Fate finally ended Bruun’s many thousands of flat-free miles last Thursday, beginning an epic mosquito-filled nighttime adventure that resulted in more AAA emergency roadside service and problem solving than is usually included in a backcountry fishing outing.

Fate finally ended Bruun’s many thousands of flat-free miles last Thursday, beginning an epic mosquito-filled nighttime adventure that resulted in more AAA emergency roadside service and problem solving than is usually included in a backcountry fishing outing.

A suddenly rough ride accompanied by noticeable ticking and clunking are unwelcome warnings when you’re departing a remote boat ramp. Add a mosquito-filled, pitch-dark night and that irritating flat tire goes from bad to worse.

Nearly a year ago “Outdoors” extolled the hundreds of thousands of joyful miles driven in five successive Grand Caravans. That column also lamented the extinction of Chrysler’s popular minivan, introduced in 1984.

Bruun’s present 2016 model ably tours and often tows various fiberglass 14-foot fishing craft during Wyoming summers and Florida winters.

Ratings from Consumer Reports, car magazines, auto blogs and Kelly Blue Book weren’t kind to Chrysler during the latter years of the Caravan. Experts claimed that final assembly line products lacked quality workmanship, safety improvements and options for all-important electronic gadgets now demanded by modern buyers. Yet rental agencies, practical soccer moms not yet converted to Sport Utility Vehicles and frequent cross-country traveling sportspeople continued forcing Grand Caravan sales well beyond Chrysler’s intended cutoff date.

Last year’s column emphasized two major points of concern for long-distance touring Grand Caravan owners such as the Bruuns.

The first was a National Park Service report involving years of extensive vehicle analysis, which concluded that parked minivans were the most vandalized targets — not by human thieves but by hungry bears!

Leave it to highly sensitive bear noses to sniff and then categorize the obvious: peanut butter and jelly, honey, chocolate, candy and cookies are probable sugary rewards found in child-hauling devices such as minivans.

Once on the trail of sweets, even minimally experienced bruins effortlessly knock windows out and thoroughly trash interiors of unattended vehicles.

Knowing this information helps us to avoid leaving our van in wildlife-rich areas when our coolers are crammed with tasty goodies.

The Caravan’s second shortcoming, however, provided perpetual distress ever since discovering that spare tire access remained a dark mystery.

After taking ownership of our used 2016 Caravan from Mitch Loveland, my longtime Dodge minivan/Ram truck supplier and owner of Stone’s in Rexburg, I began searching for the spare tire. I knew our van would be spending long days and nights criss-crossing the U. S. and swinging through areas with scanty mobile phone service and roadside services obscure. As I age my tendency to worry increases but, miraculously during all those previous miles, our tires and mechanicals remained free of trouble.

The latest van arrived without an instruction manual. So after failing to discover the secret access to its spare tire I turned the hunt for the invisible but supposed mid-frame emergency wheel to our then-master mechanic/fly fishing pal, Paul Kamstra, at his late Auto Diesel repair shop.

Such challenges tend to stimulate the Kamstra sense of humor, hence his report: “I found it but don’t ever count on getting it out!”

Such information demanded mounting new Michelin Defender LTX MS rubber and keeping AAA Premium Road Hazard protection paid in full.

Jean and I might have discovered the demise of our left front van tire earlier but Thursday night as we idled into Fort Pierce’s usually empty White City Park ramp we were greeted by a pleasant, flashlight toting but all-business Florida Wildlife Commission officer wanting to check the skiff’s ice chest, its life vests, throw cushion and our non-resident licenses.

Florida has combined game warden, fresh and saltwater enforcement under the single FWC agency. The tiny remote accesses we seek are typically used by scenery-seeking kayaks, so meeting a game warden is rare. Nonresidents fishing these brackish tidal waters for snook, tarpon and largemouth bass are wise to purchase both fresh and saltwater licenses, which we do.

The game warden distraction made it later, darker and buggier by the time our mobile reached AAA’s emergency help line. Eventually our Wyoming membership number funneled to an extra helpful Florida operator in Sarasota whose knew about Fort Pierce.

Our rescue challenge was just begun.

Due to insurance regulations and COVID protocols, tow-truck vehicles will only transport a vehicle, thus stranding driver and passenger. Furthermore, leaving a popular 20-horsepower electric-start four-stroke outboard engine and well-equipped skiff with Minn-Kota iPilot trolling motor unguarded overnight in semi-rural Florida is an engraved invitation for looting. A second emergency AAA procedure was needed to move the trailer/boat to safety, plus Jean and Paul still would be stranded 10 miles from home.

As follow-up text messages from Interstate Towing’s dispatch reported added delays, we pondered this situation. Two hours passed before Don, the energetic flatbed (rollback) tow truck driver arrived. The seasoned rescuer spotted our Caravan’s pitifully flattened left front and laughed. “Want me to change that tire for you?” he cheerfully asked. My response wasn’t enthusiastic, but I figured his offer was worth a try.

“I’ve dealt with one of these before and I figured out how to get at the spare. It’s right under here,” he said, motioning under the car just behind the driver’s seat. To further advance his point, he and his flashlight scooted under the van. Don reappeared and promised a spare was really there!

After removing a cased tool pack from the van’s removable rear port side panel, Don emptied the center console between the front bucket seats.

Aided by his clever gadget that looked like a second story man’s emergency helper, the difficult rubber console drink station lining came away too.

“Ah-ha, here is where we insert this T-tool and lower the spare,” he explained. This was beginning to appear logical but upon further flashlight- aided study, nothing resembled a fitting for a spare’s retrieval. Don sadly acknowledged his last Caravan rescue lacked a console between the seats.

“Let’s go back to the original plan,” I said. “Please deliver the van to St. Lucie Tire & Battery downtown on U.S. 1, where we got the Michelins.”

In a flash of brilliance and well before the tow truck had arrived, Jean thought to dial and text Geoff Quatraro, our special Fort Pierce friend and keeper of detailed cooking, dining and fishing insights. When Geoff isn’t managing and racing between four White’s Tackle Shops in Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Stuart and Jupiter, he’s preparing Culinary Institute-quality meals for friends, skippering and repairing ocean and backcountry boats or fishing new places.

Fortunately for us, St. Lucie County’s busiest guy was at home a few miles away and affixing new boat numbers to a friend’s fishing skiff.

The Thursday night rescue reached a successful conclusion. Our van was deposited at an excellent tire company while Geoff and his roomy Ford pickup delivered his passengers and boat trailer to their rental townhouse.

Being temporarily without a tow vehicle cancelled an early Friday trip to fish Lake Okeechobee’s Rim Canal. Instead, I did what should have been done long ago, except I didn’t think of it. That was careful study of a four minute “100 Rental Cars” YouTube step-by-step video access to newer Grand Caravan spare tires. Tow truck driver Don was oh so close to solving the myster, except in the whiney, mosquito-filled darkness no one noticed a well-concealed rear console drawer. Pulling that drawer out revealed the lowering device connection that twisting with the T-handle wrench, releases the well camouflaged backup wheel.

Armed with that knowledge plus a brand new $222 Michelin Defender tire gives the Bruuns “extra power to spare!”

Paul Bruun writes every other week about adventures and misadventures in the great outdoors. Contact him via columnists@jhnewsandguide.com.

Paul Bruun grew up in South Florida, the son of a newspaperman and avid outdoorsman. He's been fishing, guiding, writing and editing in Jackson Hole since 1973. His Outdoors column appears biweekly in the Sports section.

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