So I’m back in California now and it’s about time that I recount the unbelievable adventure of my solo road trip.

I left Jessica’s place around 2:00 and climbed into my van with teary eyes. For the first leg of my journey I kept my mind busy by watching out for the right trailer tire that was looking like it wasn’t up for the trek. After about 20 minutes I decided that I couldn’t stare into my mirrors the entire way to California and I focused on the road. Shortly thereafter the tire blew.

Not the right trailer tire … the left trailer tire. I made my way to the side of the road … which happened to be near the beginning of some sort of bridge. Not really an overpass, but certainly not a bridge over anything that needed to be crossed. Just some random elevated freeway … with a thin shoulder.

I got out and surveyed the damage.

Note: This rim is on the freeway side of the vehicle.

After some phone calls with the boss affirming to him that it was not some sort of sick April Fools joke, I unhitched the trailer and drove to the next exit – a mere mile away. There I found a lady with a phone book and started looking for tire shops open on the weekend. The nearest I could find was a Discount Tire Co. that was in the next town … about 15-20 miles away. I planned to go back the the trailer, pick up the good tire and take it to the tire shop to match it up for a new one just like it.

I got back on the freeway in the other direction, and drove to the next exit to loop around and meet up with the trailer. The next exit wasn’t for 10 miles. By the time I got to the trailer to get the tire it was 4:30. I still had to take off the tire and drive 15-20 miles to the next town before the tire shop closed at 5:00. I narrowly made it.

The tire shop didn’t have my rim. They had a close match though, but it was a little wider. I thought back to the tire I had been watching so closely earlier in the day. “Yeah, I guess I’ve got a half inch to spare”. I got the rim and some heavier duty tires and made my way 15-20 miles back to the trailer, plus the 20 mile round trip to the next exit that would get me on
the right side of the freeway. Gotta love rural areas.

While dodging traffic that didn’t seem to notice the big van and trailer on the side of the road I put the tires back on the trailer. The tire didn’t fit. It rubbed the side of the trailer, and not just a little bit. As I was tightening down the tire to make sure, the sheriff pulled up behind me. “We’ve got to get you off this overpass before dark or you’ll get yourself killed.” I tried to explain to him that my tire was the wrong size and was rubbing the trailer, but he didn’t seem to care. He put on his lights and drove behind me as I traveled 5mph across the overpass that was about a quarter mile long.

Once we got back onto normal road I pulled off again. The sheriff made sure I was in contact with someone that could help (and really, how much help can someone in California be) and went on his way. I weighed my options and pulled out the spare tire.

Yes, there’s a spare tire for this trailer, but it’s a tire that’s already had it’s fair share of troubles. It’s a flimsy rim and it’s partner had already caved under less pressure than I was about to put on it. But it was thinner than the tire I had and I couldn’t risk ruining the new tire any more. I put on the spare, and it rubbed too.

But not as bad I drove it to the exit where I’d used the phone book before and pulled into the gas station. I called my boss, told him about the rubbing situation and told him I believed something must be wrong with the axle. At By now it was dark, late, and I was hungry. I climbed out of the van and started walking to the McDonalds attached to the convenience store. That’s when I realized I’d just locked my keys in the van.

I have experience with this – too much experience. I talked to the guy in the convenience store and he found me a coat hanger that I fashioned into a most useful hook. I knew the drill. It didn’t take long before I was back in the van with keys in hand. Then I ate. I even paid the Eat In fee (most places have them) just so that I could have a place to sit that didn’t remind me too much of my dire situation.

There was a motel down the road, just on the other side of the freeway. I climbed into the van a slowly drove the smoking tire down the street. I pulled in the parking lot of what I thought was the Executive Inn, but was actually the Dairy Queen. For some reason, businesses in Texas don’t like having parking lots that connect to one another so I looped around behind the Dairy Queen to head back to the road. While I was in back of the building, the spare tire blew. The lady running the drive through thought someone was trying to get her attention. I appreciated the humor of the situation. I slid into some of the back parking spaces and decided that’s where the trailer would sit for a while. No more dragging that thing round.

I got myself a room at the Executive Inn. It was … nice

Sunday I visited Shane’s family and watched some General Conference.

Monday began the chore of figuring out what to do about the trailer. I drove around all 6 blocks of Comfort, Texas looking for a wireless internet signal which would allow me to figure out my options. That and a few phone calls to California helped put together a plan.

The local UHaul dealer agreed to come out and look at the trailer. He said that if we unloaded the trailer of all that weight of the axle should spring back into workable position. We liked his diagnosis. We rented us a UHaul.

I had the rest of the day to kill. I took a nap down by the river. I found a rope swing and had myself a good time. I took pictures of the bulls. I looked at the historic buildings. I tried to find the High School and wondered if they truly did find a place to cram one into a 3 square mile town. I never found it, but the swear it’s there. Jessica came and visited me and I showed her around Comfort. It was a nice day.

Tuesday I slept in. I picked up some lunch from the self-proclaimed “oldest working soda fountain in the USA” and ate it down by the old rope swing.

Then I picked up Tom from the airport back in San Antonio. Together we took all the stuff out of the trailer and put it in the UHaul. It didn’t take very long and we were about to go get some ice cream at the dairy queen afterward, but I wanted to make sure that axle would work like the UHaul man said it would. It was still bent. The tire still rubbed.

We called a tow truck to come pick up the trailer and carry it to the UHaul man … who was also a mechanic. Gotta love small towns.

By this time it was late and he said it look at it in the morning. We had some dinner and Tom decided to get a head start on his journey. He drove off that night and I stayed for a fourth night at the Executive Inn.

Wednesday I returned the “too big” rim and found a small place that had the one I needed. I spent a few more hours killing time around comfort until the UHaul man was done bending my axle back into place. When I picked up the trailer I had barely any clearance between the tire and the side of the trailer. He had bent the axle all he could and then stuck some washers on
the bolts to put some more space between the tire and the trailer. It gave me about 2mm (those are millimeters … really small).

He said it would make it to California. At that point I didn’t care. I wanted to leave.

And so I left.

That afternoon I made it to El Paso, where all the Marriotts were full so I got myself a HoJo … big difference.

Thursday morning I timed the rest of my route. I left El Paso about 10:00 Central time and headed through New Mexico. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was coming right behind some major wind storms in New Mexico that had shut the freeways down. I can’t imagine how windy it must’ve been, because the wind that there was was enough to dive me crazy. I felt like the van was in low gear all the way from El Paso to Tucson.

I rolled into Tucson around 1:00 Arizona “we don’t do DST” Time (which was the same as Pacific time). I met up with my Aunt who gave me some boxes of clothes for my new nephew and directed me to the nearest In-N-Out.

The rest of my trip was rather uneventful. The windless drive was pleasant. The road were pretty clear, and none of my tires gave me any trouble. It was probably about 6:00 when I crossed the border into California and I had to chuckle to myself as I snuck that Washington-grown, Texas-bought apple through the produce checkpoint. He He He … I smelled citrus as I drove the next few miles, and for some reason really got a kick out of it.

As I got closer to the hills/mountains in front of me I had trouble finding the ones that looked like the hills I was used to. The signs were telling me I was getting closer and closer, but nothing really looked familiar. I came over one last hill just before Indio that seemed to drop me right into the valley about 10 mile from my house. There I was and all the hills and
mountains seemed to be where they should be.

I stayed the night with my parents and unloaded a bunch of my stuff. Friday I drove the van and trailer to the office and Downey and unloaded the UHaul that had pulled in a little earlier. Before long I was back in my low sitting car driving along the 60 back to the place I’d called home for so long. The engine wasn’t loud and it wasn’t nearly as temperamental as I’d
remembered.

It felt good to be finished with my whole trip and suddenly have nothing hanging over my head.

Now it’s almost like having come home from a mission again. Friends are around, but at different stages in their lives. Some people are gone, and some new people are here. No place where I spend the night is really my home, but it’s nice to know there’s a pillow for me in a few different locations.

I’m anxious to see what my next adventure will be.

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