Not expecting any answeres until noon, I finally get out of bed at 7:30.

Down at breakfast they are out of bacon so I stick my head in the cook area and let them know. The gal asks me if I want ??? eggs. I ask her a few times to repeat it and then wave it off. Back at the table BB tells we that it is a Mexican 'condiments.' So when I see the gal again I explain that I didn't know what she was talking about. "Don't you eat Mexican?" Yes, I do, but have never heard that word. Then I asked if she knew what lutefisk and lefse were. I got a blank look. People from different from different backgrounds know different foods.

Check out time is 11, so I call the shop for an update. The long pause I get when I ask for an update is was not re-assuring. They are waiting for parts, should be in 'soon.' Not sure what happened yesterday. Wrong parts, bad parts, ruined the parts? Whatever happened, we are still here.

We decide to walk back to Rudy's BBQ. Food was as good as last time, but my left leg has been 'jolting' me every once in a while today and continued doing it during the walk. Also, this was the first time in a long time that my throat issue has bothered me and this was the worst I ever remember. I need to keep track of what and why. Not interested in being put under so Dr can look at it.

I call at 2 PM and the shop is still not done with my bus, I plan on calling back at a quarter to 4 as the shop goes home at 4 PM. At 3 PM I get a call, the bus is done. We pack up to walk. The driveway at the motel has a huge grade or I would have walked up and came back past the motel to get our stuff. I could stop on the frontage road with my flashers on but BB doesn't like that idea. Speed limit is supposed to be 45 mph on the frontage road, but it doesn't seem like it. BB is having second thoughts by the time we have walked across the motel parking lot carrying our stuff. But we keep plugging on and get to the shop in about 20 minutes from the time they had called.

The shop pulls the bus out for us and I go back in and sign the paperwork. I do a quick inspections of the bus, lights and for damage. All is good, they have washed all the oil off the wheelwells.

Before I am done with my log I notice a warning light on. No one answers at the bus company so I go back into the shop to find my contact, he's NA and the shop is going home in 15 minutes. But the bus company calls me back and says 'GO.' I let the shop know I'm leaving and am gone.

Traffic is not bad. I am on edge with this bus and am watching the rear wheels as well as the road.

60 miles down the road something starts to squeel and I can no longer get the bus over 60 mph. I pull off at the next exit. Once I am back by the rear wheels I can see the smoke. And it stinks, not like hot oil, more like rubber. The rims are still cool enough that I can touch them, unlike the last two times. I call the bus company and they have me disable some of the computer safeguards and ask me to call them back if that doesn't fix the issue. Just wanting to get off the freeway, I did not look to see if I can get back on, I can't. I will need to take backroads to the next entrance.

A couple of miles down the road and before we are back on the freeway, I stop again. Still not hot, no more smoke but it still stinks. We get back on the road and then on to the freeway. I had planned on getting four hours down the road tonight. Now I just want to be in a bigger town before dark.

Five more miles down the road I stop again. I haven't seen any smoke but it still stinks and does not sound right. I call the bus company back and as I am talking to them I finally see what looks like oil between the rims, but none on the ground yet. The company says go to the closest motel. He will need to talk to other people in his company before letting us know our next step. I call the dispatcher but he doesn't answer.

Dispatcher calls back as I am driving so I call him as soon as I exit the freeway ... Oh, earlier today the dispacher had told me their are two more buses in El Paso with the same issue, they are not up and running yet.

Five more miles and we are at the motel. MicroTel this time, in Pleasanton. We check in and then walk a half mile in the dark to a Mexican restaurant. Very good food, only the salsa was too hot for me. We both had enchiladas.

When we get back, we walk past the bus. After one hour there is already a huge puddle of oil. What we are smelling may be the oil, but it's not hot oil so I don't understand why the smell would be so strong.

When we took the trip we reserved a car of $70 a day. Now cars out of San Antonio are $470 a day. $1,077 for a Hertz, our car of choice. Same out of Houston. Car prices have gone up out of Brownsvill also but only to $170 a day. Because I like to not be up against the clock, we priced out the car for 4 days, still $170 a day ... but if we keep it for a week? $30 a day. We got it for the week. AND because I have no idea how things will play out, we also reserved one for the following Friday. Same price. With prices going up like that we need a backup plan, we can't afford to spend over $4,000 to get home. Flying would be cheaper, but not cheap.<BR><BR>So we will have to wait until all the people in CA are in and a meeting can be held.

Load board is back up to 8, but we aren't going anywhere.

Did get an email today from my other company. Everyone needs to let them know when the are available. Good news is there are ONLY 44 buses to move in the next 20 days, which is about normal. If it wasn't for the holidays.