Adventures on the Road - September 2019

Happy Fall!

I recently spent two weeks in Ten Sleep, Wyoming for our 8 year anniversary with my husband, Chris, and friends. Here are some photos and stories from our trip!

Put up my first 12a and 12b climbs!!!

Had a moose in camp regularly, had a bear scratching at our back door to the van in the middle of the night when sleeping... yikes!

Resident camp moose!

AND then the van saga - a lesson to everyone, put fire extinguishers in cars! Maybe two for gasoline vehicles and 1 for diesel… here’s why! On the drive home, our van blew up driving down the highway.... ok we have a diesel so fortunately it didn't actually blow up because diesel burns much cooler. Had it been gasoline, Chris and I have no doubt the van would have completely burned to the ground and there would be a major fire on Highway 20 east of Bend. I called 3 different fire departments, AAA 3 times, Mercedes 3 times, and 911... I said, “we have a massive gas leak, the vehicle is smoking, gas is pouring out of the car, all over the ground, we are parked in the brush, and we have a fire extinguisher!” Bend Fire asked if anything else was on fire, when I said no, he said ok well I'll transfer you to Lakeview county because that is where you are, Lakeview said I'll transfer you to Harney county, Harney county said call back if anything else catches fire..... We found out that AAA won't tow with an active gas leak, State patrol was notified and never showed up. I called 911 and dispatch said, again, “I'll try and send someone out to clear the gas leak.... “ A very nice man from ODOT showed up 1.5 hours after the we pulled over, called all the above, and Chris had finished spraying the fuel pouring out of our car. He was the one that ended up getting us a tow truck - we literally hugged him, thanking him for his help..... Not one single fire department showed up, state police did not show up, and AAA apologized 2 hours later saying they could not get us a tow truck.

What I learned - please please please make sure you have, not one but TWO fire extinguishers in your vehicle and be fully prepared to deal on your own. Also, AAA is useless, but if they can not find anyone to help, they will reimburse you..or so they say. {Update: They actually do!}
When you are far from a town, 35 miles east of Brothers, so in the middle of Burns and Bend, you are stuck being in between multiple counties, no one really takes responsibility. Make sure you are prepared to help yourself. We are fine, the van, fortunately is fine, aside from having fuel everywhere.. Mercedes is towing it from our house to Eugene because the dealer here is not cleared to work on Sprinter vans. We are just happy that we got home 4 hours later, safe, and without a major incident. And all we could really do once we knew we were safe and ok sitting on the side of the highway was laugh! What else could we do....

AND it is Murphy’s Law that if I plan a vacation, I get insanely busy right before I leave. Fortunately this time, I was not having to have my husband drive me every day in to town to work, because I had my amazing new partner (who everyone loves), jump in and take care of everything. I checked in every couple of days to help, and make sure there were no fires needing to be put out. I like to stay engaged, and let clients know that I am still present, even if I don't have service for a couple of days! But could not be happier to have a trustworthy, hardworking, friendly, amazing partner who has a similar work ethic and style to my own!