Stranded travelers appreciate Havre helpfulness

Recently over the Easter weekend, my wife and I traveled to Harlem, Mont., to attend a birthday celebration for her aunt who had just turned 91 years old. We traveled over on Saturday and returned back to Pablo on Sunday, Easter Day — Rose Gilbert’s birthday. The Gilbert/Bahr families had a great time.

We checked out of our room in Chinook early Sunday morning and were heading back to Pablo for Easter dinner with our children, as dinner was at 2 p.m, and lo and behold the inevitable happened, a flat tire. We were then about 4 miles east of Havre on Pork Chop Hill, at about 7:30 a.m.

As I was proceeding to change out the tire, a Hill County deputy sheriff’s car pulled up to us and inquired if we needed any help and to check on our welfare. Becaues he was responding to another accident, he said he would call a tow truck for us. He was a nice young deputy who showed his concern. A few minutes later, a highway patrol officer pulled up and also checked on our well being — another nice person.

As our car only carried a “donut emergency tire,” I was in kind of a predicament. Where would a person find a place to fix a tire on Easter Day? And as I would need a good tire to take us home. It was a problem.

When Scott Siedel of Ace Towing arrived with his tow truck to take us into Havre, he said that he would call a friend and see if he could take care of our flat tire problem. As there was no place open to get a tire fixed, Scott towed our car to the Tire Rama shop.

In just a few minutes Don “Lunar” Evans opened up his shop, jacked up the car and proceeded to fix the tire. Unfortunately, the tire was ruined. Lunar found us another tire, checked it out, balanced it and installed it on our car. When it came time to pay for it; Lunar wouldn’t accept a dime. He said happy Easter and bid us a safe trip home.

I would like to take this time to give my heartfelt thanks to some mighty fine people in your community: Scott, Lunar and the two law enforcement officers. I will surely relate my experience to my friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers here at Mission Valley Power. Because my wife is in a wheel chair, the problem we had was compounded. And we could not get cell service at that point.

Britton and Jude Salois

Pablo