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The carriage axle bends;
The shaft breaks off.
Four horses thereupon are trapped.

We were looking for a place to eat. We went about 30 miles past the time we were supposed to stop the van for its 100 mile rest when we heard a loud "Pop! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!" I was sure we had thrown a rod. Bob pulled up to a gas/grocery store and said it was probably a spark plug that had popped out. He confirmed this and showed me a hot spark plug with an adapter on it while holding it in a rag with shaking hands. We've had this problem before with the spark plug popping out all the time and tearing up the head. Before, when this happened to the other van, Bob had to rebuild the heads. We waited for the van to cool down and then Bob put some Locktight on the sparkplug adapter and managed to tighten it down onto the van. It is supposed to be left to set overnight, but we decided to carefully drive to a state park that was only five miles away. Thank God we had the Guide to Parks with us!

When we got there, Bob forgot to ask for a site with electricity. We camped out at a secluded tent site in the hot, buggy and windless Red Rock Canyon. I tried to get a shower but the water was cold and there were too many bugs. I saw two black widow spiders in both showers. When I got back to the van Bob had made the bed and put the mosquito net over the open van door. He had the flashlight on the picnic table, both to light the van and to divert the bugs away from us. We laid in the van naked without covers watching the shadows of bugs moving like giant aliens across the netting. Bob eventually squeezed out of the van, still naked, and turned off the light.

As always, he wanted to have sex, but I was just too hot and uncomfortable. Cars woke me up by driving around looking for campsites and one couple moved in two sites away from us. Bob woke me up from a dream I was having. He said that I was getting pretty loud and he thought that I would scare the other campers. I asked if I said, "Bob, I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna fuck you up." He said that I did but I started with a sort of shuddering moan. I dreamed that I was in the van and someone was pushing it around. The back hatch was open and I saw that it was Bob smiling maniacally. I was so scared that I couldn't move or talk but managed to moan and say, "Bob, I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna fuck you up." It was hard to stop laughing after I had realized what had happened.

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