Road Trip ’05: Stage 3

LONE PINE, Calif., July 5 — Today started as a great day. It had clear weather, I was up and loaded by 6 a.m. Light traffic headed out of the Valley of the Sun, and good speed. It started as a great day.

I made a small driving error — missed an exit by a quarter-mile — and actually took a 10-minute detour in Redlands, Calif., when it turns out I could have been back on the right road with just about a mile and a half of surface-street travel. I knew my toughest navigation would be around San Bernadino, Calif., and I was right.

Then I had a couple delays. I stopped for lunch and a restroom break near Hesperia, Calif., just as I turned onto U.S. 395. I did not know how far it would be between services available, and I was a bit ahead of schedule, I thought. That did not last long as it took 20 minutes to get in and out of the pit stop. However, I continued excellent travel across the desert, noting that the trip was progressing well and that my car was in good condition.

Then I decided to stop to use a rest area, knowing I could not make it to the next town of size, Bishop, some 90 miles away. Just a few miles down the road, I joined dozens of other cars stopped on the highway. Advancing a few feet every few minutes, I saw that a tractor-trailer truck had overturned and that a SUV or mini-van was crashed along the opposite side of the road. As I say on the highway, I noticed the temperature gauge of my car had moved dangerously close to the “hot zone” and I began to worry. I shut off all accessories and shut off the engine. Big mistake. If the engine was not already cooked when I stopped at the rest area, turning it off when the car was stopped on the hot pavement and not moving to create a breeze probably did the damage. A couple frantic phone calls with my dad did not comfort me.

I approached a California Highway Patrol officer, who was nice to connect me with the tow truck operator who was just about to leave the scene and come back later with different equipment. The operator drove over and hooked up my car and towed me the 22 miles to a nice small town of Lone Pine.

After first declaring that I absolutely would not get any help until tomorrow — all the garage crew was out at the crash to the south — the garage manager started to help me and to identify if the car would need repairs or just some water and coolant. We looked at the car and added some water and coolant. I took it out for a short drive, and returned worried when the temperature gauge did not move at all from the cold position.

So here I am, in the Don Villa motel along U.S. 395, about 261 miles short of Reno. It’s a decent and reasonably priced place with cable TV, air conditioning and a 24-hour pool. Up and down the main street Western-themed restaurants and sporting goods stores declare their wares for sale.

I’ll know by about 10 a.m. the status of my car repairs. At this point, I hope to be able to make it to Reno by late afternoon or evening and then continue home to Wenatchee Thursday.

-- Posted from Reno, July 8