Cecilia Marie Pulliam, Author, Artist: My Hour Had Not Yet Come, Continued

God had other tests of faith in store for us on this fateful trip.

We stopped for the night at Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border. In the morning, as we were removing the chucks from the trailer wheels, my husband noticed one of the tires was wearing on the inside rim. Warning bells and red flags blazed. A blow out on a trailer is not pretty, especially one on a rig as big and heavy as ours.

We managed to pull into a tire shop in Kingman, Arizona without a blowout. An inspection revealed either the tire was at fault, or the trailer axles needed alignment. We bought a new tire and headed straight to the suggested RV repair a few miles down the road. Of course, they were too busy to look into the issue until the morning. We spent the night in an RV park close by, wringing our hands wondering how much of our vacation budget this would eat, along with the expenditure we already incurred with the new tire.

The next morning, their mechanic deduced the axles were good, but not our tire pressure. We were running on sixty pounds psi when the tires should be at eighty. My thought, “Why didn’t the tire people notice that?”

With the tire pressure now at the correct level and feeling confident we had the issue resolved, we continued across Arizona and into New Mexico. We arrived at Pancho Villa State Park without further incident.

This park is the site of the famous raid by the Mexican rebel on US soil. We happened to arrive on the 100^th anniversary of the raid and of course looked forward to participating in many of the activities. However, our bad luck had not ended yet.

We pulled out our awning for a bit of shade, and spent a relaxing afternoon prowling through the

historical sites and museums. At sundown, the next disaster struck.

The wind picked up and we set about retracting the awning. However, it was locked and wouldn’t budge. A big gust could rip the awning off the trailer, causing immense damage. Even worse, if we couldn’t retract it, we couldn’t move the trailer. With the closest RV repair shop thirty miles away, we were looking at paying for travel expenses as well as repair costs.

After several hours of internet research and a frantic call to the tech site for the RV manufacturer, we managed to reset the locking mechanism and retract the awning. With one more disaster averted, surely, we were done with bad luck. Not so.

Two days later, we hit construction as we entered Las Cruces. In the confusion, we took an unplanned exit off I-10 East onto city streets. My husband hates pulling our thirty-five foot travel trailer through heavy traffic and narrow streets. Of course, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

A few blocks from the freeway, an unusual sound emanated from the front wheel of the truck.

We both turned to look at each other. “Impossible.”

At the stop light, I hopped out to look. The right front tire was flat. Only a thin line of rubber lay between the rim and the pavement. Our first flat on the truck in the thirteen years we owned the vehicle.

However, Miracle Number Four: we were next to the Las Cruces Convention Center which had a huge, almost empty parking lot, big enough for our rig. Thankfully, we carry roadside assistance on our insurance, and within an hour the spare was on and we headed up the road to yet another tire shop. Four new tires later, we were back on the road again.

If we had the flat while on the freeway doing sixty-five miles per hour… Well, let’s just say that wouldn’t have been much fun.

Still, we had yet one more trial to face before we finished our trip. We lost, Scout, our Brittany we’d had for eight years in Flagstaff, Arizona. It broke our hearts, and our spirits, to have him put down under very difficult circumstances.

If we had not already made reservations in the Grand Canyon, we would have called the rest of the trip off and headed home. Of course, God knew what we needed before we did.

Staring out at such grandeur, we remembered God would never forsake us, no matter the trial. He will always give comfort, love, and companionship when needed, along with the occasional miracle, until the hour of our death does come. Even then, he will offer comfort and encouragement through whatever suffering that might bring.

In the meantime, God has my back, and I am so very thankful.