Stranded While Traveling to Black Hills, Again

I must be bad luck. For the second time in as many hunting trips to the Black Hills, I was left stranded after the vehicle broke down.

Two years ago I was riding with my brother Joe in my truck. We didn't make it far. One mile before the Humboldt exit, my truck started riding rough and making noise. As I wondered what the hell was going on, Joe, a former auto mechanic and service manager, was already saying "Slow down, you got a flat tire!" He was right, it was shredded. After a nearly four hour delay, we had new tires on and were heading down the road.

On Friday, after stopping for lunch in Oacoma, my brother-in-law's truck started riding rough and making noise. He pulled over and I wondered out loud if he had a flat. But I knew it was different than my flat tire. As we sat there trying to figure out what to do I blurted out Luke Skywalker's line from Return of the Jedi: "I'm endangering the mission, I shouldn't have com."

I think I was right. Only it was much worse than my truck. He limped the truck to the Ford dealership in Chamberlain and found out his engine was unfortunately toast. But he still wanted to go hunting. Luckily my wife was able to drive out with our Suburban and my mom followed in her van to pick her up. Five hours later we were back on the road again.

We missed out on the evening hunt we had planned on but at least we made it. And thank you to the fine folks at Willrodt Ford in Chamberlain for letting us squat in your waiting room for four of those hours. Your hospitality and Hallmark Channel movies were much appreciated!