Estrella: The Ride Home and Excitements Thereof

As is becoming my usual practice, I decided to take the slightly-longer way home from Estrella. This year, I decided I’d take the side road up through Sedona (instead of heading straight for Flagstaff), and then see what I could find to do in the general Flagstaff area.

It was a beautiful day, and I had the window down a little bit and Loiosh on my lap. I should have known that it couldn’t last, but I’ll get to that…

I got a couple slightly better pictures of the flat, desert-ey part of Arizona, though I still didn’t really get a good cactus picture. I love the awesome tree in this one:

Here’s a view of the mountains from the same spot:

The drive through Phoenix was fine — it’s a city, yeah, but traffic was light — and then I started heading uphill. Took a side road towards Sedona which took me up through the Prescott National Forest — gorgeous! It was getting towards sunset so I didn’t stop at all, but it was simply beautiful.

…until I hit a rock going around a turn on the switchbacks coming down the mountain into Sedona, and blew my right front tire and rim.

I offer an excuse for my distraction:

…cos that’s what I was driving down into.

It was still pretty awful, though. There was no cell reception, and I would have had to unpack basically my entire car (including the roof) to get to my spare. So I grabbed keys, wallet, cell phone, and the cat, and did what any red-blooded American (or, well, most anyone in the same situation) would do: Stuck out a thumb. Shortly thereafter I arrived in the small and beautiful town of Jerome, Arizona, thanks to a kind couple visiting from Germany.

Where I found that AAA really, really thought I should have stayed with my car. Despite the whole ‘no cell reception’ thing. In any case, they told me that they could only go to my car, and couldn’t come to get me, only two miles away.

I gently explained that I knew nobody in the entire state to get a ride from, that while my car was only two miles away, it was up a windy mountain road just before sunset, and that I had no plans to attempt the walk and probably get myself killed in the process. After several repetitions of this (interspersed with ‘but can’t you just call a friend?’) I finally got the lady on the phone to agree to ask the local tow truck driver if he’d be willing to pick me up. And, after a brief delay, was assured that he was.

Fast forward two hours. It’s dark. Jerome has entirely shut down. I’m sitting on the side of the road, shivering, with my cat, who’s getting quite bored. (I didn’t even mention Loiosh to AAA, on the theory that it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.) No truck. No truck. There’s the truck! Which drives right past.

…fifteen minutes later I get a call, explaining that the truck has found my car, but where am I?

So I go through the whole song-and-dance again, this time in a lovely three-way with the AAA rep and the dispatcher from the local towing company. Yes, I’m in Jerome. No, I can’t just get a ride to my car. No, I am NOT walking (the local dispatcher was in firm agreement on this point). The dispatcher proposes that the tow truck driver just come and pick me up, and while the AAA lady isn’t real keen on the idea, she agrees.

(I still don’t know what AAA expects one to do when one breaks down outside of cell range…)

So the tow truck guy shows up. Says not a word about Loiosh, other than ‘looks just like my Bob, only half the size’. Turns the heat in the cab way up because I’m shivering, offers me a bottle of water. We chat about Jerome, about the valley I was driving towards, about the vagaries of running a small business. Since I’ll need a place to stay the night, he takes me to a repair place that’s within half a mile of a hotel, drops off the car, and then drives me and Loiosh to the hotel.

I wish I remembered his name. I did call AAA back to put in a VERY good word.

The car was repaired (at a very reasonable price — they found me a used rim and tire, which saved me a BUNCH of money) and I was on the road again right on noon. I think I used up about ten years’ worth of good karma, but wow, could things have been worse.

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