Rolling east through the Mojave Desert on I-40, I start to hear a little vibrational rumble. I don't really feel it, just hear it - slightly. It goes away on the downhills and comes back when we start clinbing the next uphill: quieter on level groound. Jan's dozing and doesn't hear anything. We've been driving around LA for a month, up to Santa Clarita and down the coast to Vista - twice. There were plenty of hills and no noise. Now there's an issue? Here, in the middle of nowhere! We pull into Needles, at the end of California, for gas. There's an open repair bay with a lift at the gas station, so I ask the mechanic if he can check it out. He tells me that our Infiniti QX-56 is too big for his lift, but he sends me over to Dave at A+ Auto Care. Doesn't look too promising. There's Dave, shorts, sandals, long hair slicked back, shirt hanging out over a paunch (I know that trick). He's leaning over the engine of an ancient pick-up truck, trying to help some sheep farmer get to greener pastures. "Dave?", I ask and I tell him our situation. He asks a few questions, says he can get me in in about twenty minutes, and asks me to try the key on this truck. It doesn't start. He has a clip-on ammeter on the battery cable and tells me it's pulling 500 amps - yikes. He leaves and we wait. It's sunny and hot here on a Friday afternoon and home is 1,800 miles away, but after talking a little with Dave, I am starting to feel very confident and happy that we stopped here, at A+. I pass the time talking to the other stranded travelers. Oh yah, two guys and their wives from northern California, both driving big pick-ups and pulling nice camper trailers. They were four-wheeling and camping in the desert and blew a trailer tire on the way home. A state policeman and a CHIPS officer stopped to help and promptly broke three lugs on the wheel! Then there's the mom and daughter driving an old Chevy pick-up with an older camper in the bed. They are trying to get to a big show at the University to sell their miniatures, but the truck won't do more than 15 mph uphill and 35 downhill. This show is the biggest for them all year and they're worried about the lost income that they clearly could use. NAPA parts truck shows up with six shiny new studs for the camper and a new fuel pump for the pick-up. We're next. I drive into the lift bay and Dave positions the lift arms. "Push that silver button above the motor while I watch," Dave tells me. "Just a little." He's very careful and checks the owner's manual for any necessary precautions about the air suspension. With our big SUV up in the air, Dave shows me the slop in one of the four universal joints. Well that's clearly the problem. Dave heads to the computer to try to find parts. That could be a problem for our Infiniti - but it's not. Dave finds the parts, the NAPA truck returns, and Edgar, the mechanic, competently changes all four universal joints. We are back on the road, rolling home, smooth, quiet, safe and not sorry. The two big trucks and campers are already headed home and the new fuel pump is almost installed in the old pick-up. So there we were, three different, unhappy, traveling bands stranded in little, depreciating Needles, California. Each of us lucky to be at A+ Auto Care, where Dave and his crew saved the day for all of us, late one Friday afternoon. Oh, yah, that ancient sheep-herder's pick-up truck? New starter motor. It's running again. If you break down on the road, you could not do better! read more
