Column: An easy fix, relatively speaking

What AAA cannot provide your family can make up.

This was confirmed Sunday, when my “slightly used” 2004 Tahoe malfunctioned on my wife and I on the way back from a family get together in Harlowton.

The instrument panel went first, then the cruise control, then the AC – and then everything went dark as I coasted alongside Bair Reservoir on Hwy 12.

I was 37 miles from Harlo, which meant I was 213 from the house in Missoula and 330 from Kalispell. Just to add an extra challenge, we waved off a guy that was following us and saw our distress – “We have this handled,” we said – before we looked at our iPhones. No cell coverage.

We were trudging in the direction we came – I was thinking Checkerboard was maybe two miles – when five of the many attendees at the gathering passed us going west.

I know in these uncertain times we need to social distance, but this was a pretty dire spot. My niece Mary and her husband John turned around, their two large sons happily moved to the bed of the pickup, and Tandy and I squeezed in next to Mary’s nephew Sergey (which makes him my grand-nephew; it’s a big family).

Eighteen miles later we were in White Sulphur Springs — the sons waved at the Meagher County Sherriff, who waived back — and I was calling the location of the Tahoe into AAA. As near as I could figure it was between mile post 62 and 63 on Hwy 12.

“I see,” said the operator. “Here’s a cross road… and the nearest town is Ismay.”

I’ve never been to Ismay – the southeastern town that called itself “Joe, Montana,” in 1993 – but I knew I wasn’t anywhere near it. The person at the other end of the call was adamant, though, right up until the point she laid in the tow mileage to Helena and it came to over 400, one way.

By this time Mary and John had gotten the two large sons back in the cab and called Chelsea, the wife of my grandnephew Logan, whose mom is Mary’s sister Kim (big family, like I said).

Chelsea was headed to Helena but had jumped off Hwy 12 at Martinsdale. You know the Lennep road takes about 9 miles off the trip, right? But she had just come up to the junction of 289 and 12 and came back to get us.

As Chelsea headed to the Helena airport where we’d reserved a rental car, her mini-Australian Shepherd, Bailey, kicked her feet in her sleep. I was in the co-pilot’s chair; Tandy sat in back with Beau and Aspen – the great-grand-nephew-and-niece (like I said). Soon we were winding through Deep Creek Canyon.

I could talk about how the tow driver, Richard, was able to get that Tahoe loaded despite no keys and not really a shoulder on that part of the road, and how a warranty tow from Helena can still cost you $450 if you let it happen, but this has gone on long enough.

Long story short I caught a ride back to Helena Tuesday – from a nonfamily member oddly enough – and retrieved the Tahoe, new alternator and all.

It was a good trip, full of adventure and good cheer. My brother-in-law turned 80; one of his 12 grandkids turned 20 the same day. We took pains to socially distance until things went south on Hwy 12.

It is probably good for Richard the Tow Guy that the legendary, length-of-Montana route isn’t heavily trafficked. It’s definitely good that most of the traffic that day was related to me.