The Journey

Our Adventure in the Desert

We met Jim and Karen Thomson four summers ago when we were all volunteers at Angostura State Park in Hot Springs, SD. We camped next to each other, worked together, and became good friends. Jim and Karen quit full-time RVing and now live in Safford, AZ. They came to visit us on Thursday, August 23rd, parking their truck camper behind our trailer at the Kaibab Lodge on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

We went sightseeing on Friday and visited four or five points on the north rim. Each point gives you a unique view of the canyon. We thought about going to Toroweap, the most gorgeous view of the canyon and Colorado River, but decided that we would do that on Saturday.

On Saturday morning we packed a picnic lunch and headed out. We drove about 70 miles on the highway and then hit the “primitive” road to Toroweap—61 miles of dirt, dust, washboard and gravel. About 40 miles into the dirt road we saw a sign that said “Colorado City 28 miles”, and we decided that we would take that road on the way out. It would make the overall trip about 30 miles longer, but it would be 30 miles on good roads. We arrived at Toroweap, walked around, took some photos, looked over the edge at the rafts going down the river, and enjoyed our lunch. We observed some nasty looking clouds passing us by from southwest to northeast. We were surprised that we didn’t get any rain.

On our way back to civilization we noticed that it had rained in this area. We took the turn-off to Colorado City. We were surprised that this road was in so much better shape than the first. We traveled 6 or 7 trouble-free miles, going through three or four nice sized puddles. This was fun; we were four-wheeling. About 7 miles in, we saw that an earthen dam had broken and the water was emptying out of the pond and running down the road. Another quarter mile and we saw that a vehicle was stopped at the side of the road and that part of the road had washed away. We stopped behind the other car, and met its occupants: Mauritio and Sophia from Rome, Italy. They didn’t speak English. We noticed that the water level had receded greatly and decided that we could safely pass after about 45 minutes. We thought that the water was on the road only because the dam had broken. Although communicating was difficult, we determined that we would lead and the Italians would follow us.

Everything was good for about two miles. We then came to a huge puddle across the entire road and about 100 yards long. We knew that the water was only 15-18 inches deep so we went through this puddle (pond). Another two miles and we came to an impassable amount of water. Although it wasn’t deep, it was at least a quarter-mile long and we could see that some big rocks had washed onto the road. We decided it was time to go back. The Italians turned around without a problem. When we attempted to turn around, my front wheels sunk in the mud, to the axles, and we were stuck, blocking the entire road. The Italians attempted to help us, but we were hopelessly stuck.

We decided that I would go with the Italians and get help. Gwen, Jim, and Karen would stay with the truck. If someone came along and freed them, they would come out the same way we would be coming in and all would be good. We got into the Jeep Liberty and headed back the way we came. Sophia was a mess, almost hysterical, shaking and crying. I kept telling her that everything was okay, calm down, we’ll be okay. We went about two miles to the next big puddle, started through it, and got stuck. The engine died right in the middle.

The water was about up to the quarter panel. We got out. I was carrying my shoes, and had my pant legs rolled up. Mauritio just jumped out and was wet up to his knees immediately. Sophia did the same as me and stayed dry for about two minutes. The mud was very cold and slippery. She slipped and fell into the water. Although it was only 15 to 18 inches deep, it started to carry her away. She would have only gone about 100 yards, because that’s as far as the water reached. Mauritio tried to grab Sophia and he fell, too. I managed to stay on my feet and stay dry. So now I’m stuck in the desert with two Italians and one of them is hysterical. Mauritio tells me: “You go. I stay. Ees eemposseeblay, her like this. We stay with car.” Finally, I was able to convince him that he couldn’t stay with the car, because it might rain again and the water may go over the car.

We started walking, and we walked at a good clip for about two hours. Sometimes it was muddy and slippery, and other times we walked on a fairly hard surface. At about 6:00, we saw a car coming toward us. The car stopped and we met Larry from Detroit. Larry didn’t speak Italian, but he had worked in Turino, Italy, for awhile. He was much better at communicating with our new friends. Larry drove us back to Fredonia. We arrived there at about 7:00 p.m.

Originally, I was going to call Good Sam Road Service. Now that we had two vehicles stuck, I decided to call my boss, Chris, who said he would be right there. He had to travel 60 miles just to get to us. When Larry knew that we had help on the way, he left, heading for Mesquite, NV. Chris arrived at about 8:10, and we headed out into the desert.

At about 10:00 p.m. the Italians’ rented Jeep came into view along with another surprise. Jimmy Hughes, a mortgage broker from St. George, UT, his two sons, his truck and horse trailer were also stuck at the same place.

We got out of Chris’s truck, stepping into ankle deep mud. First we hooked a tow strap to the Jeep and pulled that out of the puddle. Jimmy’s horse trailer was empty, and he had already unhooked it from his truck. We pulled his truck free and headed up to my truck. Gwen, Jim, and Karen were really glad to see us, since it was now around 11 p.m., and they were starting to think that they would be spending the night there. We hooked up the tow line and pulled the truck out without much difficulty, turned the three trucks around and headed back to the Jeep.

The Jeep still wouldn’t start, probably because of water in the engine. It took us quite awhile to convince Mauritio that it would do more harm than was already done if we towed him 60 miles into town. It was still very hard to communicate with him. Finally, Jimmy asked Mauritio if he understood Portuguese. This solved the communication problem and we were shortly on our way.

Jimmy was taking Mauritio and Sophia to St. George and he would get them help in the morning and make sure that they got their vehicle out of there.

The rest of us headed to Fredonia and up the mountain to the lodge. We arrived home at about 2:10 a.m.

Now here is the thing that will never allow me to forget this adventure. I found myself in the middle of the Arizona desert with several good friends, at midnight, with a white American man from St. George, UT, who was speaking Portuguese to two Italians who didn’t speak English. UNBELIEVABLE!