Field Week of Doom Part 3: The Breakdown

That evening, when we got back to our campsite, I noticed a trickle of what looked like oil in a line behind the truck.  I spent a few minutes looking underneath, but couldn't find a source for the dripping.  Still, I checked behind the truck a few times while we were driving around the next day and didn't see anything else, so I figured it was nothing. 

But when we arrived back at camp again that afternoon, the oil line was back.  Where was it coming from?  I checked the oil.  Yes, I know you're not supposed to check the oil after the vehicle has just been running.  But if anything, it would run low, and when I checked, it was just fine.  Well above the minimum line.

Elk Girl helped me find the source of the problem.  There was a hole punched in the rear differential casing and the oil was leaking out of it.  Why I hadn't noticed that before, I have no idea.  I also had no idea what a rear differential was, why it was important, or why it needed fluid.  As it turns out, the fluid lubricates the gears that keep the back of the truck moving.  Really!  Elk Girl didn't know much either but she called her husband (oh yeah, they have a phone there too) who does know some things about vehicle maintenance.  He said if it were his truck, he'd duct tape the hole so nothing more would leak out, and drive it to town for repairs.  This seemed reasonable, and I wasn't about to call dispatch again to get it towed (that was his other advice) so we packed up our stuff and headed to Reserve.

Ok, looking back, this is the luckiest part of the story.  Despite some minor grinding of gears, the drive to Reserve was relatively uneventful.  This is lucky because there is nothing, absolutely nothing, between the Negrito Base and Reserve.  It took a little over an hour to get into town, and somehow, we made it.  Right when we were on the edges of town, I heard the gears grinding again, and this time it did not sound good.  I told this to Egghead, and he said "No, I think that's just a helicpoter."  What????  A helicopter???  No Egghead, that is our gears grinding.  Seriously... what was he thinking?

He finally agreed that it was, in fact, NOT a helicopter and tried not to push the truck too hard the rest of the way into Reserve. (although I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes...) We made it into the main part of town and turned the corner to go to the Ranger Station, which was about a mile down the road.

As we were driving to the station, we saw some people walking along the road.  Egghead swerved to miss them and I'm pretty sure this is where things got messed up.  We came to a screeching halt right in the middle of the two lane road.  So much for making it to the Ranger Station.  Egghead said to me, "Will you get out and push?"  I looked at him like, are you f-ing kidding me? but there wasn't really much else to do in there so I got out so that I could at least start doing...something.

By this time, the people walking had stopped to see what was going on.  They tried to help me push the truck off the road, but the back was completely locked up.  It wasn't going anywhere.  Soon, the traffic (all three cars) started piling up behind us and Egghead couldn't figure out how to turn on the hazard lights.  Some people driving by offered us a ride to the Ranger Station.  Egghead said I should go and he would stay with the truck.  At first, I thought it was just one guy in there and was about to say, "Heck no!  I'm not getting in a car with some random hick from Reserve."  But it turned out to be a family, and I trusted that more, so I got in and rode with them the short distance to the station.

The family, who turned out to be from Silver City, were very grateful to my organization for helping them with the fires they've been having down there, saying "you're our heroes."  I didn't tell them I wasn't a firefighter.  I was grateful to them, and even though nothing went wrong, I still regret the decision to accept a ride with some random strangers.  It's the one thing throughout this whole fiasco that I really think I shouldn't have done. 

Nevertheless, I made it to the Ranger Station and asked at the front desk where I should go for emergency vehicle maintenance.  They called the repair shop for me and asked if I would be able to drive there.  No, definitely not.  The repair shop would have to bring a tow truck from Luna, the next town over, so the front office staff went off to find someone to help out in the meantime and I sat down to wait.

And that's when the Ranger walked in.   He wanted to have a little chat.

Ohh crap, I thought.  I'm in trouble now.