When I get on the road my camera, map, notebook, sunglasses ride shotgun.

On the floor below the passenger seat is my backpack which I check and double check has my wallet and charger and beside me in the cup holders two klean kanteens full of water. An early morning drive I usually have a few almonds for breakfast in hand and I'm set to go.

And thats how the ride started from Santa Fe to Amarillo. It started early, as I knew I would be stopping to pause off the main road and onto route 66 to take photographs when inspiration struck which I knew it would often on this stretch of road where the new interstate took over the once thriving businesses of the past.

So photograph I did, and I planned to do, then came Tucumcari. A great old stretch of road that went on for awhile with not that much, till I saw a souvenir shop with a classic Rte 66 sign in front. I passed it first and then decided to come back around.

I did a U-Turn, which is fully possible and maybe even legal in the middle of a four lane highway where I did it. As I went to turn into the drive way of the shop I could hardly move the wheel. The power steering had given out or so it felt.

I parked in the lot and opened the hood. My pops had shown me the AC fan belt before leaving and told me not to over run it, so I had just to be on the cautionary side barely run it. Well the belt was still there but it was completely off and the piece that holds it dangling.

The souvenir shop that I thought was open, was closed, though I hadn't originally thought about going in I thought it could be great to have a conversation with someone at that moment. I packed up my backpack, stuffed in it my wallet, phone, camera, and keys and started heading down the road. Down the block and across the road was "John's Truck Service" I headed to see if they might know of a mechanic. I crossed the railroad tracks and then saw in their repair docks a touring bus, a fire engine and a semi.

I went inside and they said to hold on a minute and then offered to send a couple of mechanics back across the street with me...I jumped in their pick up truck and back to my car where they quickly showed me what had happened and got the belt off and then asked me to drive it across the street back to their shop. It was a full work out just to turn the wheel but I got it across and then they worked magic to get out stuck bolts and get pieces put together and me back on the road again!

The ending of this story is truly one I wish to share in person, so...let's sit down and do that sometime!!!!