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A Rough Trip Home
The day before the Ugly Otter's 75th birthday, May 22nd to be exact, Beautiful Wife and I were on a buying trip. The day started out for us in Albuquerque where we had spent the night. We left at about 6:00 AM for Gallup, NM, and the Reservations for a routine buying trip. It rained, the wind blew, and there were hints of snow on the windshield from time-to-time on the way to Gallup, which is about a two hour drive west of Albuquerque and across the continental divide (for those not familiar with the route).
We arrived safely and proceeded to shop, buy, bargain, and hunt unusual and worthy items for our web site. We did our routine buying for several hours, and around 3:00 P.M., decided it was time to head for home, which was about 6 to 7 hours away, depending on weather, traffic, and other factors.
Everything went according to plan, but when we arrived in Snowflake, AZ, it lived up to it's name - there were definitely snowflakes coming down. We went about 25 miles further into the town of Show Low, AZ, and the visibility was about 100 feet, large flakes were coming down, and it was a real, live, snowstorm. They got 12" of snow there that evening we heard later. Remember, this is May 22nd! We debated on if we should stop for the night in Show Low, or continue on home. We had been gone a week, and were anxious to get home, so we decided to proceed. Being wise beyond my years, I reasoned that we would drop down in altitude after leaving Show Low, and the snow would turn into rain.
The snow did, in fact, turn into rain. A combination of rain and ice, freezing rain, and scattered snowflakes. So far, so good. When we reached the Salt River Canyon, and started our decent into the canyon, it was mainly cold rain, but coming down hard. (for photos of this canyon in better weather, see the story #5) There were basketball sized rocks coming off the canyon walls onto the road, and we had to dodge them. As we were going around the hairpin curves dropping down into the canyon, the vehicle felt kinda unstable, and I blamed it on slick roads and the fact we were dodging rocks. Nope, it was not slick roads.
After reaching the bottom, and as we started up the other side, we heard a hair-raising rumble at the back end of the car, and looking out, we saw steam (or smoke) coming off the drivers side rear tire. No safe place to stop until we got to the next hairpin curve, and we pulled out onto a paved spot where we would be out of traffic. You guessed it. We had a flat tire on the back of this loaded down vehicle.
Now the Salt River Canyon is out of range for cell phones. There is no cell service for 40 miles or so either side of the canyon. So, there was no such thing as calling AAA, or calling for help from anyone. Fact was, we were stranded in the middle of a rain/snow storm, at the bottom of a canyon, out of touch with anyone for help, with a cargo of many thousands of dollars worth of silver jewelry, and it was approaching dark! A very unsettled feeling started to form in the back of our minds. Were we really in trouble?
It was still barely daylight, but we had never had to put a spare tire on this vehicle. So, we read the instructions, found the jack, the spare, etc. and went to work. Now we find that the cable that holds the spare tire up under the vehicle is "frayed" and will not let the tire drop down. Ol' Ugly was laying on his back, under the vehicle, laying in rain water, wrestling with a spare that he could hardly lift. Beautiful Wife was trying to help, and we both got soaking wet. Wet to the skin with ice cold rain. Talk about looking like two drowned rats! We fit the description. About 15 minutes of wrestling with that spare tire, we finally got it off the cable and dragged out from under the vehicle. We were standing there wondering what was going to happen next.
What happened next was two young men, early 20's, came around the hairpin curve, saw us, and wheeled in next to our vehicle. They asked if we needed help. Obviously we did. They were just being polite. We welcomed them with open arms, and I'm sure they could see the relief on both our faces. So, they, in the rain, proceeded to take over the job and got soaking wet along with us.
About this time an Arizona Highway Patrol pulled in behind their car, and made sure everything was alright. He told us he was going back and forth thru the canyon trying to keep the rocks off the road. They were falling off the steep walls, and were everywhere on the road. The Highway Patrol stayed with us until the two young men finished changing our tire, and we were soon ready to travel again. With a friendly warning to watch for fallen rocks, the Highway Patrol left, and the two young men helped us load the spare into the back of the vehicle before they, too, left.
We re-started our trip home with about three hours left to go. We had the heater turned all the way up trying to get warm and dry out. As cold and soaked as we were, we were very thankful for our rescue. We did not even catch cold! We got home about 10:00 P.M., and after a hot shower we fell into a warm bed and slept for about 10 hours. What a trip. Who said there are no angels? Yes, they do exist. That evening we saw two (or maybe three) of them!
End of story.
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