The Excitement Never Ends

Actually excitement ends all the time in Ely, because there is never anything exciting to talk about. One evening, last summer, Brien and I were watching our grass get watered. What's the fun in that?!?

So the last exciting, heart pounding experience was when we were headed to Utah back on Wednesday, July 9th. We were about 62 miles north of town, about two miles past Lange's Junction. Brien is about to finish his tuna fish sandwich, driving by a soda cup, and suddenly there is a loud noise and the truck swerves on the road. We see some metal flying and Brien quickly guides the now-lopsided 4-runner to the shoulder. After asking if he's okay, I immediately open the door to hope out of the truck and see what in the world just happened. Brien's heart is still racing and he shouts at me to be careful, since we're on an incline. I walk around the truck and see that our front driver's side tire is shredded. The tread just peeled off and is back on the road a 100 yards behind us. The tread hit the side of the truck and dented the frame directly under the door. It also took off the trim around the the wheel and flipped up and broke the side-view mirror. Brien was feeling terrible. He said, "Now I know how my dad felt when the car would break down and your family is stranded." He just felt so responsible, even though it wasn't a big deal, we just needed to change the tire and put on the spare. Brien said that right before it happened he had been thinking, "If we get a flat tire, I have all the tools to change it." Now as he gathers his tools he finds he is missing a few things. About five cars drive by, but no one stopped. We didn't try to get anyone to stop, we thought we had everything we needed. This part of the road, from Lange's Junction to Wendover, is light on traffic. Normally we only cross paths with about five or six cars in the 50 minute drive. Brien decided to walk back to the junction, which is a gas station and a couple of trailers. Before he left he pulled a camping chair out of the back of the car for me to sit in and hold the baby. It was more comfortable than sitting in the lopsided truck. While I wait the occasional car passes. When car is heading the same way as Brien I hope that they see me and the baby, then see Brien and offer him a ride. No one picks him up though. After about 30 minutes of waiting a mine truck is headed north. He sees me and Zarina and quickly pulls over. He found out what happened, asked if the man he saw walking was my husband, and made sure the baby and I had water before he turns around to go pick up Brien. His vehicle was like a mini-garage. He was able to quickly help Brien change the tire. He felt bad that his air pressure machine wasn't working, so we would have to drive back to the gas station to add air to the tire. For the twenty minutes while they worked not a single vehicle drove by. As we got back in the truck and headed back we discussed whether we should continue to Utah or simply return to Ely. We weren't sure how good the rest of the tires were, they all needed to be replaced, and we were now scared that we might have a second blow out on the deserted road. In Ely the tires would likely have to be ordered in, so we would have to leave the truck at a shop. We took the truck so we would have room for the camping gear for the Park family camping trip. If we repacked in my car we wouldn't be able to bring things for camping. We would have to skip that part of the family togetherness. The more we talked the more I wanted to just go back to Ely and then drive out to Utah the next morning. I just didn't feel safe continuing the trip on the bad tires. Brien went back and forth, but finally decided that we would continue on to Utah, but just drive slowly, 55 mph, and hope the tires lasted. I felt nervous until we got to Wendover. I voiced my fears, but we kept heading north. After Wendover I finally felt fine and we continued, safely, to the in-laws house. The total time for the trip was seven hours. Before Zarina it took 3 hours 45 minutes, after the baby came it's been closer to 4 hours 30 minutes. It was 12:30am Utah time when we walked through the door.

Zarina woke up when we arrived. She slept from Wendover to West Jordan, so she didn't want to go back to sleep. We were up until 2:30am with the baby. Thursday morning we were originally going to drive over the the camping area, but instead we left the house at noon to get new tires on the truck. While it was getting fixed we borrowed my MIL's car so we could run the essential errands, like buying diapers. We only pack a day's worth of diapers and buy the rest at our destination.

The blow-out was one of those times that you feel the weight of being a parent all at once. You aren't worried about yourself, your concern is all for the little girl in the back seat. Brien's concern was that the car would roll if we swerved off the road, and that was a real possibility, especially with the steep drop off the shoulder. He said that he felt terrible leaving us by the truck and walking away. It made us feel grateful for the kindness of a stranger.