The Catch Pen Adventure

The morning dawned bright and clear, and Jeff & I loaded the girls into the pickup to start our 5-hour trek to Salina, UT to pick up the horse panels that we had ordered for the new catch pen. As we drove through the North Fork valley, the dogs were eagerly watching out the windows as we drank our coffee from the travel mugs and discussed the day’s plans. In Delta, we were pleasantly surprised to quickly find parking for the one-ton truck and 20’ horse trailer hooked to it, at the Delta County Courthouse. We were even more pleased when the process to get our licenses switched to Colorado was relatively quick and painless. In less than 20 minutes were back on the road. As we got settled into our pace on I-70, headed west, we enjoyed seeing the area sans snow or rain as this was our first trip through the area without inclement weather. In Crescent Junction UT, we stopped at “Papa Joes” to fill up with diesel & quickly got back on the road. Some time later, we passed Green River and saw Capital Reef rear up ahead of us. The climb up past the reef was quite scenic and we enjoyed the new country we were seeing with it’s many mesa’s, red rocks and unusual rock formations. As we passed Ghost Rock, however, I happened to see some long black thing go flying from behind the truck into the berm. When I mentioned it to Jeff, he quickly noticed that we had a flat tire on the trailer. So, we slowed and found a good spot to pull over. As he prepared to change the tire, I carefully herded the dogs up into the trees for a pit stop. When I returned, I found Jeff just standing waiting for us. He was not pleased to inform me that while we did have a spare tire, we had no way to get it off the trailer. The lug wrench in the truck only fit the truck lug nuts, not the larger trailer ones. Neither did we have a jack if it became needed. So, we unhooked the trailer and headed back to Green River – 30 miles behind us. An hour and half later, we were back at the trailer with a new high-lift jack and star wrench. Still took nearly another 45 minutes to change the tire, however, as the lugs were pretty “boogered up” from some past trauma and so getting the lug nuts off, and then back on, was extremely difficult. But, Jeff persevered and we finally got back on the road. We arrived in Salina two hours late, but the driver of the truck we were meeting had been able to do some other deliveries in the meantime and so the timing worked out fine. We loaded our new panels into the trailer and headed back east. While we were a little nervous about the five-hour drive home with no spare trailer tire, we decided the rest were in pretty good shape & we’d go for it. I took a nice little nap west of Green River and overall we were enjoying the drive. Then, about 40 miles west of Grand Junction, a mysterious single beep had us looking for warning lights or other issues. However, after a few minutes we found nothing so continued on. However, within just a few minutes of that, the temperature suddenly pegged out and we started getting steam & smoke from the exhaust. We pulled over and Jeff popped the hood to see what he could see. The water had all boiled out of the overflow, but we couldn’t find any reason why. As Jeff was checking things out, a Colorado State Trooper pulled up behind us to see if we needed help. While he couldn’t do much for the truck, he did offer to take one of us in to get anti-freeze if needed and left us his card. But, before he left, as all good Trooper’s do, he ran the plates on our horse trailer as it didn’t have updated tags. We assured him that it HAD to be current as all of the ranch vehicles get renewed at the same time & just show up in the mail. He went back to re-check and discovered that it showed that the ranch had “sold” the trailer a year or two ago, but it had never been re-titled by a new owner. “Whaaattt?!” How does that even happen? Seems pretty suspicious, huh? Anyway, the trooper said just to get it taken care of and left us to our more immediate issue. We decided to try & limp the truck down the freeway a short way to find water. At the next exit (for “Mack”, “No Services”) we pulled off & found a hydrant to fill the truck. But, the water didn’t really help and so we decided we’d better call a tow truck. But, with no phone book or other info, we had to call back to the ranch to get info & have someone else help us find a tow truck, etc. So, after an hour or two, we finally saw the tow truck show up. He quickly loaded the pickup and then it was time to head to Grand Junction and the hotel we’d booked for the night. But, when I crawled up into the cab, I quickly noticed there were only TWO seats.. the driver and the passenger. Where was I going to sit? I wasn’t allowed to sit on Jeff’s lap, so the only place left was between the two seats. Yes – the tiny little space BETWEEN the seat… maybe 18”? So, on the floor, between the seats, tilted on my right side (because my butt does NOT fit between seats anymore), with my right leg stretched out beneath (Yes, UNDER) the passenger seat, my left leg pulled up to my chest, my left arm cradling my purse and my left arm up over my head – that’s how I rode the 40 miles back to Grand Junction. We arrived at the hotel around 10pm where the driver dropped us off. The dogs had ridden in the pickup up on the back of the wrecker and so Jeff crawled up to get them out. Apparently Sage didn’t realize that the truck was on another truck, not on the ground. So, even though Jeff tried to grab her to hand her to me, she took a flying leap out of the pickup. It was a pretty hard landing on the parking lot, but she jumped right up & ran around so that was good. Josie was much more cautious in her exit. After a brief discussion, we realized that we not only had nothing for us, we had nothing for the dogs either. So, Jeff walked over to the convenience store, but they didn’t have any dog food. So, I quickly called the restaurant for room service. A short 10 minutes later, Jeff had a Calzone, I had an Italian Chef Salad & the dogs had a big bowl of meatballs which the restaurant gave them for free as they felt bad for them. So, our day ended much different than we had planned, but we were happy to be somewhere warm & with a comfy bed. The next morning, we found out that the truck had blown a head gasket –much worse than we feared. (So, apparently, this year of Ford truck is known for this). Someone was dispatched from the ranch to pick us up and we finally arrived home around noon. Now… to get the trailer off the interstate, the truck fixed & home and the trailer tags straightened out. But, it’s good to be home.