Decker Trip - Panamerican Highway 1966

Nov 3. It was a cool night, but comfortable, and the sun was lovely in the morning. Even got the diapers dried before we left that morning. Ken put in a new jet and changed some other things before starting out that morning. We expected to get to [Iprales] in a couple of hours and then across the border.
Had some cake and bread before we left, and bought some bananas. Then we were on our way.
We reached the part of the road they're working on in about 20 min. It was wet and deep mud and didn't look like much hope for getting through by ourselves. Some of the men helped to push the car over the worst part with high dirt between the ruts. We scraped along over it and then the trailer began rocking from side to side. As it came down, the wheel broke off the axle on the right side. So there we were. We couldn't even move the trailer from the spot it was on in the middle of the road.

Nothing to do but for Ken to drive the car uphill out of the way with us in it after unhitching it from the trailer. Then he and Gordie took off the axle and wheels. Ken caught a truck into Pasto and we waited in the car. We got stuck about 12:00 and Ken came back at 4:30. I read to the kids in the car and the time passed more quickly. It rained a little off and on. When Ken returned, he and Gordie had to put on the axle only to find that it was too large on the broken end. That meant filing for an hour to get it down to size. It rained again and began to get darker and colder. By the time he finished, it was pitch black and freezing outside. Needless to say, we were kind of miserable. We prayed that the Lord would send someone to pull the trailer up and, behold, a truck came from the opposite way and the driver asked if he could pull us out. If that wasn't an answer!
We got out and on the way finally, but Ken was so worn out, as well as the rest of us, that we stopped a few miles on and camped beside the road. We were more tired than hungry even though we didn't eat much that day.
(avocados - 28 for 20 cents. "Vaya senora, porque le voy a enganar")