Today we had two choices . . . One, to drive four hours into the Needles National Park or two, à two-hour round trip to see the Needles Overlook. Needless to say, we chose the latter.
After viewing the Needles Overlook, we decided to continue on the 15-mile dirt road to see another overlook.
Disaster Almost Hits Near Needles Overlook
Just before arriving at the second overlook, we were scared that our bad luck would continue. There was a washout in the road we didn’t see, and we hit a pothole hard.
There was some scraping and clunking, and we thought we’d wrecked the muffler or something. We didn’t see anything when we stopped and looked under the car. However, we continued to hear a noise.
We thought it best to get back to town as soon as possible and see if we could get a mechanic to check out the car.
At this point, it’s important to point out that Louise and I both had different but excellent roaming packages. Unfortunately, this didn’t amount to much since the reception has been terrible in 80% of where we’ve been driving.
Of course, we had no reception in the middle of nowhere. We kept checking to see, and Louise finally got two bars. She tried to phone a mechanic in Monticello, but the line was busy. She could get to her motel and ask them to call and explain the situation.
We got back into town around 3:30, and the mechanic was kind enough to check under the chassis but didn’t see anything. I mentioned that the noise seemed to have stopped, and he offered to take the car for a short drive on our dirt road to see for himself. The good news is that he didn’t hear anything. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the car.
When we asked what we had to pay, he kindly said nothing except for a hug. Once again, this confirmed our feelings that the people of Monticello were just so helpful and generous.
Our day was pretty much shot, but we walked around Lloyd’s Lake’s local areas. Here we had a few deer pass right in front of us on their way from the lake to the forest.
We were pretty tired from all our travels and stress, so we spent the evening ordering a pizza and watching TV.
Lessons Learned
- Don’t drive on dirt roads, no matter how good they look… especially in a car rental when you can’t get phone reception.