No One Hurt

We travel dirt and Railroad roads in our Site Steward monitoring and site assessment for an Archaeological Company.

Dirt roads mean lots of dust.

RailRoad (RR) roads mean lots of rocks.

Last month – well, really 6 weeks ago - we traveled along a RR road that had been heavily traveled by trucks. It was high centered in a few spots. I could hear the under carriage of my SUV scrape the rocks.

No damage. Whew!

We have been sidelined for the past 6 weeks, as the desert temperature has been too extreme and very dangerous.

Fire danger has been high. Danger to our beings has been high. So home we sit –moaning, groaning and missing our treks.

A front tire on my SUV looked rather low yesterday and I had been told I was in need of new tires.

Off to the tire shop!

The front tire did have a slow leak but the two front tires were really bad. Replacement was in order.

I watched as my SUV was lifted by the hoist and I noticed a slight backward tilt. 10 fist-sized, whitish rocks crashed out from under the front just missing the workman. He was so shocked! The other workman came running over to check out the noise and the “grunt” from the SUV attendant.

The RR Company, in our area, uses a special rock. They are whitish and all the same size about fist size.

Yep! I knew where those rocks came from!

And I had been driving around town with those rocks for 6 weeks totally unaware of them.

The tire shop workmen gathered around the rocks and I saw them discussing the rock situation. One looked over at the bay window where I was standing and the look on his face was priceless as he noted this little old lady to be the off-roader rock gatherer!

I giggled to myself and thought: “No one hurt”.