To Gila Bend

After driving from Flagstaff to Phoenix to pick up Conor from the airport, we stopped at an auto shop to replace the two tires on our trailer that weren’t functional (had a blowout north of Flagstaff and the spare was flat. But I learned how to reseal a bead on a tire using a gas station air pump!). Anyway, we had planned on making it to San Diego that night to camp close to the border and cross early in the morning. That did not happen. Just as we were merging onto I-8 at the southern tip of the town called Gila Bend (Pronounced: He-la Bend), our car (Sher-Khan, the ’99 forerunner) started revving really high and stopped shifting all together. We pulled over to the side of the road and checked what was going on up front. Turns out the transmission fluid was leaking all over and the radiator coolant was gone. Ouch! Our poor car. There was nothing we could do standing on the side of the road, so we called AAA and got ourselves a tow truck. Luckily, Gila Bend has a shop the works with AAA, so within an hour, we were back in town. The only bad part was the trailer had to be left on the side of the road…

Once in town at the auto shop, Ty determined the mechanic to be on the less-competent side of the spectrum so took of his sweatshirt and got to work. Conor and I walked down the way to see if we could find a hotel or some camping for the night. Turns out the Spaceship Hotel that we had seen on our way through was too overpriced for us so we decided on something else. At the northern end of town there was a Shell gas station that had camping spots for $20 a night. Score! Only problem was that our trailer was still stuck on the highway and we had no way to tow it. As we walked back towards the auto shop I had an idea that seemed absurd at the time. I got on my phone and searched for an LDS church nearby. Turned out, we were only 0.3 miles away from one! We walked over, got the number for the sister missionaries that was on the door and called them to see if they knew anyone in the area with a truck. Not too long after that we met Akram and Jessica D. They own the Gila Bend water and ice company that we had bought and been drinking all day! They kindly took us in a truck to our car to get the hitch then drove us out to the highway to rescue our camper trailer! Then we parked it in the Shell campground and went right to sleep. Ty woke up at six am the next morning, walked the 1.5 miles down to the car parked at the auto shop and replaced the radiator with one that he had ordered the night before. Then he drove down to come and get us and the trailer. Daaang right? The man sure has skills. We packed up, said goodbye to Gila Bend, and hoped to return one day to repay the favor that was given to us.