I should have scouted for a shallow crossing.
No sooner had I left the bank than I sank into water halfway up the doors. I kept the engine running and frantically aimed for what I thought was safer passage. The engine sputtered and died. Silence but for the indifferent sound of water rushing past and the uncontrollable laughter from my two friends, standing safe and dry on the other side. I watched water flowing over the floorboards, and noticed with some puzzlement that my gasoline gauge, that had shown half full before I entered the river, now read completely full.
I silently climbed out of my Jeep and sloshed my way to shore and joined my friends. Forgotten for the moment were Bobby and his family. I had no idea how I would get the Jeep out of the water. I had no rope or cable. It had no winch but without engine power even that would be useless.
Miracles do happen. From across the river, making its way slowly through the low brush, appeared an old Army 2-1/2 ton truck. Inside the truck was one of my friends, Richard Lee, who had a gold mining camp at Solomon, some nine or ten miles away.
After watching Richard hook a cable around the rear tow hook of my Jeep and effortlessly drag it from the water, I was left alone to take stock of my situation while Richard and my two coworkers drove downstream to see if they could find the missing VW.
Hmm. Full gas tank. Let’s see… gasoline is lighter than water, so it floats on water…
I crawled under the Jeep and voila! A plug! I unscrewed it and watched a steady stream of water flow… and flow… until finally it changed color and became gasoline. I hurriedly screwed the plug back in and crawled back out from under.
What next? Anything? Uh, the engine oil? Water in the oil?
The dipstick confirmed that there was way too much oil in the crankcase. Damn! Did I have any oil? Ah… two cans. I again crawled under, unscrewed the plug, and watched a frothy mixture of oil and water pour onto the ground. After estimating two or three quarts had emptied, I replaced the plug, crawled back out, poured the two cans of oil into the engine, and stood listening to the river flowing past. It had sort of a lonesome sound.
Now. The fan splashed water all over the engine… did the distributor and wiring get wet?
I removed the distributor cap, wiped everything dry including the four spark plugs, wiring, battery cables and terminals… put everything back together… got behind the wheel… and…
