My trip

Vacations start the second you leave your home. My trip out west was a pretty smooth journey. A plane ride to Dallas then another to Albuquerque New Mexico. When I got to the rental car place in Albuquerque the only car left for me, was this little white PT Cruiser.

My dad worked for Chrysler for 40 years so I felt comfortable with a Chrysler product. I hit the highway headed for Santa Fe. The radio stations were all pre-set to rock stations so I cranked up the AC/DC, opened the sunroof and started cruising.

The landscape seemed flat and like the moon. I saw lots of crosses marking accident sights along the highway. Not much else, except a big billboards announcing Blue Oyster Cult was coming to town and I should buy reservation priced cigarette's and go to a casino. Then the trouble started.

It was like a K-car flash back! In the mid 80's we had a K-car and it was a dog. You would press the gas pedal, sometimes you had power sometimes, not so much. Here I was, on a two lane highway in the dessert with trucks on my tail and my foot was almost to the floor. Yet, I was barely hitting 40 miles per hour! I had a map quest print out in my hand. Since I didn't have my reading glasses on I had to hold the paper instructions in front of the steering wheel to get the words to come into focus. The truck was still getting larger and larger in my rear view mirror and the rock and roll hits were still cranking. Then we hit a slight decline in the road and my speed picked up! It was like this all the way to Santa Fe!

Apparently it is a steady climb all the way there. The attitude got higher the car got slower except when it could use it's weight to cruise down hill. I think that is what PT stands for, Part Time Cruiser. It only works going down hill!

I made it to Sally's home. It is just outside Santa Fe. There are horse stables in the background and mountains too. Absolutely beautiful country. But not so good for a PT Cruiser! We called it the Flintstones car. We leaned and rocked to harness the power of our combined weight to help it along. We used Sally's car when we went up into the mountains.