Both Kim and I started the day out pretty tired – ok, very tired. Kim was at work until after 3am and each of us got less than 3 hours of sleep. When I arrived an hour later than expected, she had slept through her alarm and still had some wet laundry that needed to dry before being packed. We grabbed breakfast and ran a few errands while the laundry finished, managing to hit the road about four hours later than originally planned. Not a big deal; I can’t recall the last time we’ve left on time for a roadtrip, and we always manage to make the time up.

Kim tried to catch up on sleep while I drove east. We stopped in Lordsburg at a rest area to take a quick hour nap. Unfortunately, when I awoke, the car battery was completely dead. My dad had taped the headlights into the on position so he wouldn’t forget to turn them on at night (don’t ask…). That works ok when the key is removed and the lights automatically go out. But it works far less well when you still have the key set in the aux position like I did.

So, it’s Christmas eve and we’re stuck at a vacant rest area in New Mexico. Nice. After flagging down a few rest area patrons for jumper cables and plotting strategy, the car muscled up enough juice to get started. We hightailed it over to the local truck stop and I bought jumper cables while Kim drove around the town for 20 minutes trying to recharge the battery. I got a hold of the local auto parts place (about 80 miles away) and talked to a Toyota mechanic in San Diego (thank you Pacific Time Zone!) about our prospects for getting stuck again. We then gassed up the car and…it started. Whew!

We made it to the auto parts store, which tested the battery and gave the thumbs up. We stopped in Las Cruces for a nice steak dinner and proceeded along to Van Horn, Texas. The town’s famous for its Chuy’s restaurant, which is such a favorite of John Madden that he’s dubbed it the “All-Madden Hall of Fame.” They’ve reserved a special chair in his honor, along with what amounts to a Madden shrine.

The town is about 2 hours short of what we had hoped to accomplish today, but considering the late start and battery trouble, I’m feeling good about it. Hopefully, tomorrow’s drive will be less stressful.