Josh was in, having accepted a permanent ("Career Seasonal") position as a Federal Wildland Firefighter. He had been living in Utah working his way up for the past 11 years, it was time to make a change and move to Colorado in order to climb that ladder, so to speak.
Finding an affordable and temporary living situation for him proved more difficult then we anticipated. He'd be busy once the season really kicked off, but he still needed a place to sleep at night when he wasn't actively fighting fire. When he arrived in Colorado late spring of 2014, he resorted to living out of his car in a Walmart parking lot near the base. Unfortunately, this wasn't an uncommon occurrence for wildland firefighters, it happened a lot more often than many might think. Even nowadays, our wildland firefighters struggle to balance low wages and unaffordable housing costs, often living out of tents or personal vehicles.
Josh's car had some space in the trunk that worked as a makeshift bed during that time. He would wake up to eat a granola bar, have some coffee, brush his teeth, and report to work early. Every day he drove himself and all his possessions in his makeshift ‘home’ to and from work. He'd be sure to take advantage of the showers at the base after his daily PT. At the end of his shift he'd find some dinner then park back at Walmart to tuck in for the evening.
I can remember him calling me nearly every single night. He'd talk about how hot and stuffy it was in the car, that he was sketched out by the idea of rolling down windows lest a burglar happen upon him in his sleep. He said it was impossible to get any quality rest under the brightly lit parking area. His living space quickly became less sustainable with the stifling heat of the summer, it was like trying to live inside an oven. We were hard-pressed to devise a new plan for him. Lucky for us, we had some dear friends in Utah that were willing to loan him their small trailer for the rest of the summer. It had a full sized bed, a small table and a stall shower with a toilet. Not big by any means but certainly better than living out of his vehicle.
My friend Christi and I rented a big truck, I think it was like a Ford F350 or something, and we hooked up the trailer. We set out on the 5.5 hour drive to deliver it and planned to back it into the last remaining spot at a local trailer park near Josh’s base. He was away on fire, so it was up to us to leave it there for him. Somehow, after numerous tries and leaving some accidental tire marks in the owner's lawn, we managed to back that sucker up and disconnect it from the truck. We spent the night crammed inside with our 3 dogs, having planned to return to our Utah homes in the morning.
The part of town we were in was…less desirable. The trailer park itself was appropriately named 'Shady Lane', the place was pretty sketchy. Some random drunkards were scattered throughout the trailer park around us. We heard yelling and it was decided I would sleep with a knife under my mattress, you know, just in case. I bought it at the Walmart where Josh had been sleeping.
I felt so bad that Josh would have to live here for the summer, but I was thankful that he’d be busy and the tiny trailer really was just going to be a place to crash. Josh looks back on that fire season and sighs with relief every time that it's over and done with. It was a hard time in our lives, being together briefly only to be separated again because of the job. This would be the nature of our relationship for many years to come, never a dull moment I say!
That summer back in Utah by myself I harnessed all my nervous energy into giving the house a facelift. I painted every single ceiling and wall of that 2000+ square foot beast. I learned how to install, troubleshoot, and fix the irrigation system, with help from our amazing neighbor (thanks, Garth!). I mowed the yard once a week, making it look like a pristine baseball field with gridlines and all. I put my own hard earned money toward new carpets, light fixtures and small details around the house. I organized and cleaned, my OCD really shined. I loved when Josh would have down moments to FaceTime so I could show him all my progress.
Keeping myself busy helped combat loneliness and the season flew by, come the end of it we needed to figure out how to get the trailer back. It was decided that I would fly out to CO to meet up with Josh and we'd tow it back together with our personal car, the one that Josh had lived out of at the beginning of the season. It was considered a mid-size SUV and had a towing capacity of 3,500 lbs., I distinctly remember this. The trailer itself weighed over 3,500 lb., empty. Josh insisted "it'll be fiiiine". To make matters even sketchier, we needed to use an adapter with our existing hitch to make it fit. The elbow-shaped mount forced the hitch and wiring harness towards the ground, they were practically dragging. The back of the car was weighted down so heavily, I thought the front tires would come lifting off the pavement.
I remember laughing at ourselves and thought to myself 'well here we go!'. By now we were realizing that we kind of had a knack for getting into trouble/silly situations.
We hit the road, pun intended, and made our way towards the Utah border. I was driving and noticed that the gas gauge was falling precariously fast. After watching the needle fall, I blurted out to Josh that I didn’t think we were going to make it to the next gas station. We'd only been on the road for 100 or so miles, not that far. Then the gas light chimed on. We were discovering in real-time that our load was so heavy, our gas mileage was suffering terribly. We were suddenly faced with running out of fuel on a stretch of I-70 just past the Utah border. Whoops!
Trying not to panic, I noticed a truck with a boat trailer in the breakdown lane on a hill ahead of us. I made the split decision to pull our car up behind it just as I was sure we'd run out of fumes. Luck was on our side again, the other broken down party had just called for roadside assistance. The kind gentleman let us add some gas to his service call and a couple hours later we were back on the road. Crisis averted. We stopped for gas every hour of our journey after that.
We finally reached Route 6 in Utah, which a popular trucking route between Salt Lake City and Denver. It’s one of America’s riskiest rural drives, according to NPR. Narrow lanes and high speeds result in increased chances of head on collisions, particularly when passing slower moving vehicles such as an overloaded Chevy Equinox towing a trailer back to Utah. The route takes you over Soldier's Summit, steep grades and winding curves in the road are the highlight of this route.
I gripped the steering wheel firmly at 10 and 2 and did my very best to keep the car going in a forward motion. We were climbing the steepest part at a whopping 25-30 mph with our hazard lights blinking. The road was slick with cold rain and bits of snow flew towards the windshield as we so slowly gained elevation. Angry drivers were swerving around us flipping me the bird as they whizzed past.
The car was struggling to pull a load that was far too heavy up a hill far too steep. All I could think about was how we needed to get to the summit so I could give the car a break. Josh and I had already discussed the plan, shift into a lower gear at the top and coast down slowly. By the time we finally reached the top my anxiety had grown along with a long line of cars behind us that were eager to pass us.
Slowly, the car began shifting weight forward as we faced the downhill portion of the drive. I could feel the full weight of the trailer now as it pushed against our vehicle, willing me to go faster. I was slightly terrified and pumped the brakes with the car in a lower gear. I put all my faith in the anti-lock brake system and the abilities of the vehicle. Josh cheered my on from the passenger seat with a constant stream of praise, 'you're doing great, babe, you got this!'.
Above: some photos of Route 6.
We made it home by the skin of our teeth, the ball and hitch had succumbed to the weight and were now grazing the pavement with the chains. Unloading the trailer at our friends house felt like we could suddenly breathe again. The 5.5 hour drive took a whopping 9 in total, you don’t cover ground quickly when getting 8 sluggish miles to the gallon.
Once we were settled in at home Josh was officially laid off. As a Career Seasonal he would be classified as 'non-pay status' for the winter months. No pay checks. The winters tended to stay busy with travel, holidays, odd jobs, and training for Josh. Very rarely would he simply relax, I realized that by now. Even after a 14+ day fire roll, he'd still be moving around finding things to do, the adrenaline still pumping. He'd busy himself with little projects or find new ways to learn and grow for work next season. During those early years we also busily planned the Wasatch Showdown in the winter and that season we worked on applying AGAIN (for 2015) to Josh’s old crew, hoping we could stay in Utah. Let's hear it for a 4th try!? On top of all that, we started planning for our wedding too, aiming for the fall of 2015.
Comments