Good to horrid to hope

Ali had her 10k this morning.  Unlike Florida races that start at the crack of dawn to beat the heat, this race started at a casual 8:30.  While Ali was running I walked around a park with the dogs before we took up a spot on a bench to cheer on other runners and eventually Ali.  We hurried over to the finish line to get the finish picture.

Ali said the course was beautiful as it looped around a very scenic riverside area of Idaho Falls.  After the race we headed over to where the post game food/awards were supposed to be.  Ali and I both scratched our heads as we saw two very long single file lines, each one with at least 50 bodies in it.  These were the food lines, WTF?

When we do races in Florida you have food tables that people descend upon as they see fit.  We don’t make people stand single file in line for 15 minutes to get something to eat, totally silly.  So we opted to skip the post race food and head back to pack.

Our first destination of the day was Pickles Place, a little dive restaurant in Arco on the way to Craters of the Moon.  The place was highly recommended to us by our Idaho native running club buddy.  I ordered their specialty Atomic burger, it was quite good.  Arco reminded me of some of the tiny towns in New Mexico.  The locals we saw in Pickles looked very, um, local.

Next up was Craters of the Moon national park.  When we read about this prior to the trip I had the impression that this park actually had some meteoric craters.  Nope that isn’t the deal at all.  The park is however one MASSIVE lava field.  The structures we saw in the park were unlike anything we had seen up to this point.  I climbed up a giant hill made of nothing but cinders.  Later Ali and I walked across the lava field and into the Indian Tunnel.

This tunnel was a cave and a pretty damn hazardous one at that.  I told Ali that I was seriously surprised they allowed Joe Blow to go through there, I saw countless opportunities for someone to fall and crack their skull on something.  That being said, hiking through the cave was pretty damn awesome.  The temps inside were at least 20-25 degrees cooler than above. 

As we approached the exit point of the cave Ali questioned if there was an exit at all, it didn’t look like there was a way out.  The way out was a tiny little hole that required you to stoop to get out of, it was pretty nuts.

After you exited the far end you got back to the main path by following “rock markers”.  Rock markers looked like fence posts just jammed into the lava field haphazardly.  Eventually we made it back to the main path.  Once we did, Ali started jogging back towards the van.  She was worried about leaving the dogs in the van for awhile.  Like Yellowstone, dogs were allowed in the park but basically had to be confined to the vehicle. We left the park happy to have added it to the to do list, it was well worth seeing. 

Our final destination of the day was supposed to be Salt Lake City via Twin Falls Idaho.  Twin Falls is where Evil Knievel tried to jump Snake River Canyon.

As we were traveling the mostly barren countryside dotted with a small town here and there Ali and I noticed an odd noise from the van.  When I stepped on the gas it subsided so I didn’t pay it much attention.

Well we were in the middle of a long stretch of nothing when I heard a noise up in the engine compartment followed by the sound of some debris hitting the road.  After a quick glance at my voltmeter gauge I knew what happened, the damn belt broke.

I told Ali we were in deep shit.  I said the van will run for a little while off the battery which it did.  I however did not know the PV had one serpentine belt that did EVERYTHING.  My original hopes to baby it until we could get back to civilization were scuttled when I realized my power steering was gone and the coolant temp was pegged to the right.  I immediately pulled over and shut it down. I was in disbelief, not again….

We have AAA so we called them and described our situation.  The lady explained to me we only have the “basic” plan so only 10 miles of towing is included.  Yea, yea ok, send somebody, fast!  They said someone should be there in 45 minutes, it was probably closer to 75 until he showed up. 

While we were waiting a local police officer stopped by to check on us.  I told him help was on the way.  Instead of heading out he lit up a cigarette and was shooting the shit with me for awhile.  There were also three or four other vehicles that stopped to check if we needed help.  Idahoians are nice.

While I was waiting I got out my repair book and surveyed the damage.  The belt was shreaded.  Originally I just thought the belt was old and broke.  However I soon saw the idler pulley was a few threads from falling off and the bolt that holds it on was bent.  The van has also been rather squeaky and noisy when sitting there idling.  I am pretty sure that noise was my signal that the idler pulley was on it’s last legs.

Finally the flatbed arrived and I met up with Josh, a nice young kid that works in his father’s towing/automotive repair business.  Josh asked me where I wanted to get towed to.  I told him I had no idea, we were from Florida, I was hoping he could give me some guidance.

Josh named some of the small towns in the vicinity.  However he said more than likely all parts stores in these small towns would be closed and NONE of the garages are open during the weekend.  Ok after some Iphone research by Ali we planned to go to a town named Jerome.

The van got loaded on the bed with the dogs in the van, they couldn’t ride in the truck.  Ali wasn’t thrilled with the idea but we really had no options.  On the way to Jerome Ali was frantically working her phone trying to score us a place to stay.  Our original thought was we were shit out of luck until Monday so she booked us two nights.

Well as I talked to Josh it became clear that Twin Falls which was farther away was a complete modern city and would have many more resources available to me to fix the van as quickly as possible.  The only downside was it would cost us more for the tow, that was the least of my worries. So now we were going to Twin Falls.

Now Ali had to frantically work the phones again, first to cancel the Jerome reservation which initially they weren’t going to let us do.  Luckily they eventually agreed to cancel it and Ali was able to book us a place that turned out to be really nice in Twin Falls, Shilo Inn.

So Josh drove us to the hotel where we unloaded Ali and the two dogs.  I told them to go check in, Josh and I were going to AutoZone.  I found one on my Iphone maybe a mile up the road from the hotel.  Josh pulled the tow truck in the lot with the van still on the back of it.  I ran in and waited impatiently in line for help.

I was happy to see they had the belt in stock!  I didn’t have the idler pulley with me.  I initially thought there was no way Auto Zone would have one so instead I bought some WD-40 to spray the old one with, hoping it would hold up until I could get a replacement.  Josh came in while I was waiting to get rung up, saying he got another call, we had to get going.  I quickly paid for my stuff and hopped back in the truck.

We got back to the hotel and found a good spot to unload the van.  I thanked Josh for all of his help, and gave him a 20 buck tip on top of the $100 towing bill.  It left me with exactly $21 of cash in my wallet.

So I took our stuff from the van up to the room and filled Ali in.  I told her I had a belt and I think I can fix it myself.  She placed a food order and before I went and picked it up and went down to work on the van.

It took me a little while to extract what was left of the old belt but when I did I realized the new belt was a couple inches shorter than the old one was.  I knew the old belt was stretched but this was more than stretching.  I knew I had the wrong belt. Shit.

So after slamming down my supper I had to hoof it back up to AutoZone.  I brought the new wrong size belt, the remains of the old belt and the bent up idler pulley in the remote possibility that they had one.

It wasn’t a fun walk.  My right knee was already sore from a days worth of walking.  Finally I made it back to the store which thankfully is open until 10pm.

I told the guy at the counter I had the wrong size belt and I showed him old one which had some marking that included the number 2435.  The one they sold me had 2415 in the part number.  He said the bigger belt is for the models with the heavy duty alternator which ours must have.  The only problem was he didn’t have a 2435, his inventory system showed a 2425 should work just fine.  I told him I hoped he was right, else I would be back with fire in my eye.

Then I showed him my messed up idler pulley.  I was surprised when he came walking out with a replacement pulley and bolt, no problemo.  I grabbed a few other tools that would assist me in the repair.  The guy even told me if I had any trouble getting the belt and pulley installed his brother Pablo would come over and help me tomorrow for a few bucks. Holy shit.  Did I mention Idaho people are nice?  The kid even said he would offer to drive me back to the hotel but he was the only one left at the store.

I gimped my way back to the hotel with a glimmer of hope in my eye.  If things go as I imagine,  I will be out there under the van as day breaks and hopefully have us up and running a couple hours after that.  If that all happens we have a nearly 11 hour driving nightmare awaiting us to get to Aspen.  Cross your fingers, send your well wishes and do your good luck dance, we will need it.

Oh, I just stepped in dog shit, seriously.