The Wagon's Demise (Saturday 14 December 2002)

When the Riders bought the Wagon they were warned that the clutch might need replacing, and on Saturday, in the rain, in the dark, half-way to Vancouver, it finally gave up the ghost.

Hills have become rather difficult for the Wagon over the last couple of weeks, and higher gears resulted in increasing numbers of revs but no movement. As each hill passed, the problem got worse, and as the Riders climbed up Highway 99 towards Lion's Bay, the gears progressively failed until, at 20:01, the Wagon could manage no more.

After a couple of minutes of cursing, the Riders called the only person they could: Mark. He immediately leapt into action, organising a recovery truck and setting off to rescue the Riders.

Back on Highway 99, the Riders had climed over a wall leaving the Wagon with her hazard lights flashing and the CD player pumping. As 45 minutes of eye-spy passed, four people stopped to offer assistance. Shortly after the Riders had assured the fourth of these that all well, the hazard lights went out for the final time, the rear lights began to fade, and the Riders began to panic. About 200m back down the hill the road swung round a corner, so the cars and trucks only had seconds to get out of the inside lane. With no lights visible on the Wagon the passing vehicles got closer and closer. Hoping to avert the imminent right-off, Andy walked down the hill frantically waving a small Maglite to warn the cars over to the other lane.

Mark and the tow truck arrived on the scene at about the same time, much to the relief of the Riders. The Wagon was hitched up and the group set off for Vancouver, where they dumped the Wagon at a garage, and set off to party.