chnlisle
Post Master
As most of you know I'm not very opinionated. My comments on OvEx and OvJourn attest to this. I've given a lot of thought on whether I should post my thoughts on this or just exercise the delete button so I'll try not to make this a rant.
When Our group was headed home after this last Baja trip we encountered a Mexican family about half way between Coco's and Gonzaga. They had a RR flat that they had driven on and shredded. I was about 10 minutes ahead of the others. The Mexican family pleaded with me to stop. They didn't have the right tools to change out the tire which had wedged itself in behind the break backing plate. I radioed the others about the situation and when we were all there we gave the driver a breaker bar and correct deep socket to free the wheel. He had a small bottle jack that was not going to be sufficient.
After the wheel was off and about 2 hours of different (hacksaw, diagonal cutters) attempts to get the the old tire un wedged, we tied it off to the hitch and pulled it free. We deflated the spare because their inadequate jack couldn't get the truck up high enough. Got the tire mounted and used one of the compressors to get it back up to pressure. The driver and his dad and brother did almost all the work. We just supplied a few needed tools. These folks had their entire family (gramps, granny and brother, husband, wife and 2 kids) as well as their livelihood in that old F250. Did I mention it was hot and very sunny. They were taking 1200 pounds of pulpo (octopus) on ice from Guerrero Negro to Mexicali to sell. While we were helping them a group of several very high dollar, race type, "buggies" driven by Americans and a number of high dollar SUV's driven by Mexicans just blew by us and only one said "need help?" We could have used a high lift but we managed. The family said they had been sitting there for hours until we stopped. They could have lost their entire load, had we not stopped to help.
I know our group isn't unique on this forum but what has happened that so many can't take a little time to pay it forward? You can take this to the bank. We felt far better in being able to help then the folks we helped felt. Being able to assist our fellow human beings quite literally made a good trip into a great trip.
And the bag of fresh pulpo they gave us that Pam cooked up for lunch was delicious.
When Our group was headed home after this last Baja trip we encountered a Mexican family about half way between Coco's and Gonzaga. They had a RR flat that they had driven on and shredded. I was about 10 minutes ahead of the others. The Mexican family pleaded with me to stop. They didn't have the right tools to change out the tire which had wedged itself in behind the break backing plate. I radioed the others about the situation and when we were all there we gave the driver a breaker bar and correct deep socket to free the wheel. He had a small bottle jack that was not going to be sufficient.
After the wheel was off and about 2 hours of different (hacksaw, diagonal cutters) attempts to get the the old tire un wedged, we tied it off to the hitch and pulled it free. We deflated the spare because their inadequate jack couldn't get the truck up high enough. Got the tire mounted and used one of the compressors to get it back up to pressure. The driver and his dad and brother did almost all the work. We just supplied a few needed tools. These folks had their entire family (gramps, granny and brother, husband, wife and 2 kids) as well as their livelihood in that old F250. Did I mention it was hot and very sunny. They were taking 1200 pounds of pulpo (octopus) on ice from Guerrero Negro to Mexicali to sell. While we were helping them a group of several very high dollar, race type, "buggies" driven by Americans and a number of high dollar SUV's driven by Mexicans just blew by us and only one said "need help?" We could have used a high lift but we managed. The family said they had been sitting there for hours until we stopped. They could have lost their entire load, had we not stopped to help.
I know our group isn't unique on this forum but what has happened that so many can't take a little time to pay it forward? You can take this to the bank. We felt far better in being able to help then the folks we helped felt. Being able to assist our fellow human beings quite literally made a good trip into a great trip.
And the bag of fresh pulpo they gave us that Pam cooked up for lunch was delicious.
