Never a Good Time for a Flat Tire

We were in Jensen, UT. Our house was closing on Monday. We had the 23 pages of documents in email. They had to be printed, two notarized, many filled out and signed, and overnighted back to Kansas City. It was Friday night. We didn’t have much time but we had a plan: Run into the nearby and much larger town of Vernal, find a UPS or FedEx store, and take care of the whole thing. Easy.

400 pounds of flatness

While driving into Vernal at 10:30 Saturday morning, our right rear tire decided to split on the sidewall. One of the fears we discussed before leaving on the trip was becoming a reality. Very bad luck. We pulled over in the parking lot of a Chevron on the edge of town. In order to accomplish our mission, we would need loads of good luck…

It just so happened that two days earlier as we were driving from the Arapaho forest to Dinosaur National Monument, Jane was on her phone looking into Good Sam. Good Sam is an RV club that offers discounts to members at RV parks, gas stations, and RV related stores. We decided to sign up. While going through the process, we were offered six months road side assistance for 40 bucks. Not a bad deal. We took it. First piece of good luck.

As I was checking out the flat, Jane was on the phone with Good Sam. I later learned that Good Sam stands for good Samaritan. But they were not the only good Samaritan. A young guy whose mother was working at the Chevron, pulled over by us in his pickup truck and offers to help. Second piece of good luck. His name was Clayton and he worked as a local truck mechanic. He was willing to help and was perfect for the job. While Good Sam was finding our help, Clayton and I removed the spare tire. I should mention that the tires are as big and heavy as they look. 47 inches tall and all of 400 lbs. After removing the lug nuts on the spare and lowering it with the winch, Clayton went down to his shop to get a jack.

The clock was ticking on being able to get our documents taken care of in time. We assumed that places would close at noon or shortly thereafter. While I took care of things at the truck, Jane launched into the unknown. OK, that may be a little too dramatic. What we did was remove the folding, electric mountain bike from the garage on the back of the truck. I set it up and Jane pedaled into town get the paperwork going. She was going to try FedEx and UPS.

Back at the truck, I was on the phone several times with Good Sam and worked with Clayton to jack up the truck. His jack was pneumatic and we were hoping to get air from the truck. The truck has connections to operate the air brakes to enable towing or being towed. We were not able to get this to work. Just when we were looking for a Plan B, Good Sam contacted us and all was approved for a local shop to help. Third piece of good luck: it was a commercial tire shop that happened to be on the other side of the Chevron.

Meanwhile, Jane returned from her outing. I mentioned earlier that she was riding an e-bike. What I didn’t tell you is that in our scramble to get her going, we could not find the keys to turn on the power. So, she had been getting some good exercise over the last hour. She rolled in with some bad news. Neither FedEx nor UPS were options. They were both closed and were more of distribution centers anyway. Jane got the idea to try the library for printing. She was off again. Fortunately, I had found the keys for the bike by this time and she had the pedal assist engaged for this trip (the pedal assist is awesome!)

Help from the commercial tire shop showed up. He had a service truck with everything he needs: air jack, compressor, pneumatic lug wrench that can fit our bulky lug nuts. He got to work. I stayed out of his way.

We still didn’t know how we are going to get everything done. Time and options seemed to be running out. I got on Google Maps to find a solution. It turned out that Wells Fargo has a location nearby and offers notary services. Also, the post office is open until 1:00. There was a glimmer of hope.

Jane: Fleet footed goddess of document printing and delivery

The mechanic got the job done very efficiently. His experience working on large trucks has paid off for us. I stuck everything back into the truck and head over to the commercial tire shop to pay the bill. I texted Jane to meet me there. It was now just after 12:00. Jane arrives just as I finished paying. We stowed the e-bike and raced off (as fast as the Buffalo can “race” at least). Jane successfully printed everything at the library and now we had to get two documents notarized. Off to Wells Fargo!

Wells Fargo was about five miles away inside of a Walmart. After an awesomely illegal parking job right next to the entrance, we ran in to find a line of about five people. This would not work. It was closing in on 12:30. We pleaded with the folks in line in front of us and each was kind enough to let us in front of them. Fourth piece of good luck!

Now notarizing is a legal process and takes detailed documentation steps including filling out a ledger, checking IDs, and stamping, and WILL YOU JUST LET US SIGN IT ALREADY SO WE CAN GET TO THE POST OFFICE!!!

Ok, take a breath Matt. In… out…

Notarized documents in hand, we sprinted out of the Walmart, hopped in the truck, got berated by a Walmart supervisor for our parking job, and headed to the post office. It’s 12:50.

The advantage of small towns is that everything is close. The post office is less than two miles away. We entered five minutes before closing. We still had to fill out and sign about ten other documents. Jane asked the clerks if it is OK if we run a little past closing. They were OK with it. Fifth piece of good luck!

We filled out and sign everything and gave it to the clerks. They can get it there by Monday 3:00. It will be there in time for the closing! Mission accomplished!!!