in the middle of the state the ranches got larger.
i passed through pierre, which is the state capital and continued on into the vast openness.
about 40 miles from pierre and still less than half the distance to the next 'town', i heard a strange loud clicking sound near my front right tire as i applied the breaks to take a turn. i pulled over to investigate the problem. i couldn't determine exactly what it was or what was causing it, but i knew it didn't sound good. i asked a guy in a camper that was on the side of the road if he recognized the sound, but he had no idea. i slowly drove to the nearest house to ask for help or use a phone, but they either ignored me or didn't hear me knocking. they had a cute cat in the window. there were hundreds of grass hopers in the yard. then i noticed a police car about to pass and tried to get his attention but failed.
by this point i was already considering the potential of my trip being significantly altered depending on what the problem was. i slowly drove back 5 miles to the only named location marked on the map. i could count the buildings there with my fingers. some guy named steve emerged from a building and he tried to help me assess what was wrong. reaching under the van he felt to his contentment that the strut and chassis seemed in tact, but didn't know what the sound was from. i drove the rest of the 35 miles back to pierre to find a mechanic. it took almost an hour because i was trying to go slow... this grass hopper hung on the windshield for most of the ride.
it was saturday and almost 3:30pm. would i find any shops open or have to wait there until monday? this place was open!
they kindly test drove my van and took a look at it even though they were trying to finish up the day which had already been hectic for them. they determined it was a wheel bearing issue and offered to replace the hub bearing assembly right then. i was happy that they were willing and able to fix it for me. they also rotated my tires for me.
their saturday closing hours were basically "asap."
too bad i had to put money into parts that were supposedly legit a few months before. : ( at least i was on my way! on toward the badlands!
yikes Jeremy! Glad to see you were able to make it safely to a repair shop and in time too! I recently had my own bout of car trouble back in June when I was traveling to Florida. I had driven from here in Ohio to Nashville, then on to Ocala, Florida, then to Ormond-by-the-Sea, Fl, and I was on my way to Orlando to visit with my cousin and her family. I was about 30 miles east of Orlando driving on rt.4 when I heard a humming or buzzing noise coming from below my car every time I hit a bump or drove over a dip. I was only 30 miles away from my cousin, so I said a quick prayer to get me safely to my destination. I also noticed that my gas gauge seemed to be dropping quicker then usual. So I drove on for 20 more miles with the same sound and when I had to switch highways and begin on a toll road, I had to roll down my window to pay. And then I heard metal scraping against pavement and I was like oh, well that can't be good. So I asked the like 95-year old toll booth lady if I could pull over into their parking lot to check my car. And low and behold the straps holding up my gas tank had both snapped and my gas tank was held up only by my exhaust line (which I found out later from the mechanic). I was extremely lucky or shall I say blessed that I didn't lose my entire gas tank! God delivered me safely to my destination that day, but definitely not how I was expecting! I would honestly say that whole situation God was completely looking over me, because it happened in a city where I had family (only 10 miles from my cousin's), I was able to pull over in a parking lot rather than on the side of the highway, my cousin had a friend who was a mechanic and that same mechanic was a completely awesome person because he slashed my bill in half for me! Plus because it took so long to get the parts for my car I got to visit my cousin, aunt, and uncle for almost a week :o)
ReplyDeleteMay God bless the rest of your travel westward!
P.S. That was realllly long! haha
that's a great story. i'm sure that you are one of only a very few people who've experience dropping your gas tank while driving! amazing how it worked out there. yeah, i'm pretty sure god's care was evident in that situation : )
ReplyDelete