VERONICA KUFFEL

JUNE 15 (maybe the longest day)

“You Can Have it All” – Yo La Tengo, 200

Courtesy of friends on the road.

I thought it was a dream, but around 2 or 3 a.m., some guy parked right next to me could not start his car. I heard the key turn and the engine sputter but never catch, and some grunts here and there.

This went on intermittently for at least 30 minutes. Finally, it sounded like someone helped him–I heard the engine turned over, a weak thanks and he was out.

Now sure, I could’ve helped him and he would’ve been on his way a lot faster. But getting out of my car in the middle of the night? All by myself? Yea, no.

Funny enough, this is not the titular breakdown of my entry. No no no, that had to be more intense, intriguing, dramatic, and don’t you worry. It’s drama alright.

I slept for a few more hours then left the Durango Walmart for downtown. I stopped at Smiley Cafe to get some work done, nothing new there.
The cafe was connected to an elementary school, and I watched kids waddle in with their parents to summer school and other activities.

I was biding my time before my old coworker and his girlfriend met with me. In my last months in the newsroom, my editor hired an intern named Jack, a college student a year or two younger than me.

Karen holds a special place in my heart, but it was nice to have someone my age in the office (if you guys are reading this, hello!).

He talked about visiting Durango with his family and girlfriend, Brianna, in June. Towards the end, I brought up that my trip took me through the town for a few days.

For some reason, we had no idea our paths would cross while there. We only figured it out on my very last day in Tucson, which was a fluke thanks to an auto shop. We spent a day working on a project, and after talking a bit, we made a plan to meet up in Durango.

The three of us started the day with a short riverside walk and caught up. After, we got some lunch at The Lively Daikon–the attendant was from New Glarus, WI, and we had some fun talking about Madison.

We walked around town, stopped to get ice cream and checked out the local record store. Jack and Brianna are music experts, and I don’t use that word lightly. Every few seconds, they picked up a record and gushed over artists I’d never listened to or even heard of.

They gave me some excellent recommendations for my drive to Alamosa.
Afternoon came–we said our goodbyes and issued good luck on each other’s trips. We agreed if a coincidence like this could happen, it could happen again. We knew, eventually, we’d cross paths again.

Walie passed through mountain valley towns similar to the small rural farming communities of the Midwest, and I felt an ease in the green and familiarity.

Somewhere in the Rio Grande National Forest, a long line of cars snailed along a mountain pass. As one of the first cars ahead of the crowd, the hazard worker told me there was a semi crash with a diesel spill they were cleaning up.

We waited so long I had time to go in the back and read. I left the engine on to charge my camp battery, which was… not a good idea.

About an hour into our delay, smoke started to puff out of Walie’s hood. I checked my gauges and saw the red arrow teetering on the H. We waited so long that he overheated.

I turned the van off immediately. I got out and opened the hood to find coolant sputtering out of its reservoir. I kept it open and eventually, the coolant stopped bubbling.

I prayed that the delay would continue for maybe another 30 minutes for the van to cool down. So there I was, on the side of a narrow mountain road in front of a long line of cars with an overcooked Walie.

Unfortunately for me, we were allowed to pass a few minutes after the incident. I turned the key to a sputtering engine and Walie heaved a few centimeters off the road to let cars pass. But “off-road” isn’t saying much.

I got a little too up close and personal with the Rio Grande. I pulled the parking brake on a little patch of grass, right before the drop-off into the rapids, no guard rail to protect me.

Other than that, I couldn’t complain much, it was a beautiful place to get stuck and the lady directing traffic was nice. We chatted a bit and I got her a tissue from the back when she asked.

After a while, I got the engine running and maneuvered out of the pass. I begged for Walie to be okay for the rest of the trip (thank god, he was).

In all of that, I did miss my sandboard rental pickup. My adventure to the Dunes would have to wait till morning.

The mountains sloped into grasslands for this pocket of the state. I’m right outside of town and ready to surrender the day to the local Walmart, when I pass a large lot with… a screen. Two screens.

I pulled over and I couldn’t believe it–I found a drive-in theatre. A quick google search revealed it was not only open but playing new movies. I waited until it opened and bought a ticket for the new Spiderverse.

I made a quick dinner of my frozen roasted chicken, potatoes and green beans and settled in.

This day was truly a trial of ups and downs, but despite the downs, it was probably one of the best days of the trip.

It was one of those moments of complete serendipity, a collection of spontaneous coincidences that shape an ideal road trip. It filled me with a sense of euphoria, and honestly, triumph in this grand adventure I decided to take.

I finished the movie grinning ear to ear; that night, I truly felt like a king of the road.