We had spent the morning at Grand Canyon North Rim and decided to head to the South Rim. This put us ahead of schedule, and we were enjoying our drive past Vermilion Cliffs. Several miles past the striking views into the stretch of the desert the vehicle gave a ding to an overheated radiator. I immediately pulled over and turned off the automobile. I looked at Saffy in the rear-view mirror, “Let’s consider our options.”

As temperatures rose in the car as we waited for temperatures to cool in the engine, we looked at maps, made some phone calls to the council, and decided what to do. The nearest mechanic was about 25 miles away. Normally it would take half an hour to drive. On foot, it would take over eight hours, a miserable trek in over 100-degree Fahrenheit temperatures.

One of the phone calls reinforced my goal. I needed to get Saffy and our Little Miss out of the desert as soon as possible. The afternoon stretched on just getting up the few miles up a plateau to our destination. Each time we stopped to let the engine cool I watched the clock pass away hoping to get to a mechanic before they close. In the meantime, Saffy was making sure our Little Miss stayed cool. To prolong the engine from overheating we turned the heater up and the windows down. Which didn’t make Saffy’s job any easier. For a quick rest, we stopped at Antelope Pass Vista to let the view calm up from the situation and interact with some of the roadside vendors. Once we got to the top of the plateau we had flat roads and even a decline. We didn’t have to stop as much.

By the time we got to Page, a tourist town south of Lake Powell, our clocks showed it was 5 o’clock, the time all the mechanics in the area closed their shops. Arizona did not follow the same time system as our clocks did. Arizona doesn’t do daylight saving time. We had one hour to find a mechanic. The first place I had looked up didn’t exist. I had a constant eye on the temperature gauge as we looked for another mechanic. We ended up going down a dirt road in the middle of the industrial part of town to find Eagle Automotive. This was not a place most people would think to find one of the best mechanics.

With an hour before closing on a Friday afternoon and in the middle of another project, it would have been reasonable for them to turn us away. If they did, other mechanics wouldn’t open till Monday. Our plans for the trip would be over. We at least considered our trip to the North Rim a worthwhile experience. Perhaps it was the way I was befriending their guard dog. I like to think it was because they were good people. Either way, the chief mechanic not only said he would be willing to look at our vehicle the next day but decided to look at it right then. Before their closing time, they found the problem was a radiator cap that wasn’t sealing. As exhausted as we were we might have accepted any explanation, just hoping it would be a solution that would get us back home. Saffy hoped it was just a fan issue as it was the easiest fix she could think of. A new cap was even better. We were able to continue our trip to the South Rim the next and even made it to our destination Phoenix.

Being stranded can be a stressful experience for even experienced travelers. This experience helped remind me of the value of certain preparations I was taught and learned some new ones.