My wife Bonnie and I spent a very happy summer 2019 in Pinedale. We had a subscription
to the “Roundup” and enjoyed your commentary columns. We thought you
might appreciate this story from Pinedale’s history.
This from Ted Straub, a gentleman we met recently at a promotion ceremony for one
of the cadets I taught in CHSMCJROTC, CHURCLAND HIGH SCHOOL, Portsmouth,
Va., 1981 to 2001. Ted picked up our relation to Pinedale off my FaceBook page entries.
He wrote:
“Small world story.
“Back in the mid-90s I spent a week in Pinedale after the van I was driving home to
PA from Idaho Falls burnt a valve. With a conventional carburetor, I neglected to get
the van tuned for the higher altitudes during my three-month stay in Idaho Falls, and it
finally caught up with me in the climb over the mountains. Limped into Pinedale with
severe knocking and checked in with what I believe was the town’s only mechanic.
Then walked to the other end of town and checked into the only motel.
“During the week I was stranded there on foot, I came to know many people at the
businesses I visited for amusement and sustenance. The motel owners took an interest
in me and gave me a bottle of wine (Mateus) then, as it was approaching Christmas,
invited me to spend Christmas with them if I was still stranded on the holiday!
“The mechanic had to throw in the towel and disabled the cylinder. I then had a day
and a half to get home for Christmas, so I drove non-stop from Pinedale to Philadelphia
on seven cylinders. I was hallucinating heading east on the Pennsylvania turnpike on
Christmas morning, but I made it. In the dead of winter, Pinedale was a very warm
place!”