My Wyoming ordeal

[Giulietta]

Last night, after the storm passed, it was 6:30 pm when I tried to drive back to the Hotel.

I rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee from Hertz, because I like the looks and figured they were a good car for the snow..Besides it has a GPS and Sat radio, and I just love Larry The Cable Guy..and Foxworthy.

In the morning, I had to drive 45 miles on 4WD Low just to get past the ice and snow, so I could get to work..I saw 2 18 wheelers wrecked, all within 20 miles from each other one had suffered a knockroach the other was simply locked across the high way, blocking all 4 lanes..I got off the highway into a rescue road or whatever they call it and made it to work.

Further ahead a capsized car, and down the road, another one on its side..I drove slowly and surely on 4WD low, as you can imagine..I am not very expereinced with snow and ice, as my expereince back home with this is only inside the refrigerator.

Anyway...so there I am driving back home, at 60 miles per hour...suddenly...

Thump, bang ...flap flap flap....

I pulled over...damn rear left tyre blew up...OK..cell phone...no coverage...damn...ok..simple tyre change..yeah right...

These trucks pass by at 300 miles per hour...the temperature was about 10F or so...I am not cut for this...I have no gloves..left them at the office while on the phone with Sway...

OK...drove as far away intop the shoulder as I could...let me tell you..these 18 wheelers really fly and make the air move...turned the 4 blinkers on, turned every light on, let the engine running with the heater fully on...

Now...I can't locate the jack...took me half hour to find it...it's in a compartment I couldn't find..remember..I have no flash light..its in my bag at the office..

Without any light, all I could see was when a car or a truck passed...finally I open the box, get the jack...brand new...

Had to undo a bolt some 300 turns before the spare would lower..which it did...

damn its cold...so I go back inside every now and then...my hands hurt..my knees are killing me...the cold makes my bones hurt and my joints freeze...I am a beach boy...sunny all year round where I come from..

Undid the wheel nuts..that tyre is completely destroyed...DAMN..I was lucky I was safe..good handling on the Jeep with 3 wheels only..

All I think about is...my family...I am so far away..if a truck veers off..I am dead...all comes to mind are those images of cops in the US being hit by passing cars...you know the videos they pass on TV in the US, right??

The jack...the book said to put it under the chassis, in a bar that goes to the wheel..screw that..can't see anything...as a truck passes and another on..I decide I am not going under this car in the snow...not with no lights and the trucks flying by...I can't bend that far..my body hurts from the cold.

So I decide to put the jack at the chassis base, where the wheel arch is...problem is the jack only extends so far..the car is not level, as the shoulder is inclined...the jack is at its max extensuion, almost 2 feet long...this thing looks like its going to tip over...but I rely on the remaining 3 tyres to hold it, they did..scary view, but worked..

as the trucks pass the whole thing moves..I am on the low side...my thoughts...now this thing tips over..I am dead...

Can't see for crap...now besides the cold, and the image of a truck coming off road and hit me...I start hearing noises coming from the fields...I am in a deserted road 40 miles from the town..scary...concentrate

I hope someone stops to help....wait a minute..no I don't..this is America...they have crazies..killers assassins....please God..don't let anyone stop....

wait...these truckers are normally nice people..God make a nice one stop....no wait...don't....I'll manage...

Finally, I get the old tyre off...the new one, now with my back hurting from the cold, my hands burnt by the cold don't bend any more..can't close my fingers...

I can't lift the tyre off the ground..can't see the studs either...I begin to quit...the cold, the pain...I have frozen tears of my eyes...my nose hurts, my back is killing me, and my legs have quit...I start thinking about sitting down and trake a nap...really

Finally...God knows where from...I get superhuman strenght..start screaming as hard as I can..I lift the tyre...and almost like using the force...I get the tyre in...one stud is in, 1/4 of an inch..quick..get a nut in....can't grab it..my fingers don't move, my hands are frozen..

Can't let go of the tyre...it comes off...so I hold iot with a knee...and with one finger push a nut into the wrnch socket...now I got one nut 5 turns in...

I get up..with great pain...and get inside to warm up...as I approach my hands from the heater outlet...it burns my skin...

5 minutes warmth..I get the blood circulating...

Go outside again..tighten all the nuts, get the jack down....re-tighten all nuts with my foot...lift theold tyre into the trunk....

And drove off...my body really hurts at this time....

What I learnt??? too much.....but above all...how simply one can die of cold out in the nowhere....

Irony..my gloves were next to me all the time..I didn't see them....

Got back to the hotel..took a shower and went to sleep....

[sailingdog]

Sounds like a fun way to spend the evening in Wyoming.... that's probably the closest thing to entertainment you've got in Wyoming. You are in Wyoming after all... ain't nothing in Wyoming, besides some farms and probably some power plants...

[KODAD]

I hate winter. Last night got into the very low 60's.Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

[bubb2]

That's the "get er done" attitude we like in America.

[KODAD]

I remember Wyoming. The place where the odds are good, but the goods are odd.

[djodenda]

I remember driving through Wyoming in February during my move to Seattle.

It was below 0 degrees F, and the landscape seemed incapable of supporting life... otherworldly, almost..

I couldn't get past feeling that if I rolled down the window, we'd suffocate due to a lack of air outside!

One inhospitable place in the winter.

Be careful, Alex... come home safe.

David

[Valiente]

This is why you should get the gloves with the strings on them, Alex!

To your credit, you completed a task that even people who live here would find dangerous and unpleasant in winter.

[flyingwelshman]

In Canada we don't use jacks:

[retclt]

Hey Alex,

Ice boat training for January?


. . . . . . . Sorry about your ordeal. No fun for sure!


This is another good reason for living South of the Mason Dixon Line! Burrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

[N0NJY]

Hey! Swing in and visit, I'm not far from you right now. Colorado Springs... only about 500 miles... take a southerly tack and watch out for the "capsized vehicles".

You OWE me a monitor - there's coffee on this one now.

ROTFLMAO...