There is an old line someone might use about a fast car saying “It can pass everything but a gas station.”

Well now our chariot can’t even pass a gas station!  About 110 miles out of Santa Fe we stopped in Wagon Mound, New Mexico for gasoline.  Not too many miles after that we had a “Hybrid failure” warning and lost the electric motors.  But we still had the gasoline engine working.  We slowed down a bit and kept on toward Santa Fe.  About ten or so miles out we got a “Failed generator” error message and the A/C cut off.  After that the car failed to accelerate or even downshift.  And then the brakes got spongy.  We basically limped into the hotel parking lot.

After consulting with dealers in both Washington and Albuquerque,  it sounds like the hybrid control unit has failed.  Dealers don’t normally stock them.  We’ll find out tomorrow if the local (well, 62 miles away) dealer can fix it by Monday.  They will take the car on a flatbed in the morning and bring us a loaner. 

Other than that, it was a nice day.  We had 420 miles to go and it went by pretty quickly.  We made short stops and good speed, once we got out of Colorado.

While in Boulder in the AM we found a great breakfast place, called the Buff, with excellent gluten free pancakes.  Overall we found Boulder to be (gluten free) Good Eats!

It’s hot in New Mexico but we are looking forward to seeing Taos, Los Alamos and Santa Fe.  It will be nice to have a few consecutive nights in one place!