trip to sequoia -ch 38 cont.

Ch.38 (cont.) 

 Darla looked at me with steely eyes and asked.

   “Just how do you expect to get us out of this mess?”

    I said “Judging from the smoke of the Road Warrior’s smoldering remains it seems as if the wind changed and is blowing the smoke away from us. Good news as we really shouldn’t have to seek shelter. Although the Road Warrior appears to be salvageable, I just need a few minutes to see how bad the damage is. Haven’t you noticed it as strange there is no vehicle traffic on this stretch of highway 101. The second most traveled route in the U.S.. Where are the cars?”

   Darla says. “And the cell service too. I know it isn’t that far away from where the campground was. And we had service there. Isn’t that strange? So does the satellite till work?”

   “ I haven’t had a chance to check , lets go look.”

    “So why my flannel pajamas?”  Darla asked and continued, “Those were special to me?” she asked as we started walking back up the road.

   “Darla I meant no harm I just needed some heavy fabric that soaks up water and those were the first things I found. I really didn’t want to spend too much time looking in case something like the propane tanks or the gas tank on the jeep blows up and then traps me there in the Road Warrior.” Good god I thought to myself  I said as I walked to the smoldering hunk of scrap, isn’t she ever going to get over those damn things. Flannel is like body armor . no wonder her husband left her bitchy and wears flannel to bed, definitely two warning signs there.   The Road Warrior emblem on the front of the motorhome was the only thing that wasn’t really burned, but stood proudly as if the Road Warrior had won the battle but it appeared as if it was a hard fought one at that.  It did as it brought both Darla and me through it safely. But look at it now.

     The one side more than ever had been scorched and it was on that side is where both the tires burned and blew out in the rear on one side. Plastic trim was melted everywhere and the door flung open when I stopped and  hung outward as the Road warrior was now leaning to that side. Fluid that looked like sewer water from the holding tank was all over the pavement mixing with the black charred remains of whatever and was now pooling on the road way. The Jeep still strapped on the rear of the Road Warrior looked a little rough too s it had burned the whole ragtop almost completely off and the dripping fire had set fire to the seats of the CJ-5 and had even melted part of the steering wheel as the ragtop dripped molten fire over everything. The flannel pajamas lay in a black pool of sewer water in a pile on the hood of the jeep as I ushered Darla away from the Jeep and inside the Road Warrior where the smell of burned wood mixed with plastic still hung in the air. The trail of toilet water where I ran out of the road warrior from where I dragged the wet flannel was evident from the bathroom to the door and was still on the floor.

     Darla went inside and collapsed on the couch and I thought to myself maybe I should have seen if there was some way to burn that also. Oh well I thought to myself, it always could be worse. After seeing Darla collapsed and just sitting there shaking her head I comforted her and told it would be alright and that I was going to check the satellite. I went out and to the rear of the Road Warrior and on the driver’s side there was a ladder to the roof of the Road Warrior where you could access the roof area. I climbed up the ladder till I was eye view with the satellite dish and the roof area. This didn’t look too bad and the wires to the blackened satellite disc seemed still intact., which is always A good sign. I climbed  back down and went  inside and suggested to Darla to hook up the laptop to the satelliote and see if we were  getting signal . We were not.

      I then checked the power to the satellite and realized we had no power , in fact we had no power in most anything in the Road Warrior including the air conditioning. Something must have burned in the engine compartment and I went outside to look and found where the main electrical panels were and it looked as though something had short circuited on the main power strip probably due to whatever had burned and was spilling fluid. I opened another panel and it was the generator that was burned, or at least he main lead to it that was  burned off. Maybe I could patch around it. I went back in and turned the ignition on the Road Warrior on  and it cranked over easily and started right up. Soon the air conditioning came to life and now we had power but only on a limited basis. But enough to level the Road Warrior and I switched the automatic leveling to manual and raised the Road Warrior up and leaned it higher on the side with burned tires as the jacks on all four corners easily lifted the Road Warrior up. This is good I thought, maybe I can change the tires and we can limp this thing back to civilization.

     I went back outside an checked in one of the compartments slung under the Road Warrior and found the spare along with tire changing tools. I soon had the one tire out and on the rear but still needed a rim at least to bolt the duals up and all I had was the two half burned tires with rims that would work but no way to remove the burned tire. Except to finish burning it off the rim.

   I found some wood laying along the edge of the road and drug the half burned tire off the road and into a bare open area and soon had a roaring black billowing fire going as the tire caught fire and was soon reduced  to a pile of wire and a rim. I let the rim cool after I pulled all the wire from the tire and soon strapped it on the Road Warrior and tightened the lug nuts.

      The tires on the Jeep showed some burning but were still intact. We were now able to drive the Road Warrior and I focused my attention on the Jeep now. I tried to start the burned out  mess but again the fire must have done something to the Jeep. I raised the hood to inspect and saw the wires to the starter were melted but overall not bad, it would run if I could roll it down a hill and pop the clutch it would start or looked like it would. Don’t know how far I would want to ride in it . But it could get us somewhere else if need be.

     But there was the wire in the to the starter in the Jeep that would work on the generator of the Road Warrior to get the power restored. I looked in the Road Warrior again I found a tool kit and soon had the generator running as I climbed under the Jeep and then under the Road Warrior and at times had my shoulder in the pooling mess below the Road Warrior. As the generator roared to life , all of the other features of the Road Warrior came to life. And soon Darla was out of her pouting feeling sorry for herself mood and soon joined me outside and asked what she could do.

   Can you clean up this mess around here throwing everything in the rear of the Jeep . I eased the Road Warrior ahead and as we cleaned everything up picking up pieces of trim and Darla’s burned flannel pajamas and all the trash of the burned out ragtop off the jeep all  went in the back of the Jeep. I picked up the other truck tire that was burned but replaced by the spare and struggled to get it also in the rear of the Jeep. I wiped the sewer mess off the road the best we could and Darla and I went inside to see if we could get anyone on the internet. It still wasn’t working as there must still be another wire burned, but we were able to move on down the road again as the Road Warrior had power and tires .

     “Let’s see if we can find a place and see if we can get some help or find a garage to go to.” I said to Darla.

    She said. “Guy you did well getting us going and I am sorry I flipped out but it isn’t often you nearly die in a firestorm with someone you don’t even hardly know. I am just not used to this stuff. Everything was great up until then. I am sorry for being such a bitch. I should have calmed down. It was just too hard.”

    “That’s OK.” I said but already I saw a side to Darla I wasn’t too sure of. She seemed to fly off the handle pretty quickly, but heel even I can do that at times.

      I climbed into the seat of the already running Road Warrior and pulled her into drive and eased it forward down the road.

     The Road Warrior and the jeep soon was heading down the vacant roadway and going who knows where. Anyplace with a tire service would be nice or an airport to drop Darla off and send her home. Anything would be better than what I have now.

   Mile after mile of nothing but trees and open area where you would see dry scrub, and then finally a national park sign indicated that it may be the reason this area was so isolated . Miles we went  and no houses or buildings or anything but trees and scrub. I finally came around a corner on the road and saw a what looked like a an old gas station abandoned for gas filling purposes and  now replaced with ultra-modern Sheetz with glass and chrome on down the road. But whoever had it still hung a sign saying repairs and it seemed as if he had a lot of work to do as back home you would call it a junk yard . So he was or she was either good at what they do or bad . Good if they had a lot of business and that it was all piled up outside or bad because he or she had them all apart or couldn’t figure out how to put them back together.

      We had no choice but to try and see if they could do something or at least call for help.

       I had just enough room alongside the empty road to just pull the Road Warrior over. I opened the door and for some reason the automatic step didn’t extend and I had to make a long step to the ground. I extended a hand to Darla and helped her down as she was following me out the door. We went to the door of the dusty old gas station and knocked. A little yappy puppy was soon rattling the old wood door and soon this fairly good looking woman with tousled hair came to the door and asked if she could help.

     I explained that we were  caught in a firestorm and had suffered damage to the Road Warrior and were not able to get help and asked if she had a phone we could use.

    She said that the reason the phones were out was because the fire had knocked out two cell towers that service the area and that the land lines were taken out also. No sense worrying about trying to make a call till I get closer to Santa Rosa. And that I still probably won’t find any place to repair anything  you till you get to San Francisco. Then she asked. “What do you need done maybe I can help you. Come on in . You want something to drink?” She asked.

     Darla says. “I could use a drink. What do you have?”

   “ Water and tea is the best I can offer.” She said.

    Darla says. “I will take a cup of tea.”

    “ I guess I will have the same.” I said.

    She showed us to her kitchen and urged us to sit down at the table, why she busied herself getting a pot of hot water and arranging tea bags and coffee cups.

     I inquired as to why there was no traffic here and she said they shut down 101 due to the forest fires and that apparently we must have slipped through the closure some place. I mentioned that they allowed me to go on and that there was no closure as of then. Anyhow she said there is now and still more threats of forest fires south to Santa Rosa, and that we might be stuck here for awhile.

      She did have TV and had it on, and sure enough soon a report came across the TV indicating that in fact 101 was closed before Santa Rosa . I asked if there was another way around that area and the woman said no as roads were getting scarce in this area that were not threatened by forst and brush fires. She served our tea and told us her name was Deb. She lived alone in the old station as her dad just passed a year ago. We introduced ourselves and when she found out we were both from Ohio asked if we knew where Holmesville was and I said sure. Been there a few times. She said her family had Amish ties to Holmesville and that she watched and read all she could about the Amish and always wanted to live that lifestyle.
     Deb was a tall woman in fact she must have went five foot ten inches and she wore a pair of old bibs exposing a bit of flesh high up on her inner thigh where a hole created a portal to view some smooth brown skin to tempt a man . I myself was tempted to look as under her rough exterior there was a woman who seemed tough enough for me. I could tell Darla although cute was a bit high strung and definitely not used to roughing it and a bit on the whiny bitchy side. After calling her a bitch in a roundabout way I doubted much of my chances with her. Deb went to the mirror and brushed her hair and her long brown curly hair looked great. I wondered if she was single till she told us that she was married but now lived here alone as her husband and her dad could not get along and Deb had to care for her dad before he passed , so her and her husband split up and divorced. She poured the tea and asked how she could help us. I mentioned we had no cash and only plastic to pay for anything. Deb indicated she had no way to process those and that she would figure out something. So I told her all I thought I needed to continue our trip.