Sherman - Towed to a truck mechanic shop in Juchitan, Mexico!

We sat on the side of the busy road for a total of about 28 hours. Essentially, doing nothing. Good thing we had a decent cell signal so we had communication and internet access.

The tow truck had been arranged the night before, but they had said they couldn't make it there until about 11:00am. We had the impression that the towing company is very busy and that there aren't many towing companies in this area. The roadside assistance people were not able to find one to help us, and they had said that they would reimburse us up to $300 USD if we submitted the invoice to them once we found help.

11:00am, came and went and still no tow truck.

We waited until noon, and then I sent Gabriel a note asking if he could follow up with them. Sure enough, as soon as we did that, a tow truck pulled in with driver Luis, and his wife Matilde. She came along because she speaks English. Luis went right to work, while Matilde chatted with us.

Sherman, waiting to be towed.

This is the first time in the more than ten years that we have owned Sherman that he has broken down on the highway and needed to be towed. And I've sometimes wondered exactly how a tow truck would approach the situation. I helped operate a tow truck for a couple of months in my younger days, and you need to have something solid, like a front bumper. Sherman's fiberglass front end covers the steel framework underneath and would not be able to support the weight being lifted up in the air.

Luis of course noticed the problem immediately. This big heavy tow truck was not going to work. He decided to see if he could re-seat the ball joint. The stud had not broken, but the joint had separated from the base.

Ruth and Matilde.

Matilde's English is very good, but she says it is not as fluid as it used to be because she doesn't often get a chance to speak it. She learned while in Mexico City in her 20's. She has never visited Canada or U.S., although she would like to one day.

Using a jack and blocks of wood, Luis worked for a couple of hours to get that ball joint back into place. He just wouldn't quit. This was not part of his job... Matilde says that most tow truck operators would have simply said "sorry, can't help you" and driven away.

But he was just trying to get us mobile enough to drive 500 meters or so to a Pemex gas station where we would have been off the road.

Luis, hard at work under Sherman.

Eventually, he called a smaller tow truck with a wheel lift. He didn't think it would be able to lift Sherman, but thought it was worth a try. Only problem... Sherman's fiberglass front end stuck out more than the wheel lift could extend. 

Eventually, Luis and the second driver Leo got the base of the wheel lift under the front frame with a couple of big blocks of wood, and chained into place the little truck worked hard to lift Sherman up...

By now, it was 4:15pm, a full 28 hours after we first broke down.

They were unsure how stable it would be, and I didn't think it was very stable either. But, we would be driving very slowly. Only 28 kms (17 miles) to the mechanic shop in Juchitan.

We only drove about 100 meters and one of the pieces of wood shifted. Leo stopped immediately, and we all looked at the situation again. It turned out that the shifted piece of wood had actually lodged itself in such a way that it was more stable.

And off we went. We decided to continue all the way to Juchitan.

Turn up your volume...

We made it to the mechanic shop at 5:50pm. The sign said they closed at 5:00, but Luis had called ahead to say we were on our way.

The shop owner was there waiting for us. It's a big operation. He seemed confident that we would be back on the road quickly, but it all depends on the parts and we won't know that until he tries to find them this morning.

Luis, getting Sherman up on blocks to be worked on in the morning.

This is our parking spot for the night!

Not the nicest, but it's fairly quiet and WAY better than our night parked on the highway at the side of the road.

We can't thank Luis enough. He went way beyond what anyone would expect. And he doesn't own the tow truck company... he and Leo are just employees.

I paid the bill... 15,080 pesos ($1,050 CAD, $800 USD). Yikes! The original quote had been 12,000 pesos if no receipt was needed, or 12,000 pesos plus 16% tax if I needed a receipt. And I needed a receipt in order to claim back the $300 USD from the insurance company roadside assistance. And, they charged 1,000 pesos more for the second truck. Then, we gave Matilde a can of Canadian Maple Syrup, and a nice to tip each of Luis and Leo.

A very expensive tow job, by any standards. But, it needed to be done, and there weren't a lot of options. We were stuck!

The mechanic shop is a hive of activity this morning. They opened up at 8:00am and as I post this at 8:30am, they are already working on Sherman, and I have given the owner the model info to search for the correct parts. Now, we wait... again.

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