14th April 2015 – Tula to Zacatecas

The heavy rain that we had last night has stopped and its a lovely morning.ÿ All the roads around the hotel we’re staying in were flooded.ÿ Blue B needs a push to get going as the starter motor isn’t working. Zacatecas isn’t a very big city so it doesn’t take us long to get through town, dodging the traffic and cows in utes.Today we have a 527 kilometer drive to Zacatecas on a motorway which is a 3 lane toll road with a good surface so we make good time. We do however make a wrong turn trying to bypass a rather large city and the group get divided in two, we eventually come together again about 40 kilometers up the road. This diversion cost us about 30 minutes in travel time, but these things happen. Casper has an intermittent electrical problem and sometimes just stops, but then it goes again, one of those MG gremlins. However this afternoon the ignition light came on and the car stopped and wouldn’t restart and it’s raining. Fortunately we pulled up at a tyre place and a service station that has no power, so it’s closed, which means there is plenty of parking undercover next to the pumps. Casper has had a generator problem on and off the whole trip and the battery hasn’t always been charging, so it’s decided that Casper needs a new battery.Red car & Shiraz stay with Casper and the other cars continue on to our hotel which is only about an hour away. One of the workers from the tyre place takes Casper’s battery and buys a new one, which is promptly fitted, however the ignition light is still on. It is now 7:30 pm so the guys decide to drive to the hotel and look at the problem there. We manage to get into the town where the hotel is without Casper needing to put on lights. The last 45 minutes of the drive into Zacatecas is the best part of the day as the scenery changes to dramatic rock formations that are silhouetted against the setting sun. There are massive yukkas that have beautiful white cascading flowers along the roadside. After dinner Michael & George run some diagnostics on the generator and it’s dead. Fortunately George has a spare generator so they swap it over, but the ignition light is still on. Michael decides to swap the regulator over and it works, so Casper will be good to go tomorrow. I think secretly Cherie was hoping they’d need to stay at the hotel tomorrow while Casper went to an auto electrician, as we are in the most beautiful hotel which has been built around an old bull fighting ring.