We made it all the way to Edgewood, NM (just a few miles East of Albuquerque) when my son's car encountered a problem, like his Left-front wheel fell off.
We had stopped overnight in Grants, NM and had left the hotel at 7:00am and had stopped for breakfast near Albuquerque. When we left the restaurant he complained (we have a set of walkie-talkies to communicate between cars) that he heard some rattling and thought it was under the hood so we stopped and looked but didn't see anything. So we headed out again but after a few miles he said it was getting worse and he saw a sign for a Ford dealer at the next exit (he drives a 2013 Ford Focus RT) and he said he was stopping, but as he was exiting the freeway he said he steering was acting weird and his brakes were spongy. I was ahead of him and just as he turned onto the service road from the freeway exit I noticed his left-front wheel wobbling and just as I was radioing that news to him the wheel came completely off. Fortunately he was only doing about 5 mph at the time and we were 0.2 miles from the Ford dealer.
I checked and he was OK and got all the parts out of the road and I drove down to the dealer and as I was pulling in a tow-truck was just leaving after dropping off a car and I flagged him down and explained what happened and he said he had no jobs pending so he left immediately to get my son's car while I met with the service people at the Ford dealer.
When the car arrived and they off-loaded it, they discovered that the studs had sheared-off which is why the wheel fell off. Fortunately it didn't damage the brake rotor or suspension (it did bend-up the fender around the wheel-well) but the hub and wheel, as well as the front bearings, had to be replaced.
They had the hub and bearings in stock but the wheel had to be ordered out of Denver and couldn't be there until the next day, Wednesday. We didn't have much choice but to tell them to go ahead with the repairs and we checked into a hotel a quarter-mile or so from the dealer.
They finally got everything fixed but the fender (they don't do body work) but the mechanic managed to pound it back into reasonable shape and made sure that nothing was loose making it more than driveable (he did a pretty good job and you really have to look to notice that it's not quite right). The job was done about 1:30pm Wednesday and $1,100+ later (on dad's credit card) we were back on the road. My son says it drives as good as new (they checked all the other wheels and studs as well as the suspension all around and could find nothing else wrong).
Anyway, this put us behind by more than a day and a half. We stopped Wednesday night late in Oklahoma City and have just now stopped for the night, Thursday, just a bit North of Indianapolis. We still have about 350 miles to go to my Brother's place in Michigan. Originally we had planned to get there by Wednesday evening. Now it will be Friday morning.
I hope to start back on Tuesday of next week. This return trip will be my longest solo drive ever (just me with no passengers or other car driving with me). My current record in about 1,100 miles. This will be be closer to 2,300 miles. Baring any problems with MY car, I should be home no later than Friday, the 12th (I intend to stop and take some pictures of stuff that my wife never was too keen about on our past trips along this route, which is basically the old 'Route 66'.
OCU
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