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| Not Black Beauty's Favorite Moment |
As we headed out of town a week ago Friday, we were excited for our upcoming events
and the huge unknown of what to expect with RABRAI (the 40th year of
this across-Iowa bike race). First
exciting stop: Boise for the Goldilocks
all-women bike ride. Setup was at
4 am the next day, so our plan was to get into town late afternoon and relax before the big
day. We had sunshine, country music blaring and a smooth ride until the power steering acted up at a rest stop. Note: Just minutes earlier, I had posted on
Facebook “Let the Adventure Begin…”
Much to my surprise, Stephanie pulled power steering fluid out of the
back, filled it up and we were on our way again. Much high-fiving ensued, as we were so proud that we solved
the truck issue just like that!
Unfortunately, our celebration was a bit too soon…the truck proceeded to
overheat, we pulled over, and ended up waiting for a tow truck for an
hour. We called numerous repair
shops in the greater area, but being Friday 5 pm, all were closing or already
closed. Stephanie and I put our
heads together and brainstormed every possible way out…but the real
“coincidences” happened when our tow truck driver arrived.
It turns out the normal driver had just quit, so Mike (the
owner of Guss Motors in LaGrande, OR) was taking over for the day. He kindly towed us (truck and trailer!) our Triple AAA
allotted 100 miles + the extra 50 to Caldwell, where we proceeded to park at
his brother’s Dodge dealer (what are the chances his brother owned the
dealership that we needed?!?) He
said we could stay there in the parking lot for the night. My friend Colin was luckily still
living in Boise for a few last days before relocating to business school, so he
happily volunteered to take us to the airport to get a rental car. Saturday morning Stephanie and I awoke
at 4 am to set up for the event, miraculously fitting all our skirts, tent and
event supplies into the rented sedan.
Dani put on a wonderful Goldilocks event (as usual!) and we were so
happy to be a part and meet such wonderful women. While we were working, the Dodge dealer couriered the needed
part and fixed the car before they closed at 3 pm…and we were on our way once
again!
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| A Better Moment |
Fast forward 4 days and we’re driving in 104 heat through
the South Dakota Badlands. We had
a wonderful morning at Wall Drug and enjoyed the gorgeous moon-like scenery of
the Badlands. The truck’s running
pretty hot, so we stop in Mitchell to get frozen yogurt (we figure if we cool
ourselves off with a treat, the truck will be happier too!) As we leave, the truck gauge gets up to
red and we immediately pull into an adjacent transmission shop. We don’t even know if they fix
trucks…but the employees were so incredibly helpful. They looked at the truck, found that our fan had JUST
broken, called for a part and had it fixed in about 15 minutes. Had we not stopped, we could have fried
the engine. Quick reaction time, Steph! Best part: we were freed up in time to see the
World’s Only Corn Palace before we continued on to Iowa!
Stay tuned for more adventures (but not truck mishaps, hopefully!)
Samara
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