Roadside assistance

Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Gillette News Record and has been republished with permission. The young man in the article, Adam Wood, is a descendant of the Hutton family and has ties to the Ekalaka area.

Beth Jackson has been driving through Gillette since the 1970s. A resident of Brunswick, Georgia, she and her husband of 54 years, Vernon, have made the drive from Georgia to Ekalaka every year they've been married.

Just by passing through each summer, they've been able to watch the town grow over the decades.

Their most recent drive through Gillette, however, was easily their most eventful.

On Aug. 19, they were in Gillette to meet Beth's sister for lunch. Afterwards, they pulled into Common Cents to fill up. After getting fuel, they were ready to get back on the road. And that's when it happened.

"We filled up, turned the ignition on, and click, click, click," she said. "It wouldn't move and start."

Jackson said two young men got out of their car and helped push the pickup away from the fuel pump and to the car wash.

She and her husband opened up the hood to see what the issue was. Jackson said in the moment, she felt sick. It was a Saturday, so she didn't think there was a chance of them finding a mechanic to work on it till Monday.

"Not that we couldn't afford it or anything, but just being without a vehicle would've been a pretty ugly situation," she said.

Just five minutes later, Adam Wood was driving past and saw a truck with its hood open, and he decided to pull over to see if they needed any help.

"Just out of the blue, it was very, very neat," Jackson said.

Wood, who graduated from Campbell County High School in May, diagnosed the issue quickly. He suspected the truck needed a new alternator, so he called Napa, jumped the Jacksons' truck battery and they drove to the store.

After Wood made sure the alternator would fit, the Jacksons bought it, and Wood went to work trying to install it. He would have to drive to his dad's house on the other side of town to get some tools, but he returned 20 minutes later, Jackson said.

And just two to two and a half hours from when the truck wouldn't start, Wood had the pickup running smoothly. The Jacksons were able to make it to Ekalaka later that day, and they've since driven more than 400 miles with the new alternator, with no complaints.

"It was such a wonderful experience," Jackson said. "It renewed our faith in humanity. You have really nice people there."

Wood works for Peabody Energy and also is working on getting a degree in diesel technology from Gillette College, Jackson said. When she offered to pay him for his troubles, "he didn't want to take any money."

"I told him, 'You spent a Saturday afternoon with some old people broke down,'" she said.

He'd had a dinner appointment at 5 p.m. that day that he was able to easily make, but Jackson said he never mentioned this until after he'd fixed their truck.

"When he had finished, I apologized," Jackson said. "I said, 'You should've been out with your friends.' He said, 'No, I like doing this.'"