Day 103, Saturday, November 19, Evening, Ranch Motel, Salina Utah
A slight change of plans. But first, a few comments about the last few days...
That Defender breakdown yesterday was a close call in several respects....
First, it's a good thing it did not happen one day earlier when i camped in Berlin-ichthyosaur State Park. Not only was there no cell phone service and no one nearby for 48 miles, but the tow to Ely would have been more than 300 miles. I did have my satellite phone though. What good luck, huh? How lucky can a guy get.
Second, it's a good thing i had a spare ignition coil with me because if i had not, my trip home would have been delayed a few more days until one could be ordered.
I did learn a few lessons during these last few days, though. When given a choice between the tent or the Defender to sleep in, set up the tent. The discomfort for 30 minutes to set up camp is far less than the discomfort of sleeping in a 4x3 space for 10 hours,except when there are grizzlies in the area, as on the Alcan back in September.
Also, last night i stayed at a motel in Ely, mainly so i could be near the garage if something went wrong this morning. (Nothing did.) This is the first time I have done that on all my trips, my Whitehorse experience excepted. While i am sure I would do it again, it really doesn't save me the time i expected. In fact, it may take more time considering that the Defender has to be parked farther away.
While at Ely waiting for the Defender, my fellow traveller, Sarah, drove through on her way east and stopped by the garage for a few minutes. It was nice seeing a friend amidst the chaos of the situation. I suggested that she camp at Cave Lake State Park just up the hiway, a wonderful camp i stayed in in 2001 and 2013 with Leben and Erde. I would have stayed there myself the other night instead of Great Basin but the AAA camp book told me it was closed, although as i flew by there on my way to Great Basin, i did not see any Closed sign on the highway,but did not want to take the time and daylight to find out if indeed it was open. I wonder, though, what the scenario would have been for the breakdown had i stayed there. I dont want to think about it. What a great camp, though, it is. Sarah loved it and had the whole camp to herself. My God, what a brave woman she is. Then again, she is a bush pilot.
About today, and the slight change of plans.
Last night, as i mentioned, i decided to stay at the Ponderosa motel to be close to the garage just in case. Fortunately, the Defender started nicely, so we gassed up and move on. Or partially gassed up, I should say, because the credit card device at the pump was not working and so when i went inside to pay in advance, i pre-paid for $10 worth,figuring the 60 miles i drove since the last gas came to about $10 of gas.
Our destination for the day was Green River State Park in Utah, 103 miles from where we would get on I-70 in Salina Utah, and which would take us home. Camping at Green River would permit us to avoid camping near Denver, which would save us a day by putting us within reach of a little cabin i know of in Goodland Kansas.The drive today was more of the same splendid high desert landscape we had experienced the prior three days. It was like watching a video of sheer beauty for hours on end. Breaks were more to rest the eyes than anything else. The drive from one summit to the next at Great Basin was 39 mikes of almost straight road, straight and devoid of all human or vehicular life, and sheer, unadulterated beauty.
Eight some miles into the drive i passed a gas station with a sign that read, Next Gas 83 miles. I thiught about gassing up there but figured i could make the next gas station easily since i get 225 miles to the tank and had 4 gallons (60 miles ) of gas in my jerry can on the roof rack. Big mistake on my part bacause when i gassed up in Ely i did not account for the more than one hour of running the engine for heat at Great Basin camp (abiut 4 gallons of gas) and the leak in my new jerry can thst left me with only 2 gallons. So, in fact, i did not have 285 miles of gas at the start if the drive but 165 miles. I had to stop along the way and empty my remaining jerry can into my tank and when i finally made it to Delta i had about two miles worth of gas left after driving more than 163 miles on an empty road.
We stopped for walks for Donner a few times along the. The views were just too breathtaking to take-in flying by at 55 mph. I had a scare at one stop when the Defender stalled as I pulled back onto the hiway, but it started up right away. Close call, I thought, and moved on.
We finally made it to Salina, Utah, at 2;45, which would put us into Green River at about 4:30, just as the sun was setting, i hoped. Having traveled more than 250 major highways and biways on this trip, i felt that this particular road milestone, the last highway we would drive, needed its own picture, so i hopped out of the Defender, snapped the photo in the previous posting, sent it off to my blog, got back into the Defender, and started to drive toward the ramp to the highway that would take us home, 2130 miles and a few days away, i happily wrote.
You will simply not believe what happened next.
When I got back into the Defender the engine had turned off. I tried to start it and it wouldn’t start. I tried again and again, and it still wouldn’t start. I could not believe that it was happening again. Several passersby help me roll the Defender to the side of the road. One of them gave me the phone number of a garage just about two blocks away and so I called them. Within 15 minutes, Andy Costa, one of the team members at the garage, pulled up in his tow truck and pulled me down to his place. He quickly assessed that it was my fuel pump. The day before in Ely, David, the mechanic, told me that there was some bad readings coming from the fuel pump, so I was not surprised to hear what Andy told me. Andy said he could probably get a fuel pump delivered by Tuesday, and so I asked him if there was a camp nearby. In fact, there was, just down the street. Andy pulled the Defender down to the camp, but the proprietor said that the campground was closed. Not knowing how long I was going to be detained in Salina, Andy suggested a motel, the Ranch Motel, a few miles into the center of town. So, Andy hauled the Defender and Donner and me down to the Ranch Motel and we settled into a cozy room there again hoping to be on our way on Tuesday. Andy planned to come back on Monday and haul the Defender to his place.Day p
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