“Your trailer wheels are rubbing together!” screamed the trucker from his cab window traveling down the freeway at sixty miles per hour. Since, I am a little deaf, I had to ask my son what the trucker said. Our wheels are rubbing together; what is he talking about? Is this a joke?
Okay, so we’ll pull over and have a look. Wow! The toy hauler suspension bracket weld broke and the front and rear tires were rubbing together at sixty miles per hour until the tires were almost melted from the heat!
So our thanksgiving desert motorcycle riding trip is going to come to an end right here on the side of the freeway. Big time bummer! My thirteen year son isn’t going to get a big kick out of solving this mess.
How am I going to fix this mess anyway? I have to pull myself together and start problem solving. After all, I am Mr. Fix It. I can’t be towed. Welder, I need a welder. I call one of the Mr. Fix It plumbers. He asks a few questions and starts to work gathering up two more guys, welding tools, floor jacks, etc. for the 1 ½ hour drive out to where we are broken down beside the 10 east.
As I am hanging up the cell phone and thinking about the long night ahead of me, I notice out of my peripheral vision, an old car pulling over behind us. I turn to look and see two scroungy looking characters, one male, and one female. Oh no, they have spotted weakness and are pulling over to rob us!
I do a gut instinct check and cautiously approach their car. As I am leaning down to the open driver’s side window, observing the greasy clothes and hands of the driver, he blurts out, “What’s the problem? I’m road service.”
I said, “The suspension bracket is broken. Who are you again?”
“Road service.”
“Well, do you want to take a look?” I asked, while I’m thinking about all the ways I have to anticipate an attack from this guy. I mean, if you are road service, where are your truck and tools? Did the government start some new program to help freeway stranded toy haulers? Yeah, right.
“Sure”. And with that, he jumps out of his beat up car and joins me at the side of trailer. As he starts muttering to himself, I am wondering what he is high on and what is the point of this guy being here. But desperation can create some strange bedfellows.
The next thing I know, this character is grabbing a big rock from the desert! Oh no, he is going to hit me over the head! He shoves it between the tires while explaining that I need to drive slightly forward to separate the tires and force part of the suspension back in some other direction and what the heck, this guy already knows what to do!
Just as he said, the tires separated and then in a blink, he magically produces a jack from his car with no tools and is jacking up something and giving me instructions to stick a piece of wood in here and tie something around it and wow! Then he is pointing out an area off the freeway where there are a lot of industrial buildings and telling me I will find a welder over there somewhere. Just drive slow and I will make it over there.
As he is pulling away, I am so grateful and so impressed, I yell out, “What’s your name?” Like from a cowboy movie I saw once where the hero, maybe Clint Eastwood, is riding away and some grateful, impressed kid is yelling, “What’s your name?”
“Robert” he yelled back and he was off. I saw a smile on the females face. I guess she was impressed too. Or maybe just my childish glee brought that smile. Her man was the hero that day.
It is 4:30pm. I have to hurry because everything is going to close. Well, sleeping off the freeway is better than waking up dead after an eighteen wheeler smashes into us ruining my pleasant dream. Keep the speed down, keep it down, I remind myself as we limp along.
Thank goodness, off the freeway. Into the industrial area. What’s that! Something body shop! They should have a welder. My thirteen year old goes running across the street and disappears into the shop.
Here he comes back with two men. One is a welder and thinks he can do the job. Wonderful! When? “I can get to it next Monday” he says. Let me think. Today is Tuesday. We have friends waiting on us at Ocotillo Wells right now. Thanksgiving is Thursday. We are driving home on Sunday. No, next Monday doesn’t work. Got anything else up your sleeve? And, please, pull it out fast!
You will stay late when you get off work and do it. And I will pay you direct. Fantastic! Let’s go. And I need two new tires. What about that? The manager already has a guy from a tire shop on the phone. They close at six so we have to hurry.
So, the I-10 Collision Center, Facho De La Fuente, is coordinating the welder, another guy cutting some steel bar for reinforcement, and another guy on the phone to the tire store, telling them to stay open for us. All of these guys have a mission in front of them and they are all focused on working away.
I am stressed out because if any part of this plan doesn’t work, I am still stuck and my vacation is blown. Next thing you know, the bracket is welded and they are all telling me to get going because the tire store is staying open and waiting on me.
The tire store guys all know the I-10 Collision Center guys and sure enough they are waiting for us. We no sooner roll up and jacks are flying under the trailer and impact guns are screaming! It looked like an Indianapolis 500 pit stop!
I called the Mr. Fix It plumber back and told him I wasn’t going to need them after all; that I had gotten very lucky; again and again and again still. So to Robert, wherever you are, to all the guys who helped us out at the I-10 Collision Center, 31248 Dunham Way, Thousand Palms, California, 760-343-1115, to the guys at America’s Tire Company, 72820 Dinah Shore Drive, Palm Desert, California, 760-324-5694, my most sincere thank you.
You guys knew my son and I were in a tough spot. You could have passed us by on the freeway without stopping, you could have overcharged us, you could have gone home at closing time, you could have helped us but not really put much effort into the job, you could have made a lot of other choices.
But none of you did. You all chose to help us. And because of all of you, we met our friends in the desert and had a great Thanksgiving vacation. I gave thanks for my blessings of good health, a loving wife and family, a sound business, and a bunch of strangers who went out of their way to help me.
I hope if any of you are in a tough plumbing spot, you think to call Mr Fix It Plumbing. We will treat you right.
