[Artemisia] The Spring Thaw that Didn't....

[Sheila Harmon]

As all good SCA stories must start...No shit, there we were...

The morning started in the way of SCA event mornings....with people 
scrambling to load vehicles, meet friends, load more stuff, sort out who 
is riding where, running late (which is mandatory for an SCA function) 
and caravaning down the road. Add to the mix an additional 6 large, 
furry, equine bodies, (who by the way, were VERY well behaved!!) and 
even more chaos ensues. Horses are loaded, check. Tack is loaded, check. 
Seats are sorted and assigned with good-natured bickering over who has 
to ride in the backseat, check. Paperwork is ready...oh crap...forgot 
that. Quick vehicle shuffle to get the paperwork picked up and we will 
meet at the gas station. The phone rings...uh oh, never a good sign. HL 
Freydis gets the news that her mother is in the emergency room at the 
local hospital. She is assured that she is NOT needed and she decides to 
continue with the trip, with a backup plan in case she needs to return. 
Finally, we are on the road. Our vehicle is Freydis' big blue truck 
named Golyeth and Lady Sheela's 6 horse trailer, loaded to the gills 
with the horses of Lady Una, HL Erin, HL Danielle, HL Freydis, Lady 
Sheela and HL Auraelia. Taking Eagle Road, we hit the freeway, headed to 
the Flying J Truck Stop where we will meet up with Freydis and other 
vehicles to gas up and caravan.

A few miles down the freeway we see debris fly up in our wake. Have we 
blown a tire? People are passing and cowboys in another rig point at our 
trailer and make faces. A look in the mirror shows we still have 4 
tires. What is going on?? More debris. We slow, put on flashers, and 
continue along the shoulder, looking for the first exit (Cole) to get 
off the freeway to assess what is going on. We can still see that we 
have 4 tires but we take it slow. Luckily, there is a Les Schwab at the 
Cole exit. We call the others and let them know we have tire issues. We 
pull in and everyone bails out of the cab and checks out the tires. 2 
have been losing chunks and a third is starting to do the same thing.  
After a meet at the Les Schwab, Una's vehicle continues on to Gooding. 
We talk to the Les Schwab people and get tires ordered. They have 1 that 
we need and have to get the others from another location...so we wait. 
Since we have an hour plus of down time, Auraelia takes Freydis to the 
hospital to visit her mother. Part of our merry band decide to troop 
cross country to get food at a local fast food joint. Danielle, young 
Master Kian and I stay with the horses (who are STILL being really well 
behaved!)

HL Auraelia decides to go and get her horse trailer. So we do a quick 
parking lot shuffle with the horses and have 2 on her load. They want us 
to leave the horses on the trailer and they just use a big jack and get 
to work on the tires. After 3 plus hours, 4 new tires are on and we are 
ready to hit the road. The horses were awesome...even with the air guns 
and loud noises as they filled the tires. No scrambling, just a couple 
of big eyed looks. I was so proud of them. The two under age 4 littles 
accompanying us are also being wonderful but are definitely ready to nap 
as soon as the trucks start. Freydis meets us at a truck stop from her 
hospital visit and we are ON OUR WAY!!!

So, we have our emergency repair out of the way, we may be a bit later 
than normal, but we should be good to go, right??? Don't we wish!! We 
are making pretty decent time down the freeway, even going so far as to 
be passing vehicles. (We had more of them passing us...with lots of 
cursing from our driver as they cut in front of us!) Almost to Mountain 
Home we are passing a semi loaded with cars when we hear a bang, 
horrible grinding noise and a serious list to the left. Traffic won't 
let us off on the right, when we see an old construction detour on the 
left. We grind off the freeway and stop. Holy Hell, the left rear truck 
tire is toast. Apparently a support strut that held the pickup bed frame 
broke loose and went into the tire. Shredded!! And Freydis is bemoaning 
the destruction of one of her new matching rims. Since on this trip 
NOTHING is going to be easy, getting the tire off, the jack to work, the 
spare to work, all presented a new set of challenges. According to Sabin 
the jack for this truck was a ridiculous metal coke bottle with a screw 
and a stick for a one ton truck loaded with a 6 horse trailer.At this 
point we have called Auraelia's carload, and they have back tracked to 
meet us at the Mountain Home exit. After broken tools, burnt fingers, 
bruised and mashed appendages, we finally get off the freeway. Guess 
where we are heading? Yep, back to another Les Schwab. We are at a 
Burger King so we decide to grab a quick bite of food to eat on the way. 
Service was abysmal, orders were wrong and it took forever. By this time 
it is after 2:00, and we still need to get the tire fixed. The spare is 
leaking air so we refill it and head quickly to the tire store. A quick 
vote is that we GIVE UP. The forces of the Universe have decided that we 
are not supposed to be attending this Spring Thaw. A relatively quick 
visit this time, and we have a new tire on the truck and are headed 
home. By 6:00 this evening we are unloaded, animals put away and ready 
for some real food. We are all saddened that Spring Thaw didn't happen 
for us, but we have 5 new tires, an adventure to tell, Freydis' mom was 
able to go home from the hospital...and no one died. I believe that is 
the appropriate equivalent in the SCA to "and they lived happily ever 
after."

Lady Sheela
Trip Chronicler

with additions, subtractions, interjections and amendments from
Auraelia, Sabin, Erin, Alex, Freydis, Danielle, Riain & Kian