cyan's Journal: One Hundred Kilometers

So, after clearing rush-hour traffic in Vancouver, my trip to Alberta was underway. It was raining buckets, but we stopped in at Chilliwack for a quick bite to eat at White Spot Triple O's. Then, it was onwards to tackle the Coquihalla Highway.

The rain only got worse as we proceeded on. Then, out of nowhere, *WHAM*, the windshield was blinded by a torrent of water flying up from a huge puddle right in front of us. Then there was another *WHAM* as the metal shelves from my server rack flew forward into the front seat, and the car began to hydroplane.

The 'puddle' had to be a couple of feet deep, right in the middle of the freeway. As we emerged from it, we saw half a dozen cars and motorhomes parked off to the side with their four-way flashers on. Noticing no damage, we continued on.

I paid the ten dollar toll at the top, amazed at the amount of snow still accumulated up on the summit. We began to descend into the Merritt side of the Coquihalla, when the car began to shimmy back and forth a little, almost like someone who had a few drinks would if they were behind the wheel. As time went on, the shimmying got worse, and then it was accompanied by a nasty noise.

Feeling that this was not good news, we pulled over and checked out the car. Flat tire. Unfortunately, in an effort to maximize space for all of my stuff, we also removed the jack and other equipment necessary to fit the spare. No problem, time to call a tow truck in Merritt so that someone can come out and exchange the spare. No service.

So, here we were in the middle of nowhere without any cellular service, a flat tire without any way to change it, in the pouring rain.

Fortunately, I had just charged my Kenwood radio and had it in my overnight backpack. I wanted to make a list of repeater frequencies before I left, but I never had the time to do it. This left me with no choice but to scroll through the list of greater Vancouver repeaters in the hope that one of them shared a frequency with a repeater in Merritt.

After scrolling through most of the list, I finally had a hit, and began calling out for any station available. VE7DIR from Vernon responded, but had trouble hearing my transmissions. Vernon is over 100km from our current location. Another ham in the Merritt area (whose callsign I unfortunately forgot) was in the middle of a forest and served as a relay since he could hear my transmissions clearly.

VE7DIR then called a tow truck who promptly arrived and switched out the tire. Thank god for amateur radio. Granted, we could have flagged someone down who may or may not have been able to help. But, there is something to be said for calling for help and having someone over 100km away assist.

Needless to say, it's going to be a nice night's sleep tonight here in Merritt! I'm leeching Internet from somewhere despite the fact that the hotel claims they had no wireless Internet service. It's slow as all hell (I'm getting pings back from Google in the 1000ms range), but enough to make this journal post.

Once again, a big thanks to all of my friends who have been supportive and helpful through this whole process. By this time tomorrow, I should be settled in at Grande Cache!

Until then, adios. :)