May 2-3 2018 Marker 125 US95 - Indian Springs, Nevada

On our way to Death Valley.
We left Las Vegas Wednesday morning, the 3rd, heading for Death Valley, California. And then…
About 50 miles (80km) west of Las Vegas on Highway 95 we heard a big pop (mindre eksplosion).
This was the tire blowout (eksploderet dæk) everybody has said we would have at some point ☹We pulled over right away. The rear right wheel was gone!! Totally. Hub and all, down to the bare axle!

Mary walked back to find the wheel. JJ backed slowly to a place in the median (midterrabatten) where only authorized vehicles can turn around. We did not like sitting right on the highway at all. The turn around place felt a bit safer. And we actually had a nicer view than we have had at some campgrounds 😊

We found the wheel, but the tire, rim (fælg) and hub (hjulnav) were totally destroyed.
Now what? We were literally out in the middle of nowhere. Had just passed Indian Springs (population/indbyggere: 500) and Cactus Springs (population/indbyggere: 6).

We called AAA (Falck), around 11:00 and asked for a tow (bugsering) and they got to work on that.
After half an hour the police showed up (The Highway Patrol). Somebody had reported that a person was walking on the side of the highway (Mary). He was also ready to give us a fine (bøde) for turning around on the highway where you are not supposed to – until he saw our wheel.
Well, turned out that he was originally from Minnesota 😊 From Coon Rapids, and had family in Delano (tæt på Watertown, hvor Mary kommer fra). So, we talked Minnesota for a while and he arranged that we could stay for as long as it would take. He also agreed that if you drive the speed limit (overholder hastigehedsbegrænsningerne) in this country it is dangerous and you are a danger to traffic, because you would be the only one doing it 😊

AAA left us stranded once again!!! After a couple of hours waiting, they told us we would have a tow at 4 o’clock. Five minutes later they said they couldn’t, because of our height. So, back to square one (tilbage til start) ☹ A true copy of our AAA experience in Vicksburg in March.



Elev = højde i fod over  havoverfladen

We found a company in Indian Springs: Lug Nut Truck Tire Repair. The company consists of dad, Ray, who is 78, and his son, Harlos. No garage (værksted) - only roadside repair. The son, came out to us (5 miles from Indian Springs) and took a look at it. With his help we limped (haltede) on one wheel back to their place.
(They also run a little grocery store in town – the only store in town).
We felt like we were in Cars, coming to Radiator Springs where Luigi was waiting to fix us up. 😊
We parked and stayed overnight behind the grocery store.

It was a major repair. Turned out the axle got damaged in the process. So, a new axle, wheel hub, brakes, rim and tire. We had to find the parts ourselves, so Thursday morning we went to Las Vegas. Luckily, we got everything at the first place we tried. Then back to Indian Springs and the guy started working on it right away. But things take time in a place like this.

We had lots of time to talk to people, and they seemed to have lots of time too.
Talked to a guy whose father had come from Colorado to work on the nuclear test site, which is very close by.  They had over the ground nuclear bomb tests (atombombesprængninger) until 1962. The father eventually died from the radiation he had been exposed to.

The owner was also interesting to talk to. Born in California, raised (voksede op) in Texas. He had been here and there before settling in Indian Springs 20 some years ago.

The son was an ex marine and had been deployed twice (udstationeret) to Iraq during the Gulf War. The second time he came he came back injured, when in combat with what they thought was the enemy but turned out to be a group of UN soldiers (FN soldater) - meaning friendly fire. (Here's what I don't understand. He was 18, and old enough to risk his life for the nations interest in protecting it's influence in the Middle East, but not old enough to buy a beer for another 3 years!!)

We pulled out at 4 pm on Thursday afternoon. A short while later we passed, again, mile marker 125 on US 95,
30 hours after we passed it the first time.

All in all a different two days.

Written by JJ