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The idea was simple. Quickly run back into Albuquerque, a
mere 50 miles away, and pick up the tow doll, run back to to
Moriarty, then get started. I was at U-Haul by 9:00 a.m. LT had
tried to contact them the previous day to see what time they
opened, but after being on hold for 30 minutes, he'd given up.
At the counter, I presented the paperwork for the dolly and was
then informed that they didn't have the dolly. In fact, we should
have been called the previous day to be warned of this, despite
the fact that a $50 deposit had been left over half of a week
previous. The hunt then began (for them) to find a tow dolly.
Finally, a break through came at around 1 p.m. as a tow dolly
had been returned at a near-by U-Haul. I quickly drove over and
got hooked up.
Once I got back to Moriarty, I noticed my temperature gauge
rising. After turning the heater on and turning the A/C off,
the air did not get any warmer and the needle kept rising. I
quickly turned off the engine and then observed water hitting
the windshield. Given the fact that there wasn't a cloud in the
sky I knew it couldn't be good. Carefully popping the hood, I
found the the upper radiator hose was split. I called LT's mom
and she took me to a local parts store which had a generic hose
that I was able to cut to size. I filled up the coolant and went
back to LT's place, expecting to leave straight away. He hadn't
finished packing so we didn't finally get on the road until 4:30
p.m.
The idea behind this trip was to tow his Suzuki Samari as
he didn't have enough to take himself, his dogs, and all of his
stuff in his own vehicle. Wolf's Runner had enough room for him,
his two dogs, my three dogs, and all of my gear (as well as some
of his) inside it. This allowed him to fill up his Samari with
all of his worldly possessions he wished to move with him. Needless
to say, it was very full. We then strapped my spare gas container
and hitch rack to the tow dolly under his front axle. Once he
was loaded on, he pulled his rear drive shaft.
Once on the road, it was slow going. It was all we could do
to keep the Runner going more than 55. Much of the time was spent
in 4th and 3rd gears.
Around 10 p.m., we filled up in Holbrook, AZ. There we found
that the tow straps holding the dolly in place had come off completely.
The emergency chains and my straps holding the hitch rack and
gas container in place was all that had kept the Samari in place.
We found that we'd not run the straps properly under a bar and
quickly recfied that.
Back on the road, I slept for awhile in the back until LT
was too tired to continue. I then took over again until we hit
Kingman. From there, I went north on US 93 and quickly grew tired.
I pulled off and LT resumed driving. I didn't fall back asleep,
but was happy to keep talking to LT as we crossed over the Hoover
Dam then into Nevada. even though it was around 4 a.m., we found
it necessary to turn on the A/C just before the Hoover Dam as
it was fairly hot outside. By 4:30 a.m., we arrived at a friends
house in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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