Yesterday, as we were going down the mountain around numerous hairpin curves leaving Sequoia, our brakes went out! Hubby had pressed on the brakes and they went right to the floor, no resistance and no braking at all. As I was quietly suggesting, calmly encouraging, frantically yelling to Hubby to turn into the upward side of the mountain to avoid careening off the drop-off side, he started pumping the brakes and was able to slow our descent. We coasted up to the main entrance/exit gate to the park. There was a ranger checking passes, so we told him our dilemma. He said it would be hard to get a service/tow truck up where we were especially being as it was so late in the afternoon. He suggested driving slowly down the road about 15 miles to a small town, Three Rivers. I remembered driving through it on our way up. It was a cute little town, but I remembered it being at the bottom of a l-o-n-g curvy road. Hubby said, “Ok” and started driving down the road.
“What! Hold on here. Have we considered all options? What about the National Guard or the fire jumpers or maybe the ski patrol? Would they be able to help?” Hubby gave me that “look” and I knew we were going for it, end of discussion! We drove slowly and coasted into the hairpin curves instead of using the brakes. We didn’t go careening off any edges and I even realized after awhile, that holding my breath until I turned purple, didn’t slow us down.
Continue reading “New Brakes, Washington, Christmas, and Homeward Bound”
