We were heading down Hwy 16, in the CanAm, heading towards a trail and we went past a Tour Bus on the side of the road that was clearly broken down. We didn't think much about it at the time. On our return, 2 hours later, the bus was still there, and people were now standing/sitting in ditch. It definitely got our attention. We turned around and decided to check on them. Turns out they had been stranded there in the heat for 3 hours. The driver had gotten a ride into town right after they broke down, but without cell signal they didn't know what was going on.
We gave the drivers wife a ride up to our campsite so she could call her husband and get status on the situation. Things weren't looking good. He was unable to get the hose needed for repair, unable to get a replacement bus until the next day, unable to find transportation to bring the passengers back to town, and unable to find accommodations for the night. While the driver was continuing his effort to find accommodations, I started shuttling passengers, 4 at a time, to the pizza hut in Buffalo WY. The driver eventually found rooms, scattered at numerous hotels, for all of the passengers. I finally got everyone situated 4 hours later. These poor passengers were stranded for 7 hours!
In the end, they found a part in St Paul and a driver from the tour company drove out overnight with the part. They also got a bus, from another company, to take them to their next stop in case there was problems with the repair. The group left early the next morning and the bus was repaired and on its way by late morning.
Quite the ordeal.
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