I actually made it to Houston and caught up with old friends. It was a much needed break from the road. A fellow GTXer and his wife in southern Louisiana offered me crash space the following night; Mark wanted to look for any other problems before I got to Gainesville.
I spent my morning in Houston working from a coffee shop for a bit before doing some parts shopping (snagged a PCV valve and some extra coolant) when my iPhone suddenly went black. My attempts to reboot went unrewarded. For the first time in the trip, I felt panic. I was prepared for the car dying, but my new iPhone?! Fortunately, I was in a major city with an Apple store. The geniuses were able to reboot my iPhone and send me on my way.
As I left Houston, I pushed the car a bit to catch up with fellow $2010 Challenger Jonny P. and his ladyfriend who were two hours ahead of me. When I’d manage to close the gap down to 20 minutes (Jonny drives reeeeeeally slow - I promise!), they pulled off the highway, found a restaurant and called me. I was within five miles of the exit when I was pulled over by one of Louisiana’s finest for the lack of a license plate. No problem; California doesn’t believe in temporary tags, and the red window permit is confusing. He ran my paperwork, chatted with me about the Challenge a bit, and sent me on my way.
Two miles later, a belt screamed, the car shuddered and my fuel-washer-battery charge lights came on. More worrying, the temperature gauge spiked to the top. I pulled over, shut off the engine, checked all the suspect hoses and saw nothing. I cranked the car back up and noted the temp gauge was hot, but not in the red again. I limped the last three miles to the exit and let the car cool while I enjoyed lunch. Jonny, being far more experienced with cars (and frankly, more attentive in general), spotted the problem immediately: my alternator-to-water pump belt was gone. Note the distinct lack of alternator-to-water pump belt in the picture…
A belt! So easy to solve! We dashed down to the parts store. They had two kinds of belts…one for $5 with a ninety day warranty, or one for $17 with a one year warranty. I asked for three of the $5 belts. :D She only had one. I asked how many of the $17 belts they had…one. I asked if it was the same belt. She didn’t answer.
We changed the belt and I was on my way to Louisiana…
