Rolling With It

Day 4 

(the afternoon)

Well, it wasn’t too long after my little interlude at the bargaining table before the hills began to get steeper and steeper and the road signs were showing kilometers to Tepic and San Blas.

My plan was to turn towards San Blas to avoid the steep grades and twisty roads south of Tepic while towing my heavily loaded boat and instead drive the steep grades and twisty roads south of San Blas. I am not sure why this was a good plan but somebody told me it was so I went with it. At least I would be paralleling the coast with amazing scenery to finish my journey with.

Everything was going amazingly well and I figured that was just and fair after all the delays that I had experienced and the universe’s axis was truly tilted my way.

Well, teach me to think…….. As I was heading down a long grade I hit a small dip and I felt my boat trailer really bounce. This motion was uncharacteristic and it caused me a little concern but everything thing looked and felt fine after that.

The next dip I hit everything really bounced………and kept bouncing! 

My first thought (this, I realized, is called denial) was that the road, like many others here in Mexico, was just really poorly constructed and bouncy.

My second thought was “hmmm, I smell rubber burning”. I hopefully looked all around for smoke from trash burning somewhere nearby and didn’t see any. Damn it!

At that point I knew it would be prudent to pull over and take a look at my boat trailer. 

What I saw was, well, I wasn't really sure what I saw! It appeared to me that my load had shifted somehow and caused the right side of my trailer to sag a bit and the fender was rubbing on the tire. I couldn’t figure out how since everything looked fine but the evidence was in directly in front of me. I grabbed some tools, loosened up the fender a bit and raised it where it was rubbing and all was right (wrong) in the world again.

I traveled on a bit and had just cleared the last of the toll booths I was going to need to stop at so to be prudent I decided to pull over again to take a look at my situation.

The fender had shifted even more and the tire had a huge groove in the sidewall! There was melted rubber from what had been my brand new trailer tire all over the side of my boat! What the heck was going on?!?

The strange part was I just couldn’t see the shift in the fender but the melted rubber and gouge in my tire’s sidewall clearly indicated that it had shifted!

I knew at that point I had to completely remove the fender to prevent further issues and to change the tire so I wouldn’t have a blowout.

I knew in my heart that this would be an easy fix and I would be on the road in 20 minutes.

I popped the fender off and then, as I was placing the jack, that was when I noticed half of my leaf spring on the right side was gone!Completely! Nothing but........ air....... ugh.....

Ok…… so, the fender never shifted…… the whole damn thing was just broken and sagging on that side and held up by what amounted to less than half a leaf spring! Ohhhhh……. Not good at all…..

Damn! I had inspected them thinking I might replace them before I left San Diego but they looked fine at the time. 

Oh, man, I was a little (a lot) sick to my stomach.
This was one of those “Oh, shit, I am seriously screwed”, moments.

I felt my heart rate increase and my sense of well-being dissipate in a fraction of a second. 

I was nowhere. 

No town nearby, nothing visible but jungle for as far as I could see……… 

I thought of every southern engineering trick I could up to and including ratchet strapping around the frame and boat to try to keep things together so I could find a mechanic. I knew it would be many kilometers before that would happen and I was feeling hot and more than a little desperate.

I also had the completely irrational and barely realistic hope that a Green Angel (paid mechanics that patrol the toll-roads in Mexico to keep you safe) would magically appear and help me out.

This, in fact, did not occur and I drove many kilometers very slowly and finally turned off towards the coast and San Blas.

It was at that point I saw in my rear-view mirror the very Green Angel I had prayed for (I think that is what is referred to as bargaining with God) under the trees exactly where I had just exited the toll-road. There was no way to back track the many kilometers to the next on and off ramp to see if he would still be there to help me when I passed by again. I couldn’t believe it and figured the Road-Gods were having a nice laugh at my expense. I attribute this to what I call "Divine Ambivalence".

So, I just kept going. I knew there was a town ahead somewhere and every town has a mechanic, right?

In short order I rolled into a town that looked like it had twenty or so dwellings in it and, sure enough, a yard, as evidenced by all the auto parts scattered everywhere, that had to be a mechanics. I pulled into his yard and we chatted a bit while I showed him my dilemma.

He told me in the town of Santiago was a man who built muelles(leaf springs) and that all I had to do was go about 400 meters, turn right, go another 17 kilometers, turn right again and then another 12 or so and I’d be in Santiago and the guy could set me straight. Easy peasy, right? 

Alrighty then………. Well, seeing as I had about zero choices I turned right at 400 meters and after about 10 kilometers saw what was clearly another mechanic’s house that was significantly more orderly than the previous mechanic's and I promptly pulled in to his yard. There was no way I was by-passing any potential help!

No one was outside but the door was open so I knocked, said “hola” and promptly interrupted the mechanic and his family having lunch.

Apologizing for doing so I explained my problem with hope in my heart and a smile on my face.

They were all quite gracious and he came out and assessed my situation. He told me that, yes, I could go to Santiago but since I wanted to make it to San Pancho there was a much closer solution.

He said at the crucero, which was another 7 kilometers, turn left and I would see a mechanic on the right and that he could fix my issue! I was very excited by this prospect and, at this point, I was only about an hour behind my schedule!

So right at 7 kilometers I saw the crucero and turned left. I saw a mechanic immediately on the right and it was a big shop with lots of trucks sitting around in it. I was quite happy to see this right where the last mechanic had said it would be. I pulled my truck in, parked and found the mechanic who proceeded to tell me he couldn’t take care of my issue. 

I was much less happy at this point. Actually, I was desperate and I was working on a non-existent Plan-B. I am certain all this was clearly evident on my face.

All I could think of was that I was either going to have to tempt fate trying to make it to San Blas or backtrack to Santiago.

He looked at me, told me to wait and said he needed to make a phone call. He came out with his phone in hand, told me to get in my Rodeo and follow him.

We proceeded, fortunately southward again, and he stops in front of a sign that states “MUELLES”.

Yeah!

He told me to go in and talk to the guy there. I offered to buy him a beer or soda and he smiled, said no, gracias and waved goodbye.

Besides the barking dogs and chickens and naked kids running around the yard I was very happy to see two men working on the leaf springs of a truck! Woohoo! I could not have been happier. I was now only two hours behind schedule and I had plenty of daylight to make it into San Pancho!

My Plan-B had been that I was going to have to pay somebody to let me store my boat and its contents in their yard but now here was a real spring mechanic right in front of me!

My heart-rate decreased, my sense of well-being returned and I knew all would be right in the world again.

Well, after about 45 minutes they finished the truck in front of me and we chatted about my issue and they got to work. During this time I had the privilege of hearing the story of how the grandpa had gone to Los Angeles because he was nearly blind and used another man’s name, ID and insurance to have an $8000.00 dollar corrective surgery and now, gracias a dios, he could see perfectly! 

I was duly impressed at his resourcefulness, especially since he was working and welding on my trailer!

It was really quite amazing to see these two men cut my leaf springs off, fabricate completely out of other springs by dismantling two brand new ones and then install leaf springs that fit my boat trailer exactly. 

They fabricated new mounting bolts and brackets all while using equipment that was powered by one of them holding two wires into an outlet when they needed power for their saws, presses and welders. 

To have been more grateful to these guys when they were finally done would not have been possible, at least outside of prison, and I was only 4 hours behind my schedule!

The moment of payment was another interesting cultural exchange.

In a country where bargaining is a mainstay I knew this was going to be a process and I really wanted to just hit the road.

When the work was all done, my trailer hooked back up and my thirst at a maximum I asked how much I owed them.

It was at this point that I got to hear how bad the economy was(I knew this) business had been very slow(clearly) he has a new baby(also evident) and times are just plain tough.
I got it.

He lit a cigarette and we talked about kids and dogs and having a cold beer at the end of the day and work and he smoked that thing about half-way down and, finally, paused.

I knew it was coming and I couldn't have been more relieved! 

He looked me straight in the eye and then told me in a questioning voice “2500 pesos”?  Clearly he was ready to bargain and the questioning in his voice told me he felt his price was high.

I did some quick math in my head and figured somewhere close to $200USD was what he was asking.

This man and his dad had just saved my bacon. They completely fabricated brand new leaf-springs for me, made new brackets and installed them and they wanted $200. I know I could have bargained them down easily.

I paused and looked around, looked in my wallet (where a mere 3000 pesos resided at the time) and handed him what he wanted with a mil gracias senores to top it off.

I knew I was running low on fuel and asked where a Pemex and an ATM was. They told me both were on the way to San Pancho so I took a leap of faith and headed south again.

Their instructions to me were to just keep going straight and I would run into both the Pemex and ATM.  As I came to a fork in the road I realized, clearly, they had no idea what they were talking about…… so, I took the fork that looked straightest (I was trying to apply logic outside of my own to this dilemma) and ended up finding both the Pemex and ATM. Their directions were impeccable.

This 4 hour detour had taken me well north of my original route so I had time to make up. It was 45 minutes later that I found the Pemex and, fortunately, and ATM right next door.

Money in hand and fuel in the tank I headed out with the knowledge that I had a lot of time to make up and not a whole lot of sunlight to do it in.

In somewhat of a bit of poetic irony, immediately after I got fuel and pesos, I went through a very long town north of San Blas and there were very professional looking shops everywhere that had signs for “meulles”. I must have passed ten leaf spring shops! 

I probably could have gotten the work done for half of what I paid previously and probably more quickly. 

I laughed out loud as I passed through the town with every mechanical service available that I might have ever needed. It occurred to me that there must be something about road conditions here that create a great need for leaf springs!

I was looking at this experience (which someday I’ll refer to as an adventure) in kind of a divine intervention way, though. 

That family was clearly in need and I filled it and I felt fine about it.

New baby, other hungry kids running around and they looked the kind of poor you can't fake.

My troubles were a perfect solution for all of us.

After that my travels were completely uneventful and I ticked off the landmarks. San Blas, the crocodile sanctuaries north of Matachen Bay, Las Varas and, then, lifting my spirits mightily, La Penita and then Lo de Marcos which meant in 10 minutes I would be entering San Pancho!

I pulled up to my house right as the sun set, let Seamus happily out of the Rodeo and proceeded to unload our belongings and get them stowed so I could pick my family up from the airport the next day.

Just like I planned……….