard of Snyder??? He said, trust me. You want Jimmy. And he was right.
It was a mid-day on a Saturday when we pulled into Nix Auto. The shop was closed until Monday (as they are, in small town West Texas). As we unloaded the van from the tow truck, a man came over to us and handed us a set of keys. He introduced himself as Jimmy, and in his thick Texas drawl, told us that he had to go to his son’s wedding that afternoon, but the keys were to the white pick-up truck on the lot and we could make use of that while we were in town. This guy didn’t even have our name and he handed us the keys to his truck. He said even though they were closed on Sunday, he would come in and take a look in case it was a quick fix and he could get us back on the road. With a wink, he mentioned it might not be early…given the wedding and all.
We checked in to the local motel and waited for the call. The next day, Jimmy called and let us know that it wasn’t a quick fix. Unfortunately, it looked like the recent brake job resulted in over packed bearings and the whole rear end of the van had sheared!
The parts would need to be sourced. He would give us an update on Monday. As it turned out, no one in West Texas had the part in the condition we were looking for, so it had to be ordered from the supplier. The part was to arrive on Wednesday, work would get done Wednesday afternoon and evening and we could hit the road on Thursday. That was the plan. It would be tight, but we would still have five days to make the drive.
At that point, we were just grateful that we were all safe, knowing it could have been so much worse. We knew had a couple of days to wait, so we went to explore Snyder.
Snyder, Texas (pop. 11,000) is in the heart of oil country, with the one billionth barrel being pumped from local wells in 1978. It is home to Western Texas College and the Scurry County Coliseum.
Snyder was named for a buffalo hunter who set up a trading post in the area back in 1878. There is a large sculpture of a White Buffalo in the town square to acknowledge the town’s heritage.
Where did I learn so much about Snyder you may ask??? At the local Museum. They even allowed dogs, so Pippa was able to join us as we learned a bit about the history of the area.
Fast forward to Wednesday and the part arrives. Except, it wasn’t the correct part and given that we were now within a few days of the holiday, a replacement part couldn’t be delivered until after Christmas. By now, Jimmy is beside himself, even going so far as to offer us his house over Christmas if we chose to stay. We started to look at flights, but with the proximity to the holiday, we couldn’t find anything close to affordable and booking Pippa on to a flight was proving problematic.
Thankfully, while I was looking at flights, Dave was looking at rental cars. Not just any rental car – we needed a car big enough for all of our stuff, with a company which allows dogs, and boarder crossings into Canada and a one way drop off, all 4 days before Christmas. Problem was that Snyder doesn’t have rental cars. Next town on the way home is Lubbock. Lubbock was out of cars. After much searching, Hertz out of Abilene had something that fit the bill. Next problem was that Abilene was more than 100 miles in the wrong direction and we don’t have aa way to get there. “No problem” says Jimmy. “You go ahead and drive that white pick-up truck and just leave it at the airport. I can have a friend drive it back!”
Things are moving into place quickly at this point; but then it occurs to us – what about Ole the Van? We are supposed to fly to Mexico in early January. We wont have time to come all the way back down to Texas to get the van. “No problem” says Jimmy. “We’ll get it fixed up and I can store it for you until you have a chance to come back down and pick it up.” We love Jimmy.
So we find a rental car (which is big enough for all of our stuff, allows dogs and international boarder crossings – all four days before Christmas), clean out the van, pack everything up into the back of the pick-up and head for Abilene. Unpack the truck, pack up the rental car and FINALLY hit the road leading home.
And we drive…..
and we drive….
and we drive.
Three days straight. And we made it home just in time to celebrate with Dave’s family.
We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. We sure did!