i sure wish that i could say the title was some kind of code, or at least morse code...but soon the story will unfold...
up until driving to boise, i was sure that my favorite stretch of highway was ca 20 along clear lake. but it is not until you see the evergreens change to scrub and the mountains to desert that driving a distance can be said to be bliss. oregon highway 97, as it swerves and curls, is desolite and pristine. untouched, yet ravaged by a transportation by-way. i got to race an eighteen wheeler around 45 mile an hour turns and drive off into the sunset. golden colors, ambers, and ochres. boise itself i will revisit later, but here now comes the juice of the tail. or the wag of the fruit. [ get it? juice of the fruit, wag of the tail switch...? anywho. ]
car trouble story:
i just so happened to post a facebook status about visiting denver, when a colorado springs friend said i could have a place to stay if needed. we set up the plan and i left boise, idaho friday morning with destination colorado in mind. at just about the idaho/utah border, i was running pretty low on gas, so i pull of to an advertized station. come to find unleaded $3.70 a gallon, which has to be prepaid for, but he cashier [ most likely owner ] just left and wouldn't be back for 10 minutes. with a quarter tank, i decide to head down the road for the next gas in 22 miles. however with strong headwinds and traveling at 75mph...tank dial turns south fast. i start to draft [ ironically ] a pilot car not in use from iowa. at station, fill up, and head towards colorado through salt lake. make a couple of stops, notice a small amount of shaking, but just say ' must of been really low on gas. but it's full now. ' it's at 4pm when turning off of I-15 onto ut 97 to see some stalagtites and mites...sputtering is out of control. pull over and use the phone a friend for this contest. phone diagnosis is a fuel filter problem. they dial up an auto shop and i head over...stalling in the middle of a very busy intersection in the process.
get to shop with the good ol' neutral jump start action and they say that they don't have the proper tools to fix it but set me up with a mechanic in the morning just down the street, it being five o'clock closing time and all. now it's an eight hour drive from salt lake to boulder and my saturday wedding is at 4.30. leaving me not enough time. luckily in letting colorado springs know that i won't make it for the night, they also phone a friend [ in salt lake ], to come change my filter. just a mile down the street is a parts store, so i'm off for the part...only to again stall. after getting pushed into a bank parking lot, i walk across the street to get the part and wait for the friend. he shows up, lickity split, presto-chango, gets the parts swapped. it starts up like a dream, but we still head over the parts store because the ' check engine ' light is on. it then proceeds to die in the part store's lot, again.
we grab the code reader and it shoots out 'P0130 ', or in english ' cam shaft position sensor ' [ not that is any more like english to me ]. now let me reiterate, that it is about 7.30 on a friday night and all things are getting near closing, but then also throw in the fact that it's salt lake. ya. so we dial a nissan dealership, they have the part in stock, but close at 8. we'll be there at 8.05. they take payment over the phone and we bolt over, pick up the part, think that it's kinda cheap in price, but like the idea that we are almost done. utah friend calls a more knowledgable nissan mechanic and learns that the cam sensor is built into the distributor...foiled with the wrong part and the dealership is closer. we had back to the parts store to see if they have the part and can save the night.
as luck would have it, they do, and it seems to be an easy fix [ minus the fading daylight ]. filter changed, distributor change, other part [ crank shaft position sensor ] in the glove box...9.30pm and it's time to finally leave for colorado. with an all nighter ahead of me, i grab a subway foot long, bag of chips, and a rootbeer to get me through. do some moonlight, experimental shutter timing, photography to keep me awake and i make it to the colorado border in no time. take the required ' welcome to ' pic, throw myself back in the car and drive on. pushing three, maybe four in the moring and having only two hours left to drive, i decide it's time to take some naps. get up when its daylight out and see some of the things on my list before the wedding.
saturday morning, up and adam, looking around, and i'm headed up a steep grade to st. mary's glacier about 31 miles west of denver when corey, the gosh dang car, stalls again. 9.30 in the morning and i fall back into melt down mode, call dave, call colorado springs friends, think ' what the heck?! '. have a lovely couple help me jump start and follow me a bit down the hill to a garage in idaho springs, colorado. with the contacts of c.s. [ colorado springs friends ], they tell me that if i can get it to a friends garage in parker, co...they'll come over and do a complete once over on it. that's about 60 miles. i'll see what i can do. start it up and get coasting down I 70e. however, upon greeting any amount of uphill, engine revving trial, i'll stall again. i've now become a master at throwing it into neutral, hazards on, with standing the vibrating bumping of the ' do not fall asleep ' safety shoulder stripes, to start it up again just before it stops. i'm able to move for about 35 of the treturous 60 miles, till there is just no hope.
parker friend [ p.f. ] meets me at the death site where we wait for a tow truck. i'd probably guess that we are pushing about 1pm...1.30pm by the time we get ready to tow, thus 2p by the time we're to parker. get it off the truck and wait for the c.s. to swing by. p.f. lets me clean up, grab some aqua, and but a little food in the ol' belly. now there's the matter of getting to the wedding, corey is just out of my hands at this point. c.s. says i can borrow a car, but with them cleaning up a yard sale and not headed to parker until 3, i won't even start to drive until 5. :(
then the clouds part [ though it was actually a really sunny, warm day in colorado. sitting in a non-air conditioned car on the side of the road, plus with the adrenaline running and the skin temp a little flush ] and ah-ha! my old roommate from college just happens to be in colorado for an externship and we are supposed to meet up the following day [ sunday ]! she says, ' oh ya, you can borrow my rental for the night. you just have to get a ride to it because i'm out on call for the afternoon. ' so p.f. drops me off at the car around 3.30p, i get to boulder at 4.27p with three minutes to spare...
the rest of the weekend will follow in another post, but lets just take a moment to think about the fact that if i hadn't of made that post; that if my friend hadn't of read it or offered a place; if we hadn't of made plans; if in salt lake, i'd gotten stranded on a saturday, or if c.s. hadn't of know someone there; if the parts stores would of all been closed; or when i was driving all night long; stopping and starting; or if i hadn't of come across the kind couple; or if p.f. wasn't on the west side of denver; or my roommate just happening to be there... [ and i'm sure that there are more ifs to put in there ], but what if?
i am forever thankful to each and everyone involved. and want to strive to forever be helpful to anyone in need. to be where i am, where ever that may be, and let that be the exact time that i'm needed. and to corey...i don't like losing trust in you, but thank you for getting sick in major cities, during the day. and for driving all night long to keep me safe when you really needed some attention of your own. it's been been six days with out a hitch and he seems to be all buttoned up.
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