Wow. Your post brings back some long lost memories. I remember riding through a reservation in Arizona (maybe the same one) and was chased by a pack of dogs like I'd never seen. Relentless. I saw them crossing an open expanse a long way off and they were running hard to get to my friend and I. We were loaded with camping gear etc. for our x-c trip and were going up a long slight incline. We thought they'd give up before they got to us but they kept coming and we ended up in an all out sprint up that climb. We eventually wore them down and when we reached the top I noticed I had ripped the rear flange of my hub right off of the body of the hub. It was held together by one bit of metal. Rode the next 20 miles very gingerly until it finally gave it up. And it took us a full day and a half to hitchhike our way out of there. We finally got a ride with a real nut in a pick up truck- hadn't thought about that in years.

My commute today was far less eventful but still somewhat mired in mechanical near catastrophe. Hadn't ridden the winter commuter in a few days but took it today due to predicted snow (still hasn't come). Got half way into work and noticed my front tire had a bubble in the sidewall the size of an eyeball! My Nokian finally bit the dust after 5 seasons- not bad. Today was a really chock full day with not a minute to spare. Fortunately there's a great shop near where my afternoon appointment was- I called ahead- they had a 2.1 Nokian (my old one was a 1.95) had them switch the back tire to the front and they were kind enough to do it in less than 45 minutes while I was at my appointment. I don't think I've ever paid someone to repair my bike- especially to put a tire on- I guess that means I'm busy.