So we headed east on hwy 50. I knew I’d have a mountain or two to climb. I also thought there was a good chance I would run into some snow. What I hadn’t figured on was about to make itself known. There is a little town in Nevada called Austin. It sits on the side of a mountain, literally. I remember going up the main drag through town in a fairly steep climb. It was the middle of the night so I was not sure of the totality of the climb. Leaving town the road narrowed back to two lanes and then a sharp left and a very steep climb came right after. We all know how the mountain roads twist around and change elevation. As I was beginning to wonder if the mountain had a top to it I could see some stars low to the horizon on my right, looking east. I thought maybe that next curve would get me over the top. It would have right then except I heard a grinding noise, followed by a high pitched whine, and closed out with a loud clunking sound, all coming from my 15 turn-around transmission. The truck came to a pretty quick stop and I realized that this mountain was no place to be on a Friday night before a big snow storm knowing that every possible place that could help was closed and would not likely be open until Monday.
Like many of us do in a situation like that, I found God again. I am ashamed to say it but I should have been calling on Him all day, every day. So I prayed a good bit worried for my son and my family that would wonder what happened. All day I had no signal to speak of since I left I-80 in the morning. Sitting up there with the snow coming down, at 11pm or so, I picked up a faint signal that came and went on my phone. I decided to start calling around by first using information to get numbers of big truck dealers. Dealers generally have a 24 hr road service that can get you going. Even though I just knew I would not be going, I gave it a try. I actually talked to a couple dealer service people but no one could do anything about me because all the big tow trucks were already out due to the storm and it would be at least morning. I kept praying as an hour passed making calls. Then I manage to get in touch with an outfit that could come get me and a place that would work on the truck too. When I added up the total cost of getting towed and rebuilding the transmission I was looking at a minimum of $9,000. That is nuts! My heart sank deep down. Another hour passed by. I just laid it in God’s lap as best I could. Then I felt He wanted me to try the transmission again. So as I already done many times, I moved the five position stick into each gear and finally the 4th position engaged! Then I thought about the three ranges of low, medium, and high for a total of 15 speeds. So if it works in fourth low, then it might work in mid and high. Scared to take it out of gear once I got it in, I eased off the clutch. Slowly the truck started shaking around having a hard time getting going on the steep incline with a heavy load and a bad gear to start out with, but IT WORKED. OMG I teared up a bit thanking God for this little miracle. With about 2,000 miles to go I figured if He willed me to go in the 5mph gear all the way I would. I topped the mountain and started off the other side crawling along slow as anything. On the way down I passed a couple wrecks on the twisted two lane covered in ice and snow. From there, the snow just got worse for hundreds of miles. Right before I got to the bottom of the mountain I decided to try going to mid range and that worked. As I gained up to about 15mph I decided to go into high and it worked too. I hit the little straight away going 65mph! I was so thankful that this happened. It meant that if I could keep going that I might get back to the land of milk and honey in a couple days! It wasn’t long that I could go so fast. The next mountain to climb was a few miles off and I would repeat getting into low and going back to high at the bottom of the other side many times.
Eventually I got to the town of Ely NV, pronounced e-lee, with snow everywhere and a little truck stop with food and showers. I was extremely tired but didn’t care. We had to get cleaned up and get something to eat first. After that I slept real good for a few hours. All of these things went on throughout the night an my son was almost clueless that there was any trouble. It is amazing how much children believe in their dads and we just take it for granted.
I will start from here in the next post, hopefully in a few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment