One by one, I haul my bags down to the lobby in the tiny elevator. Then, I check out and head over to the garage for the car.
Back at the hotel, I load up and program the Garmin with the address of my campground in Villa Mercedes. Then I'm driving through the nearly deserted streets of Buenos Aires as the Garmin guides me out of downtown and onto the maor road heading west.
Europcar has supplied me a vehicle with a nearly empty tank so, just outside of downtown, I stop for gas...then I'm on my way again. The skies are bright and sunny...great travel weather!
After an hour or so, I'm free of the city and suburbs and driving on open road. I stop to check my position...I trust my Garmin, but as Ronald Reagan once said...”Trust, but verify”. I don't like the route that the Garmin has chosen...it looks like I'm going way out of my way north and then back south again. So...I get off of the major freeway and head south on a small road to Route 7 which will take me straight west to Villa Mercedes. This turns out to be a mistake. The small road down to Route 7 is REALLY small...80 kilometers/hour, lots of small towns (20 kph), slow trucks, etc. And then, Route 7 is only two lanes...it's 100 kph, but the trucks are slowing me down again. So...not the most comfortable drive (lots of passing of the trucks), but at least I'm headed in the right direction.
Not long after I get on Route 7, I go through a “wormhole”. I'm no longer in Argentina, but driving now in Iowa...flat and straight farmlands of corn, wheat, cattle and horses. It seems like I've also gone back in time as well...back to the late 70's...everybody is doing 55 mph. It's like this for hours on end...flat and straight with not so much as a hill.
After a few hours, I stop again for gas. There are several “chains” here in Argentina, and I pick a station called “YPF”. Attendants pump the gas here, so I say “Super” (which is mid-grade) and give the “thumbs up” sign for a fill up. I am momentarily distracted by a cute gal in a convertible. When I turn back, I am hit with a strong sense of something being “wrong”. I'm watching the guy put the nozzle into the car and start pumping. But he's got the nozzle with the green handle! He's putting DIESEL fuel into my gasoline-powered vehicle. I shout Pare! Pare! (Stop! Stop!) and No! No! (No! No!), but he manages to get three liters of diesel in my tank. The “manager” appears...he says something in Spanish that I don't understand...then he walks away and comes back with two bottles of what look like “gasoline treatment” or, maybe, “fuel injector cleaner”. He pours those in the tank and fills me up with Super +. It is OK, he says, no problema. I have often wondered about what would happen if you put diesel in a gas car (or vice-versa), but this is not the way I wanted to find out the answer to that question.
Still...the car starts right up...and off I go. As I start to get close to Villa Mercedes, I'm feeling pretty good because I have a “plan”. I will get to the campground around 6:00PM, set up my tent/mattress/sleeping bag, enjoy a cocktails, prepare something easy for dinner...maybe a campfire...get a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, all of this was not to be.
About 30 miles from Villa Mercedes, it starts to rain...really rain...like “buckets” of rain. I get to the campground, and it is a sea of mud...so camping is out. Plan B is a hotel, so I let the Garmin guide me to the closest one. That hotel, like every other one, is right in the middle of downtown Villa Mercedes. They are having a “festival” of some sort and, despite the rain, the downtown is packed with people. None of the hotels have parking, and there is not a parking spot to be had in all of downtown. I drive around for 45 minutes or so...hoping that something will open up. Nothing opens up, so I switch to Plan C...which is to get back to the main highway and find a motel “down the road”.
Although I did not really have a choice, Plan C turns out to be a monumental mistake. Because...”down the road”...there is nothing...absolutely nothing.
After an hour of driving, I realize that there won't be lodging until I get all the way to Mendoza...225 miles from Villa Mercedes. So...on I drive...through the rain. The “best” I can do is around 50 mph...sometimes I'm down to 40.
Around 9:00PM, the sun goes down, and I'm driving at night. The rain never lets up, and the last 100 miles, I'm driving 35-40 mph. Almost three hours to go a hundred miles. I'm dead tired, my muscles hurt, I'm hungry...thirsty.
I don't reach Mendoza until close to midnight. The Garmin guides me to the Hyatt Regency Mendoza. I park and head for the front desk...they have a room...I take it. They have a Casino with a bar and restaurant...I drop my carry-on in the room and head straight for the Casino. Soon, I'm relaxing with another double Jack Daniels on the rocks...then a bacon cheeseburger...fries...several glasses of Malbec.
Then, around 1:30AM, I'm back in the room. A comfy bed never felt so good. I switch off the light and, like it, I'm out immediately.
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