I can't remember the last time I slept in the backseat of the truck, if ever, but I did it last night. The day started innocently enough with a hike around the neighborhood. I had spent the previous night at my parent's house since it was the beginning of Sarah's five day block and I couldn't leave to spend the first night on the sailboat because of a speaking engagement in family law. After almost everything I needed to do was done I cleaned up and packed up and got a ride to pick up my truck from the shop. I've been repairing the damage caused by the little accident I caused by hitting the rail in the Sentri line just before the US border entry a month or two ago at this point. My truck is pretty old with over 155,000 miles, so it does need maintenance also to keep it going safely, which I try to keep up on since I use this vehicle for long distance travel mostly. I was off to Nogales straight from the shop after paying the hefty bill. The ride to the border was pleasant and uneventful. I stopped at the Circle K in Nogales to top up the gas as usual, got a coffee inside, but when I got in my car to depart for Mexico it sounded like I was going over rumble strips on the pavement and the car drove with jerky motion. I knew something serious was wrong. I drove the car around the Circle K a few times and it was making all sorts of creaky horrible noises. An older man getting gas with his family came over to try and troubleshoot, but could not identify the problem. I called my mechanic in Tucson, who was less than helpful. So I went back to the same Pep Boys in Nogales that saved my ass the first time by replacing my tire on a Sunday afternoon. Same service leader, Ramon, helped me, and I reminded him of when he helped me the last time, and he remembered. He took a test drive and came back and basically told me I was f-ed. He thought it might be the differential. I asked if they could repair that or replace it in short order, and he replied it would take a week to get a differential in for my truck. He told me to wait while they brought in a proper mechanic. They did and that mechanic identified the problems in what appears to be an accurate manner. The main problem was the failure of the center drive shaft bearing which had been replaced and was brand new straight from the shop in Tucson. I asked them to box up that failed bearing so that I could bring it back for a refund of that part of the Tucson repairs. By the time they fixed everything, did a second alignment, and put it all back together, it was 7 o'clock at night. Those guys at Pep Boys, working hard for that hourly wage, saved my ass twice. I am grateful to all the unsung heroes like them. It was too late to go on and too late to go home, so I found an open restaurant, enjoyed a cocktail and some nice hearty Mexican food, my first food of the day, and drove to Walmart, where I was safe and welcome to spend the night sleeping in the back seat of my truck. It was warm and stuffy at first, then it got cool enough to be comfortable. I just barely fit in the back bench seat. Sometime in the middle of the night it got cold and I awoke all chilly willy for the first time in as long as I can remember. I fumbled around for the key and turned on the car electrics so that I could close the windows the rest of the way shut. Then I took the towels I had been laying my head on and made them a blanket over me in addition to adding long sleeve top. When I removed the towels from under my head, I was able to move into a position where i could lay down completely straight, just fitting into the given space. Breathing into my shirt to create a warm space, I fell back asleep. It wasn't a good sleep, but it was sleep. From about 1030 or 11 to almost 6, with a couple of short wakes in the middle of the night. It was no longer dark when I awoke but the sun had not yet risen. It was calm and empty and peaceful and clean. I gathered up my things and organized, drove back to the Circle K and topped up the tanks again, got another coffee, and headed across the border. The sun is now up and I am driving 60 miles an hour south in beautiful rolling country in a truck that is working fine so far.