Sentimental Sunday... The Hero another Orange Bus story

Hummer's Orange Bus Scrapbook page.

Our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has a program called home teaching.  The men of the church are assigned families to visit and assist in spiritual teaching as well as any other needs their assigned families stand in need of.  The Hero felt very privileged to be a home teacher and took his assignment very seriously.  One of his assignments was a young man in his twenties who joined the church, but no one else in his family was a member.  The Hero liked the young man's family and made friends with them while visiting.  The young man went off on a mission for 2 years, but the Hero kept writing him and visiting his family to support them.  At the end of 2 years the young man came back and soon he was getting married.  The young girl's family was from Salt Lake so they decided to be married at the Salt Lake Temple.  The Hero and I were invited.  We were broke, had 3 children, worked, but the Hero said we are needed because the young man's family will need a familiar face and support since they will not be able to go into the Temple. 
We farmed our 2 oldest children in Oklahoma at my parents, and took our little son with us.  We were clueless how we would  find a babysitter.  Just after we passed Colorado, we heard a funny noise from the back of the bus.  The Hero investigated, and came back with the news that one of our bearings was going out.  If we drove carefully, we should make the trip to Salt Lake, but would have to repair it before starting back.
We made it to Salt Lake.  The wedding was beautiful and the family was lovely. I can not tell you more about that because the week after stands out more in my mind. 
When the wedding was over, the Hero called the repair shops in Salt Lake... Saturday afternoon, everything was closed.  He called the young man who had taught us about the church and now lived in Vernal.  Wayne knew a shop in Vernal who could fix the car and we could stay with his family until it was fixed.  That excited us both. What a fun thing to do.  I loved it because I learned how to dry apples on a screen out in the sun, and met the loveliest people. 
Monday came, the Hero went to the foreign auto shop and came back disgruntled.  They did not have the bearings and did not work on VW's.  On the other hand they were nice enough to order the bearing for him.  He would have to put them on himself.  This was tricky for two reasons.  Our trip had just been extended another two days... his employer was trying to be nice, and he had never put on bearings by himself ever.
They arrived the next day, he jacked up the rear of the car and proceeded to remove the wheel and the old bearing, keeping in mind all the steps so he could put it back together. 
Things went well with the first wheel...(he said you need to replace both sides at the same time) then a disaster happened on the second one.  First, he dropped the bearing in the sand (we were at a logging company area) and second he had hit it wrong slightly bending the rim knocking it into the sand.  Wayne's brother got him a bowl of gasoline to clean the bearing with.  When I got the baby down to sleep, I took a diamond deb fingernail file and began to slowly smooth out the rim, and sat visiting with him to calm him down.  Yep, he was upset.  At about 1am, I had the rim smoothed to where the ball bearings moved correctly.  The Hero was able to apply the bearing, and was able to fall on the bed in a relaxed sleep.
He said I was his peace and calming force.  Next week I will share with you the trip home.