I want to share a little bit more about this moment. It is a beautiful view of the lake and I promise I appreciated that the whole time we were parked here. We got up Wednesday morning, packed a bit, hiked to the amazing waterfalls and places to jump off rocks, ate our picnic lunch, FULLY enjoyed the day, returned to camp and decided to drive home. This road is a four-wheel road, big rocks, potholes, 10 miles an hour when you were making good time, the whole bit.
So we come up on these two trucks parked in the middle of the road, granted at most spots it's a one-lane road, we grumble a bit because right behind where we stop our truck is a pull-out and feel they could have backed up to fix the flatter than flat tire. But they didn’t … and the men are under the car doing their best.
Mind you … it’s COVID and everyone is on edge, but Kevin dawns his mask after a couple minutes and approaches the vehicle, one of the females immediately pops out to intercept him, he assesses the tire, the rim, the fact that they will not be pulling over and returns to our Landcruiser. In non-COVID days he would have been right in there helping, but six feet and assessing others anxiety makes that hard.
I decided to walk down closer to the lake and enjoy the view since I knew we would be sitting for a while. It’s beautiful, it’s windy, it turns out I’m practically standing in someone’s camp and they have been out kayaking and return. From my viewpoint down here I can see the two boys working under their truck and see that they have not yet even dropped the spare tire from under their vehicle. So I returned our car, found Kevin hanging out with our kids, approached him, and said those boys need help. I then put on my mask and walk up to the wives, the girlfriends, the ladies, and offer “hey guys I know this is tough, my husband has been in this situation more than most, and knows how to change a tire pretty quick, do you mind if I ask the boys if he can help?” One is sitting in the backseat breastfeeding her infant, the other is sitting in the drivers seat watching their men struggle. Immediately both say “absolutely go ask”.
I slowly approach the boys underneath their dirty truck trying to release the spare and again say “listen, my husband has done this so many times, he's pretty quick, do you mind if he jumps and help get us on our way, I know this is stressful”. Immediately, the one under the tire, under the truck, looks at me and says “I'll take anything! Thank you”. I go back and tell Kevin, he approaches with his mask on, he knows exactly how to loosen the tire from under the vehicle, they drop it and get it on the car we're on our way in probably 15 minutes.
Why I'm sharing this, it was because of cold feet that made us hesitate, is because of COVID and six-foot expectations that we didn't want to reach out and help, it was because of COVID that we stayed standoffish for more time than reasonable, but we needed to jump in and help. The boys needed someone to help, Kevin had the knowledge to help, and we all got on our way. We were respectful, we wore masks, we enjoyed the scenery, but it was time to help.
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