A flat tire in rural Wyoming was a big problem — until an OnStar Advisor saved the day.
OnStar Members Ari and Jessi A. like to wander. They have a home in Michigan, but they’re rarely there. Instead, thanks to jobs that allow them to work from wherever, they go wherever. They hitch a 30-foot trailer to their Chevrolet Express van and go.
“We spend a lot of time out in the middle of nowhere,” Jessi says.
And most of the time that is exactly where they want to be. Those “middle of nowhere” stops offer easy access to hiking and other outdoor adventures. Having OnStar allows them a sense of security as they travel.
“We love it because you get to see so many new things,” Ari says. “We’re really getting to explore the country.”
“I've often joked that when you live in an RV, everything is kind of on the way if you want it to be,” Ari says. “And that's been one of the great parts of this lifestyle.”
“We’re from Michigan, and we try to get out of the winter when possible,” Ari says. “We’ll usually settle in for two, three months at a time and then travel more throughout the summer and into the fall.”
“A lot of times we'll just say, ‘What haven't we seen yet? What national park do we want go to? What state Capitol do we want to visit?’” Jessi says.
“We didn’t know where we were,” Jessi says. “We’d left a town a few hours before where we’d gotten gas. We literally had no idea where we were. The OnStar Advisor was able to pull us up and pinpoint exactly where we were.”
They’ll often set up in a state or national park and stay a few days or a few months. Or they may arrange a trip around seeing family or friends. Returning from Oregon, for example, put them somewhere in Wyoming, headed toward Badlands National Park, when a sensor alerted them to low tire pressure on the trailer.
“We immediately pulled off the road — as much as we could,” Ari says.
The shoulder was narrow and the flat was on the driver’s side, and traffic was whipping past at rural Wyoming speeds. Ari had one bar of service on his phone. Jessi had none. Because they spend so much time on the road, they keep paper maps in the van. Those were useless. They had no idea where they were or where the next closest town with help might be. They had discovered the downside to “the middle of nowhere.”
Stay connected
Traveling means finding yourself in new places. When that happens, Ari and Jessi rely on the myChevrolet mobile app for directions and to help find their way back to their Express. “I don't worry too much about where I parked the van because I can pull up the app, and it will tell me where my van is and even give me directions to walk back to it,” Ari says. Find out how the app can help you.
“So, we said, ‘Let’s push the OnStar button and see what they can do,’” Ari says.
The OnStar Advisor was able to do a lot. She began by pinpointing their location and contacting three different towing services before finding one that was available. The Advisor also contacted the police to let them know there were stranded motorists on the side of the road. Ari and Jessi figure the Advisor probably stayed on the line with them for an hour to make sure they were safe. It reinforced for them the benefits that come with being an OnStar Member.
“We use OnStar all the time for directions, but we'd never used the emergency button,” Jessi says. “And it was great. It was a fantastic experience. You had this comforting voice on the line immediately.”
