Good people of Rock Springs, Wyoming

Here is the view out our room window. This is another part of the "high desert" in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, were we find there is Flaming Gorge and wild horses. It's amazing what you find when you get off the interstate. This morning, with Bob's advice, I called Phil at ABCO about the explorer. To this point, based on all of the people we have met here, I believe I can say that we have found some friends in this town. I already mentioned Angelina and Jessica from the Hampton Inn. Jessica gave us a number of a towing service here in Rock Springs and one in a near by town. We chose the local number and landed "Bob's Towing". This guy started out tough with a quoted fee and the statement; "You'll have to have cash". I'm sure that was due to the fact that he had been ripped off in the past. Well, he came and picked us up and dropped us off at the Hampton Inn. He was going to drop the Explorer off the truck to make it easier to get our stuff out, but I talked him out of it, though it was a bit of a balancing act to get the doors open on the flatbed. He said to call him about 9am Saturday. ON the 40 or so mile trip back to Rock Springs, I think we learned more about Bob and his family than from anyone in that length of time. However, it was just friendly conversation, not anything overbearing. We enjoyed him.

Saturday morning I called him and he said, "I thought you picked it up, it's not here".. This should give you some idea of his sense of humor. He quickly followed with, "I took it for a 15 mile drive this morning and couldn't find a thing, so I took it to Plains Tire to see if they could figure it out." So I called Plains Tire. While on the phone we were discussing that it sure seemed like a wheel bearing, but nothing was for sure. During that time, the mechanic came and told they guy I was talking to that the "scope" pointed to a transfer case. Problem is that they don't do transfer case work. There are apparently 2 qualified places in this town of about 19,000 people (http://www.rockspringswyoming.net/). It was unanimous that the local Ford dealership was a problem. The guy from Plains Tire brough our vehicle to pick me up and I took him back. I went in to settle up. "Since we couldn't find anything we could fix, there's no charge."... What? What auto service do you know that would do that? Then I went next door to settle with Bob. I had to expose my sense of humor by asking him, "I have my car and my keys, what made you think I would come back and pay you?" I didn't tell you that when he dropped us off, I assumed he would want the money then; he said we would settle later. So to my question he said, "I trusted you". Something tells me that in that ride back to Rock Springs, he was making his decision regarding our character. Anyway, assuming there would legitimately be some tacked on the the fee he quoted me over the phone, I asked what I owed him. He gave me a figure $20 LESS than the quote. I asked for advice regarding Monday as ABCO and Six States Distributors don't work on Saturday. We discussed the possibilities, then he said, just come back here Monday morning and we'll get it done. (Meaning he, a local, would "go before us" to get the best situation.)

OK, that's Bob!

Monday; Bob sent me to ABCO and told me to talk with Phil. I called Phil who told me to bring it over, he took me "home" and said he would at least have a diagnosis today. About mid afternoon, he called to say that it was a transfer case. Problem was that the closest one is in Memphis, (and we all know that most of Memphis is at the basketball game.) We decided to have it shipped "emergency" with the idea that it would probably be here Wednesday rather than Thursday, but possibly tomorrow (Tuesday). He said he could have it installed in a few hours. The costs he quoted seemed reasonable.

Since we needed to make the Hampton Inn as our "home" for a few days, and the specific number of days was unknown, we brought our problem to the folks at the Hampton. Chief among these people was Kathy. Although there is a group coming to town that will fill the Hampton, she has assured us that we will have a place to stay if we need it. We had a bit of a problem with a couple of items in the room and Kathy spent considerable time working that out. In all of this we had several conversations that to us formed another "kinship", especially as we found that like us, she lives a faith based life. We traded family stories, coming to the conclusion that although we must always do the best we can, we simply don't have much control over the happenings in our lives. She had read our blogs and among other things, was touched with the TJ horror, especially as they had a similar experience in their family. And of course, "why" often doesn't get answered. Jessica told us about "Wonderful House" a Chinese food place down the street. Georgia loves Panda Express Orange Chicken. So we asked if there was a Panda Express in town. Jessica said, "No, I wish there were, but Wonderful House has great Orange Chicken..." How did she know it was Orange Chicken we were after... hmmm. Those folks were also great as well as the little lady at the Local Pizza Hut who directed me to the Post Office. This morning, Julie at the desk at the Hampton Inn performed some kind of "majic" (I spelled it that way because Kathy Majdic told me they would perform magic necessary due to the conference if we needed to stay over.) Now Kathy has assured us of a room for Tuesday nite if we should need it, and we'll play each day by ear. Hopefully we will be on our way soon. In the meantime, we're getting rest and interfacing with some wonderful people. And now that we know what's here, we may need to come back just to visit Sweetwater County.

Bulletin::: Phil called about 5 minutes before I had planned to call him to see how to plan this day. He said, "are you ready to go?" The part was there this morning when they opened, they had removed the old part last nite and had it finished by 10 am this morning. The bill was, I think reasonable. As I finish this, we are sitting in the Hampton Inn in Laramie where we were stuck on the way out due to weather. Overjoyed with the friendly and honest folks in Rock Springs. So as I say, there are a lot of nice people in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

You know how people who live next to railroad tracks get used to trains and soon it is part of their "background"? Well, the interstate runs "through" Rock Springs and it is uphill near here. So the "background" is trucks downshifting. An interesting concept for we prairie dwellers.

As a bit of an explanation; I started this post on Sunday in Rock Springs and finished it on Tuesday in Laramie. Therefore, it might be more disjointed than usual.