going all out!

A long time ago, my brother jake called me into his room. When I walked in, he pointed to a new poster he had on the wall. This poster was a map of all the major ski resorts in the united states, and it had informations about each resort. As he was pointing to the map he looked at me and said “so what do you think?” I told him it was a cool looking map, to which he replied “ we should try and ski as many of these as possible (by ski I mean snowboard). I looked closer at the map and started to list off all the ones I had already been to, which was a small number when compared to how many were on the map. We both decided that would be a pretty sweet thing to attempt.

Now fast forward a couple years. At the time, my brother was living in las vegas, and I was living in southern california. He calls me up one day and tells me that he has a plan. He knows that I am coming up to visit in the near future, and pitches the idea to me that when I am up there, we should hop in his car early one morning and drive to the Elk meadows resort in utah. we can snowboard all day, and then drive back that night. Plus he gets an awesome student discount there! Since I am never one to turn down adventure, I tell him that I am in. over the next couple weeks he finds out all the important info, like how to get there (this was before the days of everyone owning gps and navigation systems) and how much it will cost. We got up early on the morning we had planned to leave, and loaded up our snowboards, some fat kid snacks, and also some snow chains just in case the roads were bad, and then we were on our way in the smooth blue 84 volvo. Now this car was a typical “first car”. Seems like we worked on that car all the time and by work on I mean search all over the county to find almost non existent parts that were over priced. There was almost always something wrong with it whether it was the constant oil leak, or broken sensors or pcv needing replaced. My brother used to joke that the only way to fix everything on his car was to just turn the radio up till you couldnt hear any of the noises. All in all a good car to learn that cars are lots of work. So there we are making good time flying down the road, jake behind the wheel, and me leaning over making sure to keep the wires hot wired together. ( another one of the peculiarities of this car was the overdrive would not stay in gear unless someone physically held the wires coming out of the center of the stick shift together. This became the passengers most important job when on the highway) we made great time getting to utah, and soon began our ascent up the windy mountain roads to the resort. The roads were clear, so we were doing about thiry five miles an hour around the switchbacks, when all of a sudden we lost traction and began to slide. The car suddenly learched forward once the rear wheels cleared the black ice, only we were no longer facing the same direction that the road went. We shot forward into the giant snow burm on the side of the road. Upon impact we didnt stop, but rather were launched up and almost completely over it. Snow came flying over the windshield so that neither of us could see, while all our stuff in the back seat came flying forward. When we finaly came to a stop, the car was no longer in the upright position on the wheels. It was not completely on its side, but pretty darn close. My brother opened his door till it hit the ground and then sorta fell out of the car. I pushed me door open and then held it in place so it would not come crashing back down on me as I attempted to exit the car like I was leaving thru a hatch in a submarine. As soon as I stepped off the car into the snow I sank up to my thighs. I made my way back to the road where both of us stood staring at the car in disbelief, jake just smiling away the whole time. Our first reaction was the typical “holy crap I cant believe that just happened!” and was shortly followed by, I hope this doesnt ruin our trip. After a few moments we both begin trying to figure out how we are gonna get the car back to the road. We grab the chains out of the trunk and begin putting them on, only to discover that since the back right tire is in the air, it spins while the other one remains motionless. We figure people get stuck all the time, so the resort should have a tow truck. Jake starts heading up the road to the resort. After a few min I see a tow truck driving by, he slows down when he sees me on the side of the road next to the car. By this time, jake has returned to the car and is in good spirits at seeing the truck. The guys asks if we need help, and of course we admit that we do. While he is hooking his truck up to the car, he tells us that we have made it farther up the snow burm than anyone else he has seen, to which jake replies without missing a beat “if your gonna do something, might as well go all out”. The tow truck driver laughs as he climbs back in his truck to pull us out. About this time another car comes driving by. As they roll down their window and slow down to make sure we are alright, we make sure and let them know that we now hold the record for distance off the road up the burm. They just shake their heads as they drive away. Eventually we are back on the road and continuing up the road to the resort. We have a great day of snowboarding, and get in some good practice working on 360's and 180's. Sometime in the late afternoon we decide we should probably start heading back. We get in one last run, then load up our gear in the car. We do a quick once over on the car to make sure nothing important is falling off or destroyed and then we headed back out on the road. Everything was smooth sailing till we got a little ways past st george. We managed to get to the winding canyon road at the same time the sun was sitting a little ways above the horizon which made it impossible to see the road ahead of us. Normally this wouldnt be too big of a concern, except that there are huge drop offs that lead to certain death. We tried using the sun visors, and our hands to block the sun, but it was of no use. I looked out my side window and tried to keep an eye on the lines in the road while jake hugged the inside and used the bumps on the side of the road as his guide. My eyes were strained for what seemed like forever tyring to keep track of the road, before we finally made it out and were able to finish our drive. What a great trip!

three amigos

Ever since my cousin mike got his liscense, it seemed like almost every other weekend him and his brother dan were coming out to our place on the weekends to go to dances, or magic mountain, or whatever else seemed to be going on at the time. Back in the tale end of the 90's my cousin mike had just gotten off his mission and had come to live with us for a while. At the time he was driving a 1982 chevette. On this particular occasion we had stayed at uncle joe's house. Mike, dan, and I were driving back to palmdale. Like usual, we were taking the back way, since it was quicker and had less traffic and cops. We were making great time, we were around 230^th st E on palmdale blvd when all of a sudden there was a loud bang, and instantly the windsheild was covered with coolant/water. We slowed down and pulled over to see what had happened. Upon first inspection we could not see anything wrong, so we all piled back into the chevette and were on our way again. After about a mile the car started to bog down and stalled. Since we could not get it running, we decided it was time to push. So the 3 of us started pushing the chevette up the road (was literally uphill at that spot), after pushing the car for about a half mile, we dicided to try and start it again. This time it started, so we quickly jumped in and were on our way again, though we did not make it far before the car died again. Once again we climbed out of the car and popped the hood, and this time we could see the huge tear in the radiator hose. Of course we didnt have tools or anything needed for fixing such a problem, so we took and old rag and tied it around the trear in hopes of preventing most the water from leaking out. In this area there are several farms that run along the south side of the road, the ones with those giant watering systems that sort of resemble rows of canons. We looked through the car and found an empty 2 liter bottle of mt dew. I grabbed the bottle and took it over to one of the huge trenches along the side of the road that was full of water. I filled the bottle up the best I could without filling it full of mud at the same time. We filled up the radiator, then topped off the bottle and again headed on our way. After several miles, the chevette started smoking like crazy, so we pulled over on the corner of palmdale blvd and 170^th st e. to fill up the radiator again and look for more water. As we were filling up the radiator, a kind stranger stopped by to see if we needed any help. They happened to have a cell phone we could use (now this was back before everybody had them, we were quite surprised they would let us use it. We thought through our friends trying to pick who would most likely be home that had access to a vehicle. We ended up calling jacquelle, only to get an aswering machine. We tried a couple other people as well, but had no luck. We thanked the kind person and then let them continue on their way. After filling the bottle again we hopped in the car and continued down the road. After a few more miles it started to smoke again, this time there was no water in sight, and once we turned the car off, it would not start again. So we started pushing the car again. After a few minutes of this, I saw a car coming down the road and decided to try and hitchhike back to my house and get my car and some tools and come back out. I told mike and dan my plan and then stuck my thumb out as the car got near. I was surprised that the car stopped! This older lady and her daughter were heading to palmdale. I explained the situation and they agreed to give me a ride. So I hopped in their car and away we went. After a few miles they told me they had to make a stop real quick, so we pulled into this large building that looked abandoned from the outside. The inside was crammed full of junk. They talked to a couple guys with beards in overalls, and then we were on our way again. When they dropped me off I offered them gas money, but the politely turned it down and headed off on their way. I grabbed my emergency kit and a can of fuel and headed back out to find mike and dan. When I got to the spot where I had left them, neither them or the car was there. I thought I must be mistaken ,so I went farther out. After a while I turned around and started heading towards town. As I started to get near 90^th st e. I happened to look at a school off to the left only to see the chevette parked in the parking lot with the hood open. When I pulled in, they told me they had gotten it running again and this was as far as they made it. We used some duct tape to “fix” the radiator hose, filled it full of water. After several tries we got it running again, so mike and dan hopped in and started heading to the house as I followed in my car. once we got it back to the house, it was discovered that there was no oil in it and that the block was pretty much destroyed. That was the end of the chevette as far as I recall

jeep flat

so one night i was driving home from work on highway 138 aka Blood alley or California deathway (lots of horrendous accidents) keeping up with the flow of traffic (between 60 five and 70) when all of a sudden the back end of the jeep drops about 6 inches and pulls drasticly to the right. i immediately grab the wheel with both hands and let my foot off the gas , avoiding the brake so that i don’t flip the jeep. as soon as i pass over the bridge for the aqueduct, i pull off the road to inspect the damage only to discover that i had completely blown out the side wall of the tire... no good its now starting to get dark, so i go to start grabbing the jack (so that i can hurry up and get back on the road) and remember that i had taken the jack and all the tools out of the jeep when i was washing all of the ash that has been falling like snow from the local fires out of it. and of course a regular scissor jack for a car will not work so i cant just flag down a random motorist for help. so i called my buddy tom, who is usually my partner in crime when we go out to rescue others that get stranded. he had just gotten out of class at the college, which just happens to be only about five miles from my house. i tell him that either Amanda or amber (2 of my room mates) should be home and that the jack is in the front room under the light switch. so he heads over there to get it and then come find me. while i am waiting it gets dark. so i climb up on top of the hood and lay there looking at the stars waiting for tom to arrive. after about 40 min he pulls up. we pull out the jack, put on headlamps and start pulling out tools looking for whichever one will fit the lug nuts. an of course none of them do! so being the preparedness dorks that we are, we pull out our ham radios and try to see if anyone in the area had the appropriate size tire iron for a jeep. i think this is the first time that no one else has been on the repeater ( listening with their radio in the area) so we do the next best thing and call my dad (he lives about 10 miles from where we were) to come and bring us more tools. while we are waiting for him we decide to pull off the spare to get everything ready. the wind has started to blow and it is getting cold. so normally spare tires  should come off easily... not mine! we pull, we push, we pry. after several min of teamwork and one broken pry bar later, the spare tire is off and on the ground, and of course it is flat! so i call my day up and tell him to bring the portable air compressor with him also (since i left mine at home with all my tools). now we have nothing to do but wait. so while we are waiting, we start talking about guns and cars and emergency preparedness stuff (tom is the guy i am suppose to move in with in December) and other random topics. after about 20 min my dad arrives. we grab the tools, find one that will fit and get to work. after we get the jeep jacked up most the way, it becomes extremely difficult to push down the bar that does the jacking up. so much so that i put all my weight on it and all it did was lift me off the ground (and im not exactly a lite person), so my buddy ( who is slightly overweight, but more importantly heavier than i am) puts all his weight on the jack and is able to slowly get it to move, so we both lean on it and are able to jack it up high enough to pull the old tire off and put the spare on. after that we hook up the mini compressor the cigarette lighter and start filling up the spare. my dad was standing there watching and laughing at us the whole time. after several min it is ready, so we unhook everything and get the tire on and put everything away. then we all go our separate ways. upon further inspection after i got home, i found that the steel bar contraption i have on the back of the jeep to hold the spare tire and the gas cans is bent and all jacked up. so i get to spend the next day welding and getting tires, and then roll into work a few hours late. 

"whistling in the dark"

 I come home from one of my soccer games one Saturday morning to find my housemate Chris in the driveway on his cell phone loading up the blazer. His brother mike is supposed to be driving a jeep up for him that he bought recently. The look on his face tells me something is not going right. I put my stuff in the house and change into some regular clothes, then head back outside to see what is going on. Turns out his brother and a friend were almost to st George when the jeep lost all oil pressure and died. Their dad had come up and towed them the rest of the way to mesquite. They did not know what to do from there, hence the call to Chris. Chris told me he was gonna drive the blazer out there and see what was going on, and tow the jeep back if he had to. Since I had nothing else going on for the weekend I offered to go with. After filling the back of the blazer with tools and grabbing some mt dew we headed off. The drive to mesquite was nice and easy, and we made decent time. When we got there we met up with Chris' dad, brother and brothers friend. After some brief introductions we started checking out the jeep. We discovered a pretty bad oil leak near the rear main seal, other than that we couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Since there was nothing more to be done to the about the jeep, we decided it was time to get some food. We all went and ate at one of the hotels that was offering an all you could eat shrimp buffet. After at least an hour of over filling our stomachs, we decided it was time to get back on the road. We hooked the trailer with the jeep up to the blazer. It was well after dark by the time we started on our way back. About 20 min outside of mesquite we started hearing this horrible knocking sound, with a huge loss of power, so we pulled over to investigate. After looking around for a bit, we discovered that the blazer had some bad spark plug wires. We tried taking some of the wires off of the jeep, but found out they were the wrong kind. I made a couple calls, and was able to get a hold of a couple of my cousins (mike and Dan) who were living in St George at the time. Dans wife dawn was nice enough to drive to the nearest store and get some spark plug wires for us that would hopefully work. They they drove out to find us. After waiting about an hour or so on the side of the freeway, a truck pulls up and Dan and mike along with one of their friends climb out. after swapping out the plug wires we fire it up and notice the problem is still there. After some deliberation we decide we are not gonna be able to fix it here on the side of the road in the middle of the night, so I call up my mom that lives about 45 min away and explain the situation and ask if we can crash at her place for the night. She says yes. So we decide to unload the jeep, and have the jeep tow the trailer, while mike and Dan tow the blazer with their truck and a tow rope. Since I am the one who has the most experience driving a vehicle being towed, I get to ride in the blazer and operate the brakes and steering wheel. So there we are caravanning down the highway in the middle of the night, with me being towed in the blazer about 6 ft behind the truck, eyes as open as I can get them so that I can keep an eye on the tension in the tow rope. We pull into my moms neighborhood, and as we are coming around the last turn, the tow rope snaps. We tie it back on and finish pulling all the vehicles to the front of the house. After giving mike and Dan many thanks, they head off back to st George. The rest of us are shown were we can sleep. After about 4 hours of sleep, I awake to find Chris sitting at the table pouring over a tech manual. We head back outside and start trying to figure out what is wrong while the others are still asleep. Not too long after, I notice that one of the spark plugs is broken, so we start checking all the plugs only to find that one of them has completely broken apart on the inside and the pieces have fallen into the cylinder. Now everything is starting to make sense. I call up my buddy Chris v who lives in Vegas, and ask his wife if its ok if we steal him for the day. Soon after Chris v is on his way out to meet us with some new spark plugs from auto zone. When he arrives, we put the plugs in, and fire it up only to find out the problem is not fixed. We decide the next best course of action is to get the blazer back to mesquite to auto zone. We pull the blazer, with Chris V’s blazer. Once we get to auto zone, we notice that the tension pulley is not operating as it should, so we figure that might be the what is causing the problem. After several hours of no luck, Chris calls his dad. New plan is for his dad to come back and we will put the blazer on the trailer and he will tow it back to Utah. Chris and I will take a chance and drive the jeep back. We stock up with several five qt jugs of oil and some coolant, and hit the road with Chris v following us. We leave chris' brother and his friend with the blazer to wait for their dad and ride back with him. On the way to Vegas, I keep a steady eye on the oil pressure gauge. Every time it makes a sudden drop we pull over and add a couple qts of oil. We have to pull over twice on the way to Vegas. We stop by Chris V’s house and his wife Kim is kind enough to make us dinner. I pass out on the couch while she is cooking. After we eat, we decide its time to get back on the road, especially since Chris has to be to work in the morning. As we pull out, we find that the headlights don’t work, so we make another stop at auto zone to pick some up, along with more oil. Then off into the night we go. Now one of the qualities that the jeep has, is a levitating roof, meaning of you are not actively hanging on to it, it wants to fly away, and when it starts to lift of the body is when the doors are free to open on their own. Obviously this caused some interesting moments going down the road. When we got to stateline we stopped and filled up, and of course added more oil. We also bought some bungee cords. Before hitting the road again we took off the snowboard rack from the roof and hooked the bunge cords through the holes and then hooked the other ends to the roll cage. We also found a way to bungee the doors shut. This made the rest of the drive much easier. We then continued down the highway going about fifty miles an hour the rest of the way home taking back roads so as to stay off the highway and out of every ones way, stopping about every hour or so to top off fuel and add oil. After a while we stopped switching off back and forth for driving, and I drove the rest of the way so that chris could get some sleep since he had to work in the morning. It was around sun up when we rolled into the driveway, what a weekend....... we later found out that the blazer had thrown a rod, which I should have guessed right away.

a little to far

so, several years ago just as fire season was about to start i got a letter in the mail informing me that due to budget cutbacks they were not goin to bring me back for the upcoming season. they sent this letter to about a hundred people in the local area. every one was bummed, and several worried about there lack of cash flow. so to off set the general bad mood, several of us decided to go cliff diving/jumping. normally i go to a place called monkeys canyon, but this time it was decided that we would go to a different place, fish creek. i had never been there before and was excited at the possibility of a new place to go. we load up in my buddies car and head out there. after about a 40 min drive my buddy stops the car next to this bridge and says "were here!". i get out and look over the bridge only to find a dry riverbed... this isn’t looking promising, but he insists that there is water farther up the canyon, so we grab our stuff and go. immediately i realize there is no trail, as we begin bushwhacking our way in till we get down to the river bed and start to follow it up. after about half a mile a trail appears on the west bank of the riverbed (which is still dry), which we start to follow. after making it another half mile, the dry riverbed had now narrowed to a small stream/creek that has water barely trickling down, so of course we are all giving my buddy a hard time about there not bein any water, but he insists there is more towards the top. about another 1/4 mile in we finally see some water! there is a small pool that is about 10 feet deep, and about fifteen feet all the way around. my buddy (who has been here before) says this is the first jump. so we climb up to the jumping spot which is about 20five feet above the water. now this isn’t just any normal jump. the jumping spot is on a slope, so you have to clear about 10- fifteen feet distance or you wont make it to the water. being the veteran jumper for this spot that he is, he goes first, lands perfectly in the center of the pool, comes up and swims to the side. there is cheering and clapping from all! so i step up to the spot and look out over the slope trying to gauge how far to jump, step back and jump out into the open. as soon as i am air borne i hear several expletives bein shouted from the other guys, i look down to realize what they had immediately noticed..... i had jumped to far! i brace myself as best as i can. just past the water is a stone cliff wall, that slopes a little into the waters edge into a ledge. i landed on both feet on the ledge in shin deep water, my shouts being drowned out as i immediately fell backwards in to the pool. when i finally came up for air, i just sort of floated there in the water. my whole body hurt, especially my legs. at this time, everyone else had already run down to the edge of the water to offer assistance if needed. after a few moments i swam/floated over to the edge of the water and assured every one that i was ok, just in a lot of pain. they let me sit there in the cold water for several minutes while they kept retelling each other what they saw and how they knew i had over jumped from the beginning. they all kept asking if i was ok, as i sat there hoping the water would be cold enough to numb my legs. after about 10 min. of sitting there, i told them we should continue on up the trail to the next jumping spot. they all asked if i needed to go back to the car, or go to the hospital. i reassured them that i could go on, but i would prob not move so fast. so we continued on up the trail, passing several small waterfalls and streams. after about a mile we arrived at the main jumping place, which was filled with waterfalls and several large pools, with ropes tied up so people could climb to the various jumping spots. i opted to not jump any more, and just sat in a pool of freezing cold water hoping it would keep any swelling down that i might get. after about 30 min, i told them i was goin to head back, and since it was gonna take me a lot longer to get back then them, that they could prob stay for at least another half hour and still catch up to me on the way down. so i made the long journey back to the car on my own, with them catching up to me in the last 1/2 mile. the entire ride back to my buddies place (were my car was) was completely miserable. once we arrived i had the new and exciting task of trying to drive home. normally this wouldn’t be that big a deal, except that all my vehicles were stick shifts. once i got home i grabbed some ice and laid down on the couch. several hours later my step mom came home and inquired as to what i had done this time. after a mild explanation, she made me take several anti inflammatory and some pain killers ( i have a really high pain tolerance, and usually refuse to use any of that stuff). after several days of the pain not goin away, i decided that maybe i should go to the urgent care to have them take a look. once there i found out that i didn’t break anything (prob due to my 2 gallon a week milk habit) but that i had bruised both my heels, and torn all sorts of muscle tissue in my lower leg and knee. i spent the next 2 weeks on crutches and after that just sorta limped around for a while. 2 weeks later i received another letter in the mail informing me that they had changed their mind, and were going to bring me back this season after all and that i was to report for work in 2 more weeks! lets just say that it was a very painful season... lol.

rapids and tires

So, one saturday several years ago we had a quad stake river rafting trip. most of the people met at five in the morning to car pool the hundred plus miles to the river. since i live in between the meeting place and the river, it was decided that they would pic me up so that i wasnt backtracking. my buddie tom was driving the car that was assigned to pic me up. since he had to stop to get me, we were well behind the rest of the convoy. so like any car filled with some awesome drivers would, we sped up to try and catch the convoy. after we had been traveling for about 10 minutes, i got a phone call from one of the other vehicles. my step mom ( her and my dad are the adult corrospondants for the single adults in their stake) knowing me and my buddies driving habits, had some one in her vehicle call and let us know that highway patrol was all over the place, so that we could keep and eye out for them and not get a ticket. after about 40 minutes we finaly caught up with the caravan. as we come up on the caravan we notice that they are goin particularly slow, we figure this is so we can catch up to them. my dad was driving the lead vehicle. we decided to pass all the other cars and pull even with the lead vehicle, so that they can see that we have caught up and that it is now ok to pick up the pace. after about 20 minutes, we grew tired of goin slow so we passed the lead car and headed off on our own. we eventualy started down this winding canyon road. after we had been goin down for several minutes, my buddy asked why my dad was driving so slow. we were coasting down the road at about 43 miles an hour and were gradually pulling away, with all the other cars still behind my dad. so i pulled out my phone and tried to call him to see why he was doin 40 in a 60. of course there was no reception. i kept trying till i finaly got reception. when he answered, i asked him if he had some fascination with goin 40 miles an hour. his reply was that he thought that was the speed limit. after the call, he sped up a little bit. eventualy we reached the rafting place, and we all piled out or the cars.

as we were all grouping up and organizing ourselves, the other drivers kept coming up to us and asking why my dad was driving so slow. aparently several of them had tried calling him as well but couldnt get through. we found this to be extremely entertaining. after much waiting and organizing, we were finaly ready to break into groups and load into the buses that would take us up the river to our starting point. me and several of my buddies quickly formed our group of 7, to ensure that we went down the river with each other, instead of getting stuck in a raft with less capable individuals. as we unloaded off the bus and started grouping up to get our rafts, one of the wilder guides saw our group and immediately claimed us. so off we headed down to the river bank to load into our raft. our guide gave us some quick instruction and we ran through some basic practice moves. we waited for the other rafts to shove off, and then headed down stream. due to my rafts superior rafting skills, and also the fact that we weighed more than any of the other rafts, gave us an advantage when it came to speed. we came racing up behind some of the other rafts, splashed there occupants and sped away before they could react. when we got to the fast rapid sections, our raft worked well together and was able to go down several of them backwards and one of them spinning the whole way down. towards the end, there was a section where we were allowed to jump out of the raft and swim. so of course i bailed over the side of the raft and had a swim. after we had gotten to the end we unloaded and pulled the rafts out of the water, and our guide offered to take our raft down again at a discounted price if we wanted to try some more stuff, so of course most of us did. the second time down consisted of some more technical manuvers, but was still a lot of fun. after the rafting we headed over to the local park where everyone else was already gathered. we enjoyed a small lunch, and everyone sorta did their own thing. some played croquet others bacci ball while still others played basketball, volley ball, and some even played catch.

after several hours of fun, we decided it was time to begin the long drive back. many others had already left, and we were the last of our group to go. on our way back, we had been traveling for about 30 minutes. we had all the windows down and the radio up. i was sitting in the back passenger seat with my eyes closed enjoying the wind and the tunes when all of a sudden i heard this horrible grinding noise. i quickly opened up my eyes to see that we were only inches from the canyon wall. the car then quickly pulled back onto the road. several yards later when the shoulder of the road was wide enough, we pulled off to inspect the damage. we had popped both passenger side tires, and of course we were in the middle of the canyon where there was no cell phone reception. we had one spare tire, but that wasnt enough to get us out of the canyon. my buddy tom who was driving decided to take one of the other guys with us and hike back till they either got cell reception, or made it to a gas station, and they were goin to leave me and his younger brother tanner with the car to at least change one of the tires, and then afterwords hike to the top of the ridge line and attempt to get reception there. luckily, bein the dorks that we are, tom and i both have our ham radio liscences, and on this particular trip we had both brought our ham radios. so he grabbed his radio and off they went back down the road. after several minutes of trying to work the mysterious volkswagon jack, the jack started to tilt while we were attempting to jack up the car. once it started to tilt, we decided that the best course of action would be to just let the jack down, but due to the new angle of the jack, the handle kept hitting the ground so we had to start digging a whole in the ground so that the jack handle would have clearance to unwind. after we had dug several inches into the ground, the handle started to hit stone. so we tried to dig the stone out. this was very time consuming. due to the lack of proper tools, we started using the tire iron and a flat head screw driver to chisel out peices of the stone. after about 20 min of this, i let tanner keep digging while i started the hike up to the top of the canyon.

the side was really sandy, with large rocks scattered about. when i got to the top i followed the ridgeline for a while in an attempt to find reception. of course there was no reception to be found. as i was walking along the ridgeline, tom called me on the ham radio. he let me know that they were about ten miles away at a gas station, and had found a guy that could get us another tire and bring it out to us, but he needed the tire size first. so i started heading back down to the car to get the tire size. when i got to the bottom i relayed the tire size and then went back to helping digg the rock out of the ground so that we could unwind the jack. after about another 20 minutes, tom returned ( they had hitchhiked back) and told us that the guy with the tire wanted 200 dollars for it, and that that was to much money. he had tried calling triple A , but since he didnt have it but his brother did, his brother had to be there to talk to them on the phone. so we switched partners, and they got a ride back to the gas station. while they were gone we finished digging out several large rocks and eventually got the jack out form under the car. about 30 min later they returned bringing gifts of water, rootbeer and a bag of corn chips. we had a 40 minute wait till the tow truck driver would be there to tow us back. once the tow truck driver arrived he was suprised to see that there were 4 of us, especially since his tow truck only had 3 extra seats. once the car was on the truck, we all piled in. i ended up sitting on the floor for the 80+ mile ride back. we spent most of the ride talking to the driver, swapping stories about recent adventures, and good times. when we started getting close to town we told the driver about the musical road and asked if he had ever been on it. ( there are only 2 in the world). since he hadnt been on it, and we hadnt reached our 100 mile limit, we took the tow truck down the musical road. it was pretty entertaining. afterwards he dropped the car off at my house and was again on his way. what an awesome saturday!