Today was a travel day and my birthday. I am 40 again this year. We broke camp at Palo Duro Canyon SP and made the very steep climb up to the rim. We continued to Amarillo but noticed a quiet clicking noise from Charlotte’s engine when she was idling at traffic signals. We got on I-40 / Route 66 and went west out of the Texas Panhandle and into New Mexico.
By the time we pulled over in Tucumcari, the click was no longer quiet. We set up our trailer in a funky little RV park called Cactus RV and went looking for a mechanic. Bear in mind that Tucumcari is not a big metropolis but merely a large gas station in the middle of nowhere. We started at the former NAPA store and asked if they knew of a local mechanic. They suggested one but when we got there, that mechanic suggested that since our motor is a diesel, we would have better luck at a place called Ray’s a mile south of town.
Fortunately for us, Ray was open and his shop is open 7 days a week. The bad news was that the click was a cracked flywheel and the closest one is in Dallas. We will be staying a bit longer than the one night we scheduled. Maybe the flywheel cracked on the horrible steep pull out of Palo Duro Canyon.
The Cactus RV park has full hookups, wi-fi and cable TV so we will have stuff to do which is great because there’s not much scenery, cultural or other activity in Tucumcari. The park is also located about 400 feet down Route 66 from Del’s Restaurant where we went to eat after getting the bad news at Ray’s. The food was great and the bill was small. They can expect more of our business in the next few days unless a flywheel pops up at the mechanic’s shop. I’m glad we scheduled in enough return trip time for mishaps like this. At least we ain’t out in the middle of the featureless Panhandle plains broken down on the shoulder.