The next day was Gerald's last day of school for the semester and we decided to show him our work. We were left with few choices of vehicles to take. First choice was Micah's family truck, but unfortunately it was being used. The second was my family's truck, but again it was unreliable since it the ignition was damaged. The last choice was to borrow a car from Bert, a local boy Gerald and Micah knew. The car was bought for $200 so I'll leave it to your imagination its condition. We left late in the afternoon. The next day snow was predicted for our area; the sky was overcast and gray. The eighteen miles to my grandpa's sheep camp was made treacherous by a fall rainstorm that created new arroyos in the road. The car was very low to the ground. Bert drove but he drove very recklessly by hitting stones on the bottom of the car and going too fast over bumps. We made it to "Area 7" after the sun set.
It was very cold so we started a small fire in the shack. It provided some warmth, but the hastily built smokestack was covered in wax. The wax melted away and created a nasty stench in the small shack. We also put a little bit of coal in the fire so it will give off more heat. We sat there in the dimly lit shack chatting away and my cousin and Micah poked fun at the Bert (he was a little on the off side). It was about 9:00 when we decided to leave. The coal fire had been burning too long and it took awhile to completely smolder it.
After experiencing the Bert's driving on the way down, we decided to let Micah drive back home. Micah drove with more speed down the road, because we noticed that the oil light was blinking. After 9 miles the oil light was blinking continously and we hoped that we were going to make it home. Unfortunately, the car suddenly stopped while we were in the river valley. It was 9:30 and it was dark and chilly. You could feel the hint of snow in the air. Micah and Bert tried their best to restart the car, but it turned out that the oil pan broke and the engine locked up. We debated our next move since we knew that we stranded. We saw a truck coming down the road and waved it down. The guy was willing to help us, but he needed to check his livestock first. He said that he will be back in a half hour.
We decided that we couldn't stand around and wait because it was terribly cold. We started pushing the car to keep warm and to get as close to some houses approximately five miles away. Since the local boy weighed the least, he steered. At first we jogged to give the car some momentum. We couldn't sustain the pace very long. So we walked and pushed and rested every 1/10 mile marker we passed. I felt sweat coming down but it made my face cold. Even a tiny rise in the road made the car pushing difficult. Micah, Gerald, Bert, and Gerald's brother shawn took turns steering. Micah and Shawn were too heavy to push the car very far. We stopped nearly after a quarter mile. We talked about our parents; they specifically told us to return when it became very dark. They should know something is wrong since its past 9:30 and we are not back home. After a half mile we exhausted and we saw that we were still very far from our destination. I had taken my camera along and I took a couple of pictures of us to preserve this moment. At this rate, we not going to be home until the next morning.
In the far east we heard a rumble of trucks coming down the road. Quickly we pushed the car to side of the road and turned on the emergency lights. Three trucks capable of pulling us back to the main highway passed us without even having the courtesy to stop. We waved at them and they pulled away into the night. Again our hopes dimished when we saw the three trucks pass us by. Maybe they didn't trust the sight of 5 boys stuck in the middle of nowhere late at night. We pushed the car again for another 200 feet. Shawn heard and saw a distant light coming from the west. We dismissed the sound for the rushing water of the river and the light from the three trucks that passed us. But this time, the sound was of an engine coming closer and we saw a dusty white light shining through the trees from the west. My cousin and Bert recognized the owner of the truck. I guess Bert knew the group from his father's drinking buddies. They stopped and asked us what had happened. My cousin told them who we were by telling them the name of our mothers. We could already tell that they had way too much to drink. The guy went on to say that hisi truck's name was "The Rock" and it could pull anything. They were going to help us, so it didn't matter if they were sober or not.
The guy told us that he was going to pull us to our grandmother's sister's home, about another 5 miles down the road. Micah hooked up the chain the front of the car to the truck. We got into the broken down car while Micah steered the car to keep the chain tight between the car and the truck. We were exhausted, smelled of dust and oil, hungry, and freezing. Surely by now our parents were concerned and should know that we were in trouble. When we finally stopped Gerald went inside and called his mother. But she was not home. Then he tried my mother and my sister answered. He told her about our trouble. Immediately my parents left to pick us up. While we waited we chatted with this guy (still obviously drunk). Micah told him of his 1970 black Camaro and how we ended up in this mess. The guy suddenly went aside and took a piss right beside us. We looked at each other and tried to hold back our laughter. We waited inside the broken down "Blue Concho Belt" car to keep warm. After five minutes we saw my parents coming down in the truck of our second choice. My mom briefly talked to we were herded into the truck. My parents were obviously upset but were glad that we had made it out. We rode in silence on the way back. I started the conversation again. It didn't last long since we were tired. We dropped off Micah, Gerald, Shawn, and Bert at Gerald's house and left back to my house. I returned to my house about 11:00; 5 hours ago, which was supposed to be a 2 hour trip. Oh well, not bad for my first week of winter break.