trip to sequoia - ch. 39 the road warrior lives to fight another day

Ch.39

The Road Warrior Lives to Fight Another Day

     Darla sipped on her tea and asked deb if she could use her bathroom, Deb said yes that it was around the back of the building and handed her a key. I wouldn’t let Darla use the bathroom in the Road Warrior only under an extreme condition as I needed to repair the holding tank for the waste fluids as well repair the water lines to flush the toilet afterward. It had been a while since we had been through the firestorm and I even had to sneak off into the bushes to relieve myself. I imagine Darla surely by now must have been backed up. As for the Road Warrior it had relieved itself all over the pavement back up the road as sewage poured out of the holding tank fresh with toilet paper and you guess It all over the road. It wasn’t too bad as we had just come out of the RV Park and it was nearly empty. But the plastic tank didn’t hold up to the fire and it had melted fittings, as well part of the tank. I explained all this to Deb and she said she thought she might have plastic fittings and glue to fix the Road Warrior.

    Debs little schnauzer was curled up in a box as she talked the dog would tilt her head to one side to listen to everything deb said.

    Darla returned and seemed to be in a better mood. She engaged in conversation about Deb’s furnishing of her house , which appeared to be a museum of sorts , with old photographs of Deb”s dad on old motorcycles and old cars sitting at the old antique gas pumps that appeared to have been right in front of debs house slash gas station years ago. Deb commented that her father bought this place off an old man back in the early thirties and that it was the general store , post office and general meeting place for many a local folk . She grew up pumping gas for her dad and working on cars. She never knew she was supposed to have clean hands and finger nails as her mom who was supposed to show her how to be a woman had died early of a complication during the still born death of her sister. Her mom had an infection originating from that still born birth that resulted in her losing her life when Deb was very young around three years old.

     Deb grew up under her dad’s tutelage and was never taught all the fine things a woman shouldn’t do but instead learned them over the years. The state forced her dad to remove the old leaking gas tanks that were the mainstay of his business and forced him to just repair autos. Deb learned the ins and outs of being a mechanic from her dad who had recently passed all the while through his illness she stayed and cared for him .

     She never really was away from her dad anytime in her life as she lived not far away from here with her husband at the time  and would daily talk to her dad and check on him . It wasn’t till her dad was sick her husband put up such a fuss that Deb couldn’t understand where he was coming from. As she only had one husband and no kids due to the fact he was sterile from his first marriage,  she also only had one dad and they had more history together. She had no choice but to let her husband go since he couldn’t accept the fact Deb cared so much for him. So after her dad died,  she and her ex  tried to get back together but the words said while breaking up haunted deb till she felt she was better off alone.

    Deb says to us both as we finished our tea. “ And now that is my life story summed up over the 48 years I have been around in ten minutes,.” she laughed as she threw her head back and bounced the curly brown hair on her head , causing her to run her fingers through her hair to pull it back out of her face. Deb asked if we would like another cup of tea.

    “Deb I am thinking that I need to get moving on the Road Warrior as Darla needs to get somewhere more accommodating than what we have now or I need to fix the road warrior so she can have the amenities if you know what I mean. Besides I would like to take a shower also.”

   “Well Darla you can stay in the house here if you like or whatever and I will show Guy here where all my stuff is and we will get that thing fixed up the best we can here. Haven’t seen to many things put together by man I couldn’t fix some way so let’s get started.”

    “Do you have internet here?” Darla asked Deb

    “Normally we do but we also lost internet and some electric was lost at the neighbors as the wild fire had burned the electric lines and blew transformers. I guess it may be a week before we get service or they open the road up.” Deb said

    “You mean we could be stuck here a week?” Darla asked.

   “ I have seen it last more than a week as it took out a large section of forest and those trees laid down over the road and it not only burned up the road but snarled any advance by line crews as they had to saw their way through the e mammoth redwoods to get out here. A fire north of us as we have now and one south isolated us as it is doing this time. We are in a protected forest area with limited roadways except fire roads. So finding a way out can be a problem.” Deb stated.

   “What if you are seriously hurt?” Darla asked

   “Well they can medi- vac you out and let everyone know that, but you had better be seriously hurt or someone is going to complain. Knew a local drunk named Bill who wandered in here the last time we had this happen and wanted some beer as he was jones-ing it. When he found out we didn’t have beer he asked to use the phone. Our phone was working that time and I thought he was calling someone to tell them he was all right instead he was calling 911 and complaining of chest pains . They swoop in with a helicopter and pluck him up and I can remember the smile on his face knowing he would soon be closer to the alcohol he desired. Well after they hooked him up to the monitor and ran a strip , they found out he did have a heart problem and he was going to have to have surgery to correct a valve problem .” Deb pauses and then continues.

   “He never did make it out of the hospital as the stress of quitting drinking in the hospital and the combination of the surgery finally did him in” Deb says and then she continues. “Imagine there is a moral to that story but not quite sure what that might be.”

    “Wow that is crazy. So this happens often?” Darla asked.

      As we all rise to go outside and deb says.  “Only about once a year during the dry season. Some idiot decides to leave a fire unattended or a lightning strike, and next thing you know it is roaring. Dad said that is the reason the old man who built the station, built it out here in this open spot so the fires wouldn’t get the place. It has been here over 80 years and although we have had a few close calls with scrub burning no major fires yet.” Deb said.

      Darla says to us, “Well I will leave you guys go about things and I will fix us some sandwiches or something to eat and stay in the cool of the Road Warrior if you don’t need me.”
    I said. “ No I think we can handle this, that sounds good Darla.”

     Darla went inside the Road Warrior and Deb and I went to the rear of the Road Warrior and looked at the damage to see if she could fix it or I for that matter. We both climbed under the Road Warrior and it was then I had my first look at how bad it was and how close the road Warrior was to blowing up. The fire caused the sewer tank to melt and the flames off of that ended up eating its way into the propane tank storage area and you could see burn marks where the plastic tank fumes were licking at the side of the propane tanks. Too much heat and they vent and explode setting the Road Warrior into a rolling inferno. It never happened and we were lucky.

    Deb thought she had a truck tire to replace the one burned so that the Road Warrior would have a full complement of wheels. As far as the tank went Deb thought she had aplastic tank that would serve as a sewage tank but that it was much bigger than the area it needed to go in. She felt maybe she had a trailer it would fit on and that I could put the trailer on behind the Road Warrior in place of the Jeep and that she had flexible hoses that we could adapt to the burned fittings and then I or I shall say we could use the facilities again. She also had a pressure washer to clean the burn marks off the side of the Road Warrior and she mentioned the loss of trim as battle scars only a Road Warrior should have . The satellite seemed to have only a wire burned and I suggested to Deb I fix that first and that way Darla could contact Ann and let her know what happened. It would also give us a line in case of an emergency. Satellites only need power to work.

     It seemed as if we had a plan and that I would have to leave the Jeep here. Deb said it didn’t look too bad and that she would fix it and that she would hold it till I was able to come back and pay her for her all she is going to do. Also I could bring the trailer back when I didn’t need it but I could keep the plastic tank.

    I laughed when she said that and said. “You mean you don’t want your tank back why Deb?”

    She laughed and said to me. “Come on Guy let’s get busy and quit messing around.” She said with a smile and then continued.  “Daylights a burning.”