Friday, June 26, 2015

A Series of Unfortunate Events -- Southern Utah style

 This is the front of my parent's truck.  It is a nice truck, it has been good to my dad...mostly...until recently.


Last week, we teamed up with my parents to head out on a trip to Southern Utah.  

My family had a great time.  
My parents, not so much.  A large part of that was thanks to this here truck.

While driving to from West Valley City to Tropic (about five hours) a warning light came on in the truck and only essential systems continued to function.  We arrived in Tropic late and the next morning my dad took the truck to nearby Panguitch to have it checked out.  The shop ordered the needed part and the next day we deposited my parents back in Panguitch so the part could be installed (they were stranded there all day and there really isn't a lot to do in that small town especially when you have to walk from place to place).  They spent the bulk of the day in the library only to then get a call that after the part was changed the truck spewed out dozens of error messages which confused the mechanic to no end.  He couldn't find the actual problem and several systems were reporting malfunctions.  He said the car needed to be towed to the dealer in Richfield (and, incidentally, he didn't even charge for his work because he had not fixed the issue...he was a pretty amazing guy).  

So, my parents hired a tow truck to take them to Richfield (nearly two hours away from us).  

Morning three of our "vacation" found them at the dealership where the mechanics began systematically plugging parts into the truck one at a time trying to find out what in the world was going on with it.  There was no obvious problem, but they knew something was very wrong because of the truck's behavior.

Finally, after hours of "is it this one?  nope.  is it this one? nope." they finally found a small circuit which had melted onto itself and was most assuredly the cause of the problem.  Because the wiring was ruined the readings from the truck had gone haywire causing all the "what the heck is wrong with this thing" headaches for everyone.

One more day of repairs and Huzzah! the truck was fully fixed and ready to roll.  Just in time to pack up and go home.

But while packing up my parent's pop up trailer, a mishap ended in the slides for the pull out beds being severely bent.  This one stumped our adult guys for a bit while they took things apart and eventually brute strengthed the slides back into their sheaths (the two beds on the ends of the trailer push back into the body of the trailer when packing up for travel).  It was not easy and not fun.  

But, of course, troubles always come in threes and this was only two so you know there is one more coming.

And, sure enough, as we rounded a bend just past Scipio, we watched from our Suburban as the tread flew acrobatically off the tire of my parent's trailer. 



Off to the side of the road we went.  Some of us more comfortable with that than others.


Come to find out that a metal brace underneath the trailer had come loose somehow and the bar had moseyed up until it was shoulder to shoulder with the wheel causing the tread to strip and the tire to flatten.

So, not only did they need to change the tire, but my two favorite guys also needed to remove that metal piece so as not to repeat the fun and go for four tragedies in one trip!


With a little bit of jimmy rigging (thanks, Mom, for the wire stripped from a spiral notebook to solve an issue) everything was back where it needed to be (or close) and we were on our way. 

And this was our vigilant view the rest of the drive home.  We stayed close and did not take our eyes off my parents the entire time.  We had a wonderful time, but I don't think this was their favorite trip ever.  Poor parents.


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