Home At Last

We finally rolled into T-town yesterday afternoon after a fun trip with some interesting twists at the end. We left town on Thursday the 12th and here's the official rundown:
Thurs 12th - Tucson -> Van Horn, TX (~450mi) Enjoyed the KOA Kabin there and the great breakfast the next morning. CP toured the grounds in her new sandals and waved to everyone.
Friday 13th - Van Horn, TX -> Austin, TX (~450mi) The LW found a little studio to rent there near the SoCo strip and it was really nice. CP really enjoyed having her own space. Went out with everyone to Stubbs BBQ for some great food. Jen found this wonderful BBQ place - nice work!
Saturday 14th - Wedding day - CP spent some time with the family in the hotel and at the pool before the wedding. The wedding was nice...and short! Within a few minutes of sitting down and playing the music, they were done. It was a nice gig even from the "cry room" at the church. Got to see Vanessa B. and it was a good thing. Spent some time at the reception (good time) until the noise got really loud for us and the baby. Retired to our spot for some quiet time with Mr. Lard and the Betsy.
Sunday 15th - Austin, TX -> Cary, MS (~too many miles) A quick breakfast with the family over stories of twisted beds and cereal in sheets. Then for some hugs and we were on the road again. The LW had the computer up and going for a search of BioDiesel outlets, but there weren't any on the way. The road was nice, but long on this day.
Monday 16th - Cary, MS CP got her first taste of southern home cookin'. She had fried catfish and hush puppies. Alot of them both! She got to see plenty of family and enjoyed her stay.
Tuesday 17th - Cary, MS -> Bolton, MS (short drive) After lunch we had to pack the car and get going to honor our "even time" with both families mandate. It was good to see my dad's side of the family. We arrived in Bolton and woke up the grandparents from a nap. It's good to wake up to CP though...unless she's in your bed kicking you, that is.
Wednesday 18th-19th - Bolton, MS Got to see plenty of my mom's side of the family. It was a good time. CP wowed everyone with her recently realized bipedalism and that toothy grin. Before we knew it, we were packing the car again and off on the road.
Friday 20th - Bolton, MS -> Euless, TX (~450mi) Left in the morning to get a head start on this trip because our time with Gramma would be short. It still took us most of the day to get there. The LW had the laptop up and running with the broadband card and was able to use google maps' traffic function to route us around all of the ugly stuff in Dallas. Real-time traffic updates are sweeeet! We got there around 5:30pm, but it was a breeze. CP was ready to get out of the car. After a short visit with Gramma, we headed off to the pool for some much needed playtime.
Saturday 21st - Euless, TX -> Van Horn, TX (~450mi) Left Gramma's after some wonderful bagels and fruit that Jan brought by. Thanks Jan! It was so nice to stay with Gramma again and I think that we've seen her just about as much as the LW's folks have this year. We rolled into Van Horn expecting our KOA Kabin to be waiting, but instead found that someone else had taken it from us. I guess some lady named Deanna checked in even though she had a reservation at the KOA in Ft. Stockton. This led me to ask, "What kind of idiotic Texan misses a town by 100 miles?!". Well, this idiot took our room for the night, so we were off to find a place to stay. It was raining and we were tired, so we just pulled into one of the many motels in town and hit the sack.
Sunday 22nd - Van Horn, TX -> Tucson (~450mi) Got ths stuff sorted out with the KOA folks and the lady was still blaming the KOA for letting her check into the wrong one when we got there. Lady, you missed your town by 100 miles and weren't even on the correct interstate! Milton at the KOA even told her, "You signed someone else's credit card receipt, didn't you look around at anything?" I just hope that she's not in healthcare! They refunded our money and payed us back for the difference in the Kabin and the hotel price. Good service. After this was settled, we were on our way back through familiar territory. I had heard some squeaking from one of the idlers under the hood on the a/c-power steering-alternator belt, but figured that we'd make it home ok. Well, I figured wrong. 60miles or so East of Lordsburg, NM the pulley on the alternator exploded and cooked the belt for the three devices listed above. I heard a loud thud/rumble and immediately killed the engine and coasted to the roadside. The pulley has a sprag clutch to accomodate the diesel engine's funny crank speed antics and it went south. I pulled the belt and made sure that the pulley wasn't going anywhere. Since the car has daytime running lights, I pulled the headlight fuses to conserve battery power. Cripes! We were in the middle of nowhere with almost 200 miles to go. We rolled the windows down and called Brandy for backup if needed. We kept driving and driving with no indications that the battery was even getting a workout. The diesel uses very little energy to keep it running anyway, so we were lucky. The car got us home with what appears to be plenty of battery power left. I would guess that we probably could have gone for quite some time just like we did.

It was a good long trip and we enjoyed it. It really was good to get out and see family and the countryside. CP did really well and we now know just how many miles we can cover safely in one day before she has a meltdown. The car did well except for the hiccup there at the end of the trip, but that can't really be planned for. We got roughly 45 miles/gallon for the entire trip and it sure was nice to see the needle on a quarter tank with almost 600 miles on the odometer.

Expect pictures soon everyone.