Friday 5th October - we will probably forget the date at some point but we will never forget the day. It started as a normal day but ended with a near death experience. Day 418 since e left home on our tandem , day 252 in the Americas, day 371 of our travels excluding our time back in England after the tandem crash. The snow hadn't fallen on Estes park as forecast, we left in a blaze of sunshine heading for Utah. The road climbed over several high passes, we entered the Eisenhower tunnel at around 11,000 feet. The sun shied away and the heavens cried only for the sun to return and so this cycle went on. Relentless climbs led to long descents with escape lanes for runaway trucks. Another tunnel and two lanes went down to one as a coach was broken down with diesel pouring out of it! We made it through the tunnel before it was closed to clear the mess up and haul the coach out of there. The scenery changed again as we followed the Colorado river through a deep canyon that went on for a few hours. The canyon widened and to our left rose up huge sandstone escarpments. The green and golden trees were replaced with bare rocky hillsides. We crossed the state border into Utah and it went very flat. This is desert country. We had passed junction after junction throughout the day with an abundance of gas stations, restaurants. Motels and shops. Now every junction stated 'no services' and seemingly there wasn't a building in site. You can be a long way from civilization here. We were headed for Moab but it was Friday and with no RV park booked we decided to stop short at Thompson Springs for at least one night and drive to Moab the next day which was just 30 minutes beyond Thompson. After clocking up around 400 miles and with just 7 miles to go our pick up suddenly revved very high all on its own, then low revs then high again. Something was wrong, Donna pulled over onto the shoulder. As soon as we came to a halt smoke came out from under the bonnet. Donna quickly pulled the bonnet release and I jumped out. Before I even went to the front to lift the bonnet I could see flames under the engine. Oh my god this thing is going to blow up - I shouted to Donna to 'GET OUT, GET OUT NOW IT'S ON FIRE'. Donna got out and I got back in to quickly grabbed our passports and wallets which were on the front seat. We quickly moved away from the vehicle expecting the whole things to be on fire at any moment, and then our propane tank would explode. Then we spotted a car that had pulled in a safe distance in front of us and the two occupants were running our way with a fire extinguisher. They didn't mess about, he was on his knees looking underneath and she was firing the extinguisher under the engine. I hurriedly unlocked the camper to grab our extinguisher and soon two of us were attacking the flames. With both extinguishers emptied the fire was out but Donna and I half expected it to start again and kept a safe distance. The couple that came to our rescue had seen smoke coming out from underneath us as we were driving and were oblivious to what was happening. Then they saw the flames, soon after which we knew something was amiss and pulled over. The couple who were from Denver were going to Moab for the weekend, thanks to their swift actions the truck and camper didn't go up in flames along with all our possessions inside. With the fire out and no sign of it starting I retrieved our breakdown papers, and the weekenders lent us a mobile phone to call BCAA. After a 20 minute call which involved being transferred to Utah AA a tow truck would be with us in an hour at tops. We said our thanks to our saviours and offered to pay for the extinguisher and phone call - they wouldn't accept anything. The extinguisher would be refilled at work for free as the worked for the Denver Fire service and the call was already paid for. We are certain they would relish telling their work colleagues about this incident, they actually told us they had been waiting ages to use one of the two extinguishers they carry in their car!! Assuming we would be in a motel for the night we started packing clothes and toiletries up in our big packs. We had not long finished packing when the tow truck and the most miserable driver we have encountered arrived just 20 minutes after my call. After loading Tilly up on the back we were heading to a garage and motel in Moab. I think we both recollected from several years ago seeing a bus completely ablaze on the hard shoulder of the M6 - the thing had set on fire and in no time at all it was burning from top to bottom, front to back. We both knew that this could have happened to us possibly after we had stopped and got out or whilst we were still driving - on climbing into the tow truck we were both still shaking. A frightening traumatic experience. The tow truck guy just thought we had broken down and inconvenienced him late on a Friday afternoon. When we told him what had happened he immediately became friendly and offered us his phone to book a motel in Moab. What started as a normal day turned into a nightmare. We were thankful that we were still alive, Tilly may not be drivable but it hadn't gone up in flames with our belongings inside. After being assured that the Chevvy dealership we were headed for would be shut we received a friendly welcome by Josh the mechanic working late along with his enormous 4 month old pooch called Bozart. Donna went off to find a motel and came back with an option of 2 rooms both of which were unbelievably expensive. Josh asked us if we wanted to sleep in our camper on their forecourt. Donna was frightened that the whole thing would be burning again whilst we slept. Josh and the tow guy assured us that it was perfectly safe now and we could even turn our propane on to cook and keep warm. Sitting in the back of our camper surrounded by cars for sale we opened a bottle of wine and a can of beer to steady our nerves. We were both in disbelief of what happened to us today. Josh stayed around for a couple more hours and allowed us to us the toilet and gave us his number to call as he left should we need to. Even though tomorrow is Saturday and Josh will be the only one of 3 mechanics in he promised he would look at what started the fire and the damage caused in the morning. Donna cooked, we were both hungry but at the same time not in the mood for eating. We crawled into bed still in a state of shock. What next?