Stranded In Wells

I was on a family vacation in Truckee, California at my grandparent's cabin all week.  There is limited wifi and service coverage there.  So all week, I haven't been able to go on my blog much.  I was planning on writing one on Sunday, but then I didn't have wifi and I didn't have much to say.  Yet, I did plan on writing a Wonderful Wednesday post on Wednesday.  On Tuesday I started to write, but again, the wifi was against me.  Wednesday I was driving home, which is an 8-9 hour drive, so I thought I would just post something late Wednesday around 9:00 pm Utah time, but then an adventure began...

My sister and I got stranded in Wells, Nevada.

It's a long story, but I will tell it all.  

I'm also in the process of editing my first video on my new channel where my sister and I told the story, but a little bit of a shortened version.  

So here is the story of how I got stranded in Wells.

When we left Truckee, we wanted to leave late morning so we could get home earlier rather than later.  But also, my sister wanted to see her dog, Duke.  And I wanted to see my 2 year old cousin before she went to bed.  So we left about 10:00 AM and we stopped in Elko for gas.  Thirty miles outside of Elko, twenty miles from Wells, I was traveling down I-80 East and suddenly, my engine seemed to have stop and the car started to slow down.   I pushed on the gas pedal to see if maybe I was just going crazy, but nothing was happening, so I started to pull off onto the shoulder as far as I could before my car would stop completely.

The car was running fine.  It didn't say it overheated; it didn't say oil was low; it didn't say check engine; it didn't say anything.  Yet, the engine still stopped.  I tried to turn the car over, meaning I tried to get the engine started again, it made a noise like it was trying to start, but it didn't.  I opened the hatch for the engine, and a smell I didn't completely smell at first, surrounded me.  I can't really describe it.  It was kind of a burning smell, but not entirely.  I checked the oil level, and the dipstick on my car is really hard to tell where the level is, but I finally discovered that it was extremely low.
I called my mom to figure something out.  What I should do.  I had several family members heading my direction about an hour and a half behind us.  My mom said she would call AAA, but then their systems were down.  So we called Geiko and were able to get a towing company's phone number, but we decided to wait and see if maybe it was the oil.  So we waited for my family to catch up after they stopped in Elko for some oil and then they caught up with us.  We poured the oil in, waited a little bit and then tried to turn the car over.

It didn't work.

So, after talking to my mom, my dad, my grandpa, my uncle, and my grandma on the phone and the other family members who were now with me, we decided to call the tow company to take us to civilization, and then my grandfather would drive three hours from Utah to come tow us home with a trailer.  One of my family members left to get back on the road.  The other waited for a while.  We waited for the tow truck.  We've already been waiting for a couple hours.  I killed the time pretty much on the phone.  My sister had been killing the time by digging a hole in the dirt and rocks and she also drew the illuminati symbol out of rocks.  Just for fun.  By now, our phones were starting to run low on battery and I didn't want the battery of my car to die too, so we tried to preserve them.

Just before the tow truck, my other family left, and we were left alone again, but I was starting to feel a little calmer.  Well almost.  I decided that laughing was better than crying and stressing and freaking out.

Finally, after three hours of waiting, the tow truck came.  We were seated in the tow truck while the guy hooked our car up.  He told us he was a little slower because we were his third tow ever, which was cool, but also made me a little nervous.  He was really nice though and I was able to relax a little bit as the car was securely hooked up.

We were taken to Wells, Nevada.

He dropped us off at the local auto shop, which was closed at this time, and then the tower, is that the right word, left and my sister and I were left to wait for three hours for my grandpa.  We walked around for little bit and discovered that we literally were in the middle of no where.  This town, as my sister described it, was ''like out of a post-apocalyptic scene or a wild west movie.''

Buildings were abandoned, or looked abandoned, mainly because it was about seven and pretty  much everything except restaurants and motels were closed.
There was a little street, not far from us, that was filled with old, historic buildings.  And not far from that, there was a bar and grill.  I was nervous to go anywhere because I couldn't really tell where the entrance is, and I wasn't feeling comfortable in this old town in the middle of nowhere.
Yet, the entire time my sister kept giving me tips for self defense and she kept telling me that because she was there, I was safe.  Given, I can be tough and I have taken Karate, I mean years ago,  but still, but I do get freaked out pretty easily.

We found the restaurant entrance and were able to charge our phones.
We ordered cokes and pizza (our waitress was really nice), and waited for a while.  While we waited, we talked.
We were asked to play pool, but declined.
We ate.
And finally we paid and then we went back to our car and sat there for 45 minutes until my grandpa came.  Every car that passed us, I jumped.  I turned on my hotspot and my sister turned on DanceMoms to get our minds off of it, and about 10 minutes before my grandpa rescued us, I started to calm down quite a bit more.
At this time, it was probably close to 10 and it was pretty dark.  Finally, Grandpa rescued us.

We tried for probably close to an hour to get the car up on the trailer, and we were doing pretty well, until the come along broke and we couldn't loosen the straps.  After stressing out about it all, a sheriff came and tried to help us and a highway patrol man came by and helped us too.  It was stated that it was impossible to get the car on the trailer, so with the helps of the police officers, we were able to get the straps off and then we got on the road back to Utah.

After sleeping in the car and arriving back at home and sleeping for a few hours, Grandpa and I got back in the car and drove 3 hours again, back to Wells, but instead of a trailer, we had a dolly.  The thing that U-Hauls tow cars with.

We got to Wells again and with the help of strangers pushing the car, we were able to get the car on the dolly.  We tied one tire down, but the other tire was near the main street, so we tried to move the car away into a parking lot, but the tire that wasn't tied down ended up getting off the dolly and the front of the dolly got hooked underneath my bumper and it seemed pretty damaged and unfixable, but we pulled the car forward, enough that the tire started to move, and I jumped on the front of the dolly and was able to push it down and we got the tire on and tied up.

It was quite an adventure, filled with stress and anxiety and fear.
It is quite the story.
A story for the children.
A story for the blog.
A story to let others know of adventure.

But we still don't know what's wrong with the car and I am freaking out kinda because I was planning on bringing the car to Florida, but now it looks like I might have to figure something else out, but it is all good.  I was having trouble staying positive yesterday, but now I think I am doing better and trying to feel more positive.

And so tomorrow I will upload another really late Wonderful Wednesday and I feel like it relates to this story, especially since I didn't think I could stay positive about it, but now I want to.

Have a wonderful night, and I'll talk to you later.

LOVE,
KM