The 'burb has broken down on me exactly once.

I'd been anticipating a road trip from the coast to Page, AZ for months. My friend Sal agreed to come, and I'd convinced him we'd take the Suburban instead of his Toyota. I'd just done valve body work on the torque converter clutch solenoid the week before to make sure everything was ready.

I had the check engine light come on leaving California. This was because I needed to add a little transmission fluid to make up for what was lost in the valve body work. It was nothing serious and the car was not driving oddly in any way, shape, or form. The next day, we rolled through 300,000 miles just outside of Smith Valley, NV and drove 10,000 feet up into the White Mountains. It was glorious.

After four states and 700 miles without incident, we were about to cross the Colorado River at Marble Canyon. It was at golden hour and the surrounding cliffs and mesas lit up in beautiful hues of yellow, orange, and red.

So did the 'SERVICE ENGINE SOON' light.

The engine code reader said the EGR valve had died. Annoying, but not a big deal. The engine still ran fine, and I cleared the code so the light would go away.

To give the car a rest, we stopped at Navajo Bridge to take a look at the view and some nesting California Condors. A few miles after we left the light came on again. But this time it started flashing. So we pulled over to figure it out. And then the car died.

DIED died. Turned the key, crank, no start. Nothing.

We ended up spending a night there on the roadside.

I had it towed to the Page Walmart and we spent an entire day using a hand transfer pump and five-gallon buckets to drain 40 gallons of fuel I'd just put in at Kanab (I was kicking myself). We had to drop the tank, replace the sending unit, and get the car running again. It took us a full day, it ruined the trip, and I think it shook Sal's confidence in me for a while.

The aftermath was a madness-inducing goose chase under the hood. I could not get the check engine light or misfires to go away until I had replaced the fuel pump, distributor, idle air control valve, intake gasket, throttle body gasket, lower intake manifold gasket, spark plugs, plug wires, PCV valve, EGR hose, EGR gasket, EGR valve, and various vacuum hoses. I even had to design and 3D print a gasket to get the air intake to properly connect to the throttle body.

I spent a lot of time cursing over the engine bay for weeks afterward. The preparation hadn't been enough. I never considered my engine would need a similar level of attention as my transmission did after 300,507 miles.

For what it's worth, we took Sal's Toyota out later and the radiator blew. But I'll never get to live down the time the fuel pump died outside of Page. Even Brer Rabbit can get stuck from time to time.