Winter wonderland...NOT

Wow – this is an “if it can go wrong, it will go wrong” kinda trip thus far. I don’t remember ever having so much trouble, so many difficulties leafin town but maybe I have.

This morning, I wait until the sun barely comes up before opening the camper door and I’m stunned to see all the snow! This is NOT the Las Cruces I know. It is not just snow but so very cold. I’m told it is in the low 20’s and my heart sinks. I will never be able to start my truck in this kind of cold.

I try anyway and realize my batteries are giving up before the engine can turn over. I decide to call for a jump. Once a few years ago I was stuck at a Texas rest stop – northern Texas – when the temperatures dropped to 13 degrees overnight. I called for a jump and after waiting for over 5 hours, the tow truck came, attached jumper cables to my battery, revved the engine for several minutes, and then I had the juice to start. But that time I had stopped on diesel the nite before and not on veggie oil.

I call my insurance company and ask them to have the driver to call me before they come out as I wanted him to bring some diesel & maybe even a new diesel fuel filter with him so I can change my filter and with fill with fresh diesel before he jumps the truck. Of course the male dispatcher doesn’t ask the driver to call me so he arrives without diesel or a fuel filter.

The driver is a tall white male with a shaved head and a couple tattoos visible around his neck and hands. He tries to jump the truck but it doesn’t work. He tells me he can tow me to an auto parts store – he doesn’t have diesel nor a filter on hand – less than four miles away. I am not convinced he’ll be able to put my truck on his platform but he does, with some difficulty – not believing me when I’m saying I might be too heavy.
He hasn't said a word about what is written on my truck. I realize a lot of it is covered with frozen snow but a lot of it isn't. When I make conversation - not accepting the elephant in the cab - he tells me he's ended up in Las Cruces as a tow truck driver because he is army reserve. I ask if he was sent to war and he nods and I express my sorrow for his having to have that experience. He doesn't say he never killed another human being but I think he tries to reassure me by telling me instead he mostly operated heavy equipment as a delivery driver, which is how he got the job driving tow trucks here. 
He goes on to declare how much he believes in freedom of speech, of my right to say whatever I want. When I look at him with raised eyebrows and acknowledge the theory but ask about the practice, he does kinda smile and admits it's difficult for him to accept let alone understand.
I volunteer to explain anything he reads on my truck to him but he says it's okay. 

We arrive quickly at the empty lot next to the auto parts store. He has thought of everything, leaving me where I can buy a filter and have the space to change it – which of course, they don’t have in stock but can get it to me maybe by 2pm or 5pm from El Paso, which is about an hour away.

While I’m waiting for the filter to be delivered, I notice there’s another auto shop down the road and so I head there. They do have the filter I need in stock (for twice as much as the other store...grrrrr) so I buy one but I’ll still wait for the other one so I have an extra on hand.

I grab a quart jar from my kitchen and head to the gas station on the corner to get some fresh diesel. Then I set about taking off the old filter so I can put on the new filter – which has to be filled with diesel before attaching. The engine hates air almost as much as she hates thick veggie oil.

I’m horrified. The diesel filter is almost all creamy veggie oil. It has solidified in the lines, the tank, the filter. When you have a diesel engine, for some reason, some of the diesel returns to the tank after being pumped into the engine. When you run on veggie oil and diesel, some of the veggie oil returns to the diesel tank as some diesel returns to the veggie tank, which normally is not a problem – unless it’s fuckin cold like it is now.

I’m told it rarely snows in Las Cruces and on that rare occasion it does, it never sticks for more than an hour or so. This fuckin snow has been here all night and is still sticking – about 1.5 inches.

I fill the new filter with clear diesel and try to start my engine. The batteries are not strong enough to kick it over and so I go back into the auto shop to purchase new starter batteries. A worker comes out and tells me he cannot install them. Fuckin eh, really? Something about because they’re commercial grade batteries – even though they appear to be regular batteries – their insurance doesn’t allow for them to install my new batteries. Lucky for me, the tow truck driver tells me for $20 he will replace the batteries for me.

I’m resigned to taking my truck to a diesel mechanic. I get a referral to a place less than a half mile away. I walk there & I’m pleased to see it is not a white male shop – a male shop, but mostly brown men. The owner of the shop is not there but I’m assured he will be able to get me back on the road.

I tell the other mechanic that I run veggie oil and I need my diesel lines cleared, my filter changed again maybe, and my tank pumped out – and fresh diesel run through. He says “no problem”.

I have to get another tow and fortunately, my insurance company is willing to provide another tow as it’s less than a mile away. Thank the goddesses for towing insurance.

I get the same tow guy. This time he doesn’t pull onto the bed but attaches chains to my front axle,  raises the truck slightly to assuage my fears of spilling not just veggie oil, and pulls it gently down the street.

When I get there, the shop has closed but there’s a space for me outside the gates where I can sleep until they open in the a.m.

I’m worried about a bathroom but there’s an all nite truck stop about another half mile away so I’ll be okay.