03-20-2015, 07:40 PM
You'll appreciate this: the way we wound up in Niles Canyon was, we came out from Dallas to Vegas in the trailer overloaded with tools and crap and a broke down van that never should have made the end of the block. Got it all the way to Vegas with the clutch slipping so bad we got stuck going up the long side of Hoover Dam being unable to downshift into first and thought we were going to slide backwards and take about a hundred cars stuck behind us out along the way. I'm not a religious man, but I prayed a little that day. Then when Pop decided Vegas was a bust, we loaded up and went north west toward the Napa valley. The van wasn't any better and it finally gave out on that nasty outside curve halfway between Fremont and the other side.Westbound. At 5pm. On a Friday. We broke down bent around that curve with our whole van and camper blocking traffic in both directions for the entire stretch almost, and pop sent me down the road on a moped to try and get help while he fixed the van. I found Storman Norman who had this big-ass Caddy, so he followed up the wrong way on the road trying to outrace the cops and tow trucks because pop was illegal as hell.
So they're desperately trying to hook a chain up and use the caddy to drag us the rest of the way to the campsite, the van ain't budging, the miles of cars are getting louder and longer, and about six cars back inching forward is the tow truck. The cop had got to us but said we could leave without being towed if Norman can pull us, but the fucking thing WILL NOT BUDGE. Finally just as the truck gets there and the cop says "OK you gotta unhook her and get this road clear NOW!" Pop yells "OH SHIT I HAD THE PARKING BRAKE ON!" lol what a clusterfuck that was. I have been cursed out many times by people before and since, but never by quite so many people at the same time. That was our intro to Niles Canyon Road. Tell me that isn't a story you want to hear more of.
So they're desperately trying to hook a chain up and use the caddy to drag us the rest of the way to the campsite, the van ain't budging, the miles of cars are getting louder and longer, and about six cars back inching forward is the tow truck. The cop had got to us but said we could leave without being towed if Norman can pull us, but the fucking thing WILL NOT BUDGE. Finally just as the truck gets there and the cop says "OK you gotta unhook her and get this road clear NOW!" Pop yells "OH SHIT I HAD THE PARKING BRAKE ON!" lol what a clusterfuck that was. I have been cursed out many times by people before and since, but never by quite so many people at the same time. That was our intro to Niles Canyon Road. Tell me that isn't a story you want to hear more of.