The next morning I dropped by John Ferrie's and loaded the rest of my parts into the back of the pickup. Gave everyone my thanks and said my good-byes. Checked my load again and began my journey home. I decided at the last moment to return to Los Angeles by way of Phoenix, so I could show off my new prize to my brother Scott. It meant an extra day on the road, but I figured it'd be worth it. So I headed south towards New Mexico. All went well that first day, I stopped often to check my load and field questions about the Carryall. It attracted a lot of attention!
Day 2 on the road, east of Las Vegas, NM
The next day I was gassing up in Las Vegas, New Mexico on the road to Santa Fe, when a fellow suggested I head south to I-40. He said it was faster. I wanted to see Santa Fe, but faster sounded good. Twenty eight miles later, my trip was rudely interrupted. Evidently the folks that balanced and rotated my tires, neglected to tighten the lug nuts on one of the wheels. And I was more concerned about my load than my tow rig, so things didn't get checked like they should have. So 400 miles later the wheel fell off! Fortunately I had just pulled off the main highway to grab a sandwich and was only going about 10 mph when the back of the truck dropped to the ground and my tire rolled off into the ditch. The mishap busted off two lug bolts, mangled the threads on the rest, chewed up the holes on my wheel, scored the brake drum, and scattered brake parts for about 15' down the road. Fortunately the trailer brakes were involved so I think it prevented the wheel cylinder from blowing out. I managed to find all of the brake parts and finally got them hammered back straight and put them back together. Using two lug nuts from each of the other wheels, I limped on down the road to the next town of any size, Moriarty, NM about 100 miles away! I didn't want to go back to Las Vegas since it was a fairly small town and I was worried about finding parts there on a weekend. I found a small garage in Moriarty that was open, and the next day, Sunday we managed to find all the needed parts in Albuquerque, to make the repairs.
D'oh!
I think I need to rethink the guardian angel idea, because only a moment before the incident happened I was going 70 mph. What fun that would've been trying to maintain control of both the truck and the trailer, in traffic while trying to stop. Normally I wouldn't have considered stopping in an area like that. I just had an overwhelming urge to stop, NOW! This place reminded me of the scene from "North by Northwest" where Cary Grant is dropped off at an intersection in the middle of nowhere, where you can see for miles in all four directions, and see nothing. A tow truck was called by an elderly couple who stopped to see if I was all right, but it never came. Just as well, probably saved me several hundred dollars in towing fees, since I would've needed two trucks. Initially I started to rebuild the brakes with the idea that I needed to be able to roll the truck away from the trailer in order to get the tow truck in. Then when I got it together it seemed rather stable and road worthy, I decided, "why not give it a go?" I was worried about those brake parts failing, but all turned out well.