The community of Shaniko is a not-quite ghost town located on Highway 97, about 70 miles north of Bend. Shaniko was incorporated in 1901. The town is famous for its colorful history and was once the nation's largest wool-shipping capital. The enormous sheep sheds of that era still stand on the edge of town. Several buildings are maintained in an Old West theme, including authentic boardwalks and an original schoolhouse and the Shaniko Hotel.Shaniko was named for pioneer settler August Scherneckau. Scherneckau came to Oregon after the Civil War and bought a farm near the present site of Shaniko. Indians pronounced the name Shaniko, and that is how the locality got its name.
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It is also the worst place to get a flat tire. There is no one and nothing around, it is a ghost town. While pulling off the road to use the restroom at the Shaniko Hotel, I must have ran something sharp over because when I stepped out of the car I could hear it hissing. I quickly jumped back in and found a level quiet side street to park on so I could change the damn tire. After evaluating the situation, I still had to go to the bathroom and figured I’d better take care of that before attacking this tire.
I drive a vehicle that is only two years old; it is the only new car I’ve ever owned. I have never had a flat in this vehicle but I have had to change a tire in an older car I owned in college. I knew how to do it; I wasn’t real excited about it, but it wasn’t beyond my abilities. So I thought.
Being the responsible vehicle owner that I am, I stopped off at Les Schwab to have my tires rotated and the air checked before I headed to Bend for a weekend of mountain biking. I generally do this before I head out of town. My grandfather used to take really good care of his vehicles and he tought me to do the same.
I couldn’t loosen the lug nuts! As hard as I tried they weren’t moving a bit. Okay don’t panic, I mean really with this short stubby lug nut wrench that comes standard with my vehicle, how could anyone get any leverage. Okay, I’ll get the jack out, I totally know where that is, and I know how to use it. I’ll get my spare out from under my vehicle and come back to the lug nuts in a minute. How do you get the spare tire out from under the vehicle; it looked like it was practically welded under there. Oh dear God what am I going to do.
So out of the ghost town dusty streets of Shaniko came ghostly old men from everywhere. Where there had been no one on the streets now came sweet old ghost men.
God Bless the Old-Men-Ghost of Shaniko, Oregon.
I learned a lot that day. I learned the importance to keeping a huge lug nut wrench in your car at all times. I learned that all new cars have this fancy, very hand spare tire lowering thingy on the back bumper. (Very cool invention). I learned it is very important to keep the manual in the car at all times (even if you thought you were keeping in a safe place in the file cabinet at home so when you sold the car it would be ready to hand over to the new owner). And that it pays to be a sweet woman because old men love to help a damsel in distress.
I was a bit humbled by this experience. I travel around from one fun adventure to another and rarely think about running into problems. On the other hand, I tend to be very organized and plan things out to avoid problems. Accidents are just that; they are unexpected, unavoidable, and happen not matter how prepared we are in life. It is what we do with them, how we react to them, and what we learn from them that counts.
So out of the ghost town dusty streets of Shaniko came ghostly old men from everywhere. Where there had been no one on the streets now came sweet old ghost men.
God Bless the Old-Men-Ghost of Shaniko, Oregon.
I learned a lot that day. I learned the importance to keeping a huge lug nut wrench in your car at all times. I learned that all new cars have this fancy, very hand spare tire lowering thingy on the back bumper. (Very cool invention). I learned it is very important to keep the manual in the car at all times (even if you thought you were keeping in a safe place in the file cabinet at home so when you sold the car it would be ready to hand over to the new owner). And that it pays to be a sweet woman because old men love to help a damsel in distress.
I was a bit humbled by this experience. I travel around from one fun adventure to another and rarely think about running into problems. On the other hand, I tend to be very organized and plan things out to avoid problems. Accidents are just that; they are unexpected, unavoidable, and happen not matter how prepared we are in life. It is what we do with them, how we react to them, and what we learn from them that counts.
1 comment:
Sometimes being a damsel in distress is the only option. I am also very organised person, the type that loves to put flat pack furniture together, and always up for a challenge .... The carers are needless to say responsible for keeping the car maintained, and there is a list of things they are supposed to check each time. When we went up to Trearddur at Christmas there was no windscreen washer fluid in the car, so we pulled over into a garage to top up (we had both the fluid and water in the car) but, we couldn't get the bonnet open. It turned out that at handover the car hadn't even been touched (tut, tut). So out came the manual, and even more confusion as the release wasn't where the manual said it was. So three very bemused women, two cars full of stuff (my Mum was leading the way) and about half an hour later, so poor man took pity on us and came to help. It turned out that it was in the passenger footwell, not the driver footwell which is why we hadn't been able to find it, as there was only one manual for the British and European cars!!! (We drive on different sides of the road.)
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