Dec 8 Tuesday Fix It Day

With the parts from Zertuche’s, I can proceed to fix the leveler jack, but first I need to arrange something for the leaking tire. You need to understand some basics of Mexico first. The roads are not always the best. Read the Dec 4th post about the ring rod at San Luis Potosi. Between the rough roads and the speed bumps (topes), tires and suspensions take a beating. In answer to this problem, Mexicans resort to little roadside businesses called “llanteras”. “Llanta” means tires and “llantera” means tire repair shop. I prepare a note explaining in my best Spanish what I need and off we go into the village. The shop comprises nothing more than a little shack with a big tire out front as the business sign. There is no door, just and open shed, with tires and rims inside, an air compressor, and some basic tools. A big friendly guy comes to greet us and I show him the note. Surprise!…the note is understood and he replies “una hora”, one hour.

We return to the campground and I start the repair to the left rear leveling jack. Sure enough in “una hora”, the guy appears, riding a bicycle with a big steel front carriage, holding his tools and a bottle jack. I raise the wheel off the ground, using the leveling jack, so he doesn’t need to use the bottle jack. Without any power tools, he removes the wheels using a long socket tool and a long piece of pipe to apply leverage. He hefts the tire into the basket on the bike and says “una hora” and rides off back to his “llantera”. I go back to finish off the repair to the jack.

In about an hour, he returns, and indicates that there was a slow leak around the wheel rim. He had unmounted the tires and cleaned, and resealed the bead. Seems fine. Now you might expect to pay a premium price for someone to come to you, and fix your tire on demand in less than 3 hours, start to finish.
Nope…the charge is 250 pesos…only about Cdn$23. I love it.

Not so fast…I proceed to check and top up all the tires to correct pressure and then the front air suspension  bags, which supplements the springs. The left one is holding at 70 pounds but the right one is 0. Adding air only results in a lot of hissing. The air bag is blown and will need to be replaced. Another victim of the Mexican topes. We will leave this until we get to Lo de Marcos and can find a source for the air bag.



At 2 PM we join in a big Texas-style BBQ, hosted by Wayne and Pat from Texas. Wayne has bought this gigantic Alberta Angus beef roast at Costco in Guad and has been cooking this roast since yesterday on his 45 gallon BBQ, with charcoal briquettes, and pieces of applewood for extra flavor. The whole campground is invited to join in and some bring their own side dishes while we have joined with our close neighbours to go pot-luck. The roast to black all round on the outside, but just nicely cooked inside, and mmmm good.

Wayne carves the 23 pound roast into slabs, not slices. Cheryl Williamson of BC loads her slab with gravy.

Bev tosses the bean bag during social hour(s). The woman beside her is from Quebec.

After this big meal, we head out to the office area to get onto the Internet, only to find the service has been out since 2 PM and who knows when it might come back. We will have to wait another day to resolve our email issue with Rogers. Neither of us can access our Rogers email, nor log onto the Rogers service site.

We have booked for 2 more days so we have some time to relax before heading off to the coast.

The propane smell still lingers and we think it is coming from somewhere near the rear. Manana!