Yesterday didn’t go as planned. We had a beautiful morning greet us, blue skies with little puffy white clouds. We knocked out morning chores and got on the road towards flagstaff where we had reserved a room at the Springhill Suites the night before. It was time for showers, laundry, and another stationary day in a place we were familiar with.
We were going to stop at Sunset Crater National Monument on the way and that was our next stop, or so we thought. About 2 miles past The Gap Trading Post on the 89 we heard a faint squeek which I rolled my window down to see if it was coming from outside or inside the van. It went away until we felt a little jostle a minute later. I pulled off onto the shoulder to check and see what was up and felt the wheel which was about 😉 2,000 degrees. REALLY hot! I thought the breaks had stuck, but when I tried to reverse a few feet, the culprit showed itself….
The wheel bearing had seized up and generated enough heat to shoot off the locking nut which catapulted the grease cap and ugly dodge wheel hub cap out into the road. I recovered the items, looked at the now exposed bearings which looked awful and reported to the family that we were going to be riding in a tow truck… Yippee!
As we waited for the tow truck, I placed the order for parts to replace the bearings on both sides and the brake rotors, pads, and brake lines all around. We ate some lunch and pulled together what we’d need for a night in Flagstaff without our home.
Jen and the kids were dropped off at the hotel as I continued on down the hill to Phoenix with the tow truck to drop the van off at Jen’s mom’s house. Marco met me there with the trailblazer and we went and had sushi for dinner. After I was full, I dropped him off at his house and headed back up the hill to Flagstaff to grab a few hours of shut eye in the hotel. Not what we had planned, but we adapted well, were taken care of, and are still happy to be doing what we are, when we are, and even where we are. God is good!