It was Monday about 8am. I was on my way to Zion Natl Park/Bryce Canyon/Grand Canyon for a week or 2 of communing with nature and hopefully getting some sweet pics. About 20 miles outside of Baker, I heard a loud pop. My check engine light had been coming on, which it does from time to time, so my instantaneous thought was that I had thrown a rod or something. Then I felt the tire run over something, so now I'm thinking I hit something in the road. I lightly apply the brakes, and it's basically like someone yanked the steering wheel to the right as hard as possible. Next thing I know I'm heading towards the shoulder at what feels like a 45 degree angle, going 60 or so. Not good. This all feels like it took less than a second, so it must have been instantaneous.

I lost track of how many times the car rolled, but I think it was 3 or 4. After the 1st or 2nd roll, the top part in back shredded and my stuff started flying everywhere. You can see the trail of in these pics. Pretty amazing I walked away w/o a scratch or even anything sore. If I start to get down about it, I just remind myself of that. What's nice is I had some beers in a cooler that were also shredded in the rollover. So everything reeked of beer. The cops wouldn't stop bugging me about that, even though I was begging to take a breathalyzer. They kept trying to trick me into admitting I'd been drinking. Yes I like to start my camping trips by getting hammered at 7am for the long drive.


The trail of crap starts about 50 feet from where my skidmarks end, so I think that was when I rolled a couple times before the top came off.


The bad kind of blowout. If the tire would have just popped, I'd have been able to pull over. As it was, I should have coasted to a stop, which I will certainly do next time.


This is the second 4 runner I've rolled. Both times they gave their life for me w/o letting me get a scratch. Good cars. It's possible 4runners are a little more likely to roll. But a lot of times you are gonna roll no matter what. The cop said most of the wrecks he sees on the highways are rollovers. At the same lot where my car was towed, a Ford Focus that had rolled over came in after me. It looked pretty bad. The tow guys said the people in it had to be airlifted to the hospital.


You can see the chunk of my tread down a little from where the skidmarks start (the dark set on the left is mine).

So I called my friend Amber to come pick me up, then got to wander around Baker in the 120 heat for 5 hours looking for a place to lay down in the shade. I could hang out at Coco's all day, but they weren't too keen about me sleeping in the booth. I had left LA at 4am on almost no sleep and was pretty tired, I just couldn't keep my eyes open in the booth. I actually did lay down in the shade in the 100+ heat. It was dry and there was a little bit of a breeze. I wouldn't have died, but it wasn't exactly pleasant. I finally just said screw it and got a motel room. Btw - if you're ever driving between Vegas and LA, I highly recommend The Mad Greek in Baker. Awesome Gyros, fried mushrooms, and Baklava.


No idea.

Giant thermometer in Baker reading 127 at 6:30 PM.

So she came and picked me up, we spent a couple days out in the desert and checked out Big Bear/Lake Arrowhead area, as neither of us had never seen that before. I did get some cool pics looking across the San Benadino Mts.



Oh yeah, then last night when I got back I started emptying myself from both ends, rather violently. So I'm sorry if this story isn't up to my usual creative entertainment standards, but I'm still feeling pretty low, physically.

Moral(s) of the story are 1) that stuff they tell you about not hitting your brakes in a blowout are true. Apparently if the tread comes off, but the tire isn't blown, tapping the brakes just causes the car to skid out and go haywire. Moral #2 - if you get an undercooked burger at a roadside cafe in Arrowbear, CA, send it back.