A local resident named Billy Roedel happened to be cutting firewood near our breakdown.  He came across the van on Niche Road (which blocked his way home) and chained it to his pickup and towed it to the general store in Gateway. Billy was probably the only soul up there and he had exactly what we needed to boot.  Even better, Celeste had biked down to where the van was so they all came down together. The next day the AAA tow-truck driver was able to fit us all in the cab and take us to the transmission shop in Grand Junction, Colorado. We have gotten our money's worth out of our AAA membership.