The kindness of strangers

Everything was going swimmingly, so to speak. We left Lumsden at 9:02 Tuesday morning, a mere two minutes after the scheduled departure; the weather co-operated all the way to Hardin, MT, raining but not snowing or, worse, sleeting and freezing; although Uilleam assumed the Anxious Position as soon as we were going more than 60 kph, he was relatively calm and did not require being wrestled into the back seat even once; And, we got in with time to spare before expiring of hunger.

After an interesting dinner, a reasonable night's sleep and a decent brekkie, we headed to our second port of call, Fort Collins, CO. About 5 miles/8 km. down the road:

Mr. T: I wonder what would cause the battery warning light to come on all of a sudden? Can you just check the manual and see what it says?

Moi: It says CHECK THIS OUT RIGHT AWAY!!! DO NOT DELAY!! YOU MAY EXPERIENCE VERY, VERY UNDESIRABLE CONSEQUENCES IF YOU DO NOT HEED OUR ADVICE.

Mr. T: Oh. Well, it's probably the alternator. We should turn everything off. See if the manual tells how to turn of the daytime running lights, OK?

Moi: (to myself: Turn off the heat? It's -10. Celsius.) OK.

About 10 miles further down the road, we're passing through a very beautiful part of Montana which, by comparison, makes rural Saskatchewan look dangerously overpopulated.

Mr. T: Uh oh. We're in trouble now.

Moi (squeakily) Really? What seems to be the, um, problem?

Mr. T: Well, all the gauges just reset themselves to zero.

Moi: Oh?

Mr. T: Yeah. And we're kinda losing power. Is there anything before we get to Sheridan?

Moi: Um, there's one place, Lodge Grass. Looks small, though.

We gritted our teeth and hoped for the best. The sign on the off-ramp indicated 1 available service, a gas station. Lucky us, non? We coasted into the Farmers Union Gas Co. and Mr. T duly went inside to see if there was any help to be had.

What followed was an exercise in patience and generosity as staff made calls on our behalf to determine how best to proceed (and where), offered us tea and coffee and reassured us this had happened before and, really, there was nothing to worry about. A few hours later, after much entertaining and educational chit chat with both them and some of the locals, Jay of Ed's Towing in Sheridan appeared to spirit us all, accompanied by several Partons of country music, to Sheridan Motors for repairs. For their part, SM put us at the top of the list and the van was pronounced road-worthy once again late in the afternoon.

I realized when I set out to walk the dog that I'd left my gloves in the tow truck. Sad, that, but in the overall context, not such a big deal. We called the towing company in the morning, in case Jay had by chance noticed them and turned them in to some Lost & Found, somewhere. To our surprise, Jay himself was in the office at the time and said, Yes, of course he'd go and check it out. He called back a few minutes later to say he'd found them and perhaps we'd like him to deliver them to us at our motel?

And for the nth time in a couple of days, we were, like Blanche DuBois, grateful for the kindness of strangers.