This past Friday I dropped the kids off at their school in Puebla, and took advantage of the energy of a bunch of jr. and sr. high students to load the Astro with about 40 boxes of dialysis solution. Then I was on my way to Tehuacán, Puebla, a city that is about halfway between the city of Oaxaca and Mexico City.
Dialysis solution…half of it donated by a neighbor whose husband had died, and the rest through a federal representative here in Ixtapaluca. Plus a box of assorted medicine donated for the ministry of AIL in Oaxaca. The dialysis solution is valuable. It will be used to help many people in Oaxaca hospitals. I met Gaspar and Brigam, and loaded all but 6 of the boxes in Gaspar’s Nissan pickup. Lots of weight. Dave Miller was concerned that all that weight would harm Gaspar’s transmission. Well, turns out another vehicle was affected!
After picking up the kids at the Prusia house and martial arts class, we were on our way home. On the way up the mountain coming back into Mexico City I noticed that the van started losing power. About 2 miles from the summit, at a steep and curvy part of the highway, our speed went from 60 mph to 0 mph. pretty fast! What to do? It was now dark. We were stuck. I put the van in drive and began to coast backwards. Not a good sign. So I began to make phone calls. After about 5 minutes, at David’s encouragement, I started the van again and to my surprise we were moving in first gear, then second, and made it to the top of the hill. We practically coasted home from that point.
If the 2003 Astro Van could talk, oh, the stories it would tell! Over the past two years, we’ve driven it to Oaxaca multiple times, to Texas, to Ixtapa, to Guadalajara and all around Mexico City. It’s hauled wheelchairs, stages, instruments, garbage and lots of people. We’ll see how much life it has in it still.
