Things happen for a reason...

Despite its total irrationality, I subscribe to the belief that things happen for a reason. So, I believe our turning back on OTR-11 happened for a reason.  When I calculated the probabilities of things happening on the trip before I made the decision to return home, one the variables I used was the probability of something happening to the Defender. Even though it was in the best condition it has been in for years, I estimated that the odds were better than 50% of a Defender timeout. Factoring in the other probabilities, we turned around and headed home. 

 

Well, as it turns out, I was right. Tonight, as I was driving home, 3.4 miles from home the red check engine light came on and the vehicle stalled.  I started it up again, but I soon stalled again.  Fortunately, I was able to limp home driving very slowly with the flashers on, and will get it towed to my mechanic tomorrow.  Assuming that this glitch happened because of miles driven, my trip odometer, which I started at the beginning of OTR-11, read 1432.  Looking at Goggle maps, that would have placed us smack in the middle of Maxwell Nebraska, a hamlet of 257 people, on day 7 our trip, which would have been Friday, September 24^th. Lincoln Nebraska, the only sizeable city nearby, was 215 miles back along I-80. Since we would have driven 206 of the 279 miles we planned for that day, this would have happened around 2:30- in the afternoon. Downloading from Google Earth the photo of the spot where that breakdown would have occurred, below is what I get.  The temperature that night there was a nippy 46 degree, so sleeping in the Defender would not have been pleasant.

 

My guess is that we would have dealt with this the same way we dealt with the other such Defender timeouts in Newfoundland (2002), on the St Laurence River (2016), on the Alcan (2016), in Nevada and Utah (2016), and on desolate plains of western Kansas  (2019), but it would have been unwelcome nevertheless.  So, if anyone asks if I am saddened that we turned back, I think you now know the answer.

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