Solar Eclipse

The bull greeted us this morning. He was up early for the continental breakfast of sweetgrass and complaint around the truck. A bit cranky in the early morning hour, he huffed and snorted. Perhaps he was mad that we hogged the bed last night.

The night before, we had stuffed most of camp back into the truck with the looming storm taunting us, so in the morning we decided to just roll out. We quickly tucked the down tent and held off making coffee or breakfast until we arrived at the next location. Little did we know, it would be another four hours before our first cup of joe.

The day the moon eclipsed the sun and our truck tried to kill us

Driving back down the mountain, we cruised along at a slow pace, enjoying the cool morning and carefully taking the road. Inching down a rocky precipitous road, the truck slowly slipped to a stop. Then, the left rear tire raced past us and down the hill. We watched as an integral member of our crew jilted us, rolling away.

We watched it race past us and down the hill.

“That’s our tire,” Rex said.

Silence.

“The spare?”

“Nope.”

Runaway Tire

The moment stretched into slow motion. Stunned and silent, we watched the tire continue down the hill, waiting to see what it would do next. Would it continue down the mountain with or without us? Or would it decide to jump off the steeper grade just around the bend, done with its life of a tire, and take the final lunge off the cliff? Luckily a large rock on the side of the road blocked and stopped its joyride.

Snapped back into reality, we got out and assessed the situation.

If I had been by myself, pretty good chances I would’ve sat stunned for five minutes followed by at least five minutes of crying. We hadn’t seen another vehicle or human since we started on the road yesterday afternoon, and cell service was non-existent.

But Rex saved the day. He threw on his superhero cape and got to work.

Rex reminds me of my older brother–naturally curious with an inclination to learn about everything and driven to try new things. And usually, they excel the first time they try something or at least impart tidbits of useful knowledge.

While Rex gathered tools to put the tire back on, I unloaded the truck of a few heavy items. Next, he walked down to lift the fallen tire and walked it back to the truck.

I was tasked with walking further up the road toward the top of the grade in search of the fallen lug nuts.

I found all five lug nuts not far from the scene of the crime. This reeked of foul play.

Involuntary Manslaughter

A week prior to our departure, we paid a repair shop in Ogden, Utah to replace the shocks on all four tires. But we didn’t realize they would throw in negligence for free.

A few days after the near-death incident, we took the truck to a local shop in Moab. The manager offered an official letter of opinion stating that a possible reason the tire jumped ship was that the last place that serviced the truck did not tork the lug nuts.

Luckily it happened where we were and not down the road a bit, where the truck, escaped tire, Rex and I could’ve easily slid off the steep mountain grade cliff.

And luckily Rex has both brains and bronze, like most superheroes. He managed to pound the wheel back in place with our rubber mallet used for tapping stakes into the ground, to jack-up the truck, to dig a space in the rocky road for the tire, and to secure it back on the truck.

“Gotta keep all the wheels on this bus,” Rex said.

Solar Eclipse 2017

The next big event of the day was much more enjoyable but equally surreal. As the sunlight diffused and temperatures cooled, we watched the landscape colors become saturated and heighten by a different hue. In the brief moment, Rex and I felt connected to the larger universe that holds our tiny lives.