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Published: September 20th 2012
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Presidio Yacht club
Under the Golden Gate bridge Week 1
Started the trip off heading inland to visit friend Courtney and her parents. We were spoiled with a beautiful guest room and awesome meals including a "pick your own" omlette and tri-tip steak BBQ! Our dogs made some friends with theirs and had their own little kennel to hang out in after exploring the farmyard and walnut groves. Got a tour from Courtney of the farm yards and dairys and then headed back to the coast...soooo hot in the valley! We had no A/C in our rig and we had to settle with squirting each other with a squirt bottle and melting ice on ourselves! Found the "Presidio yacht club" underneath the golden gate bridge across from San Francisco and enjoyed the cooler weather, fog and listening to my fave band "Sparrow's Gate" while looking at some of our friend Jeremiah's great artwork.
Next morning we headed for Sonoma, near Napa, snuck into a hotel pool as we were back in the horrible heat, and met up with Charles' friend Bryce and his gf Amanda for a night on the town. Despite the almost fight breaking out over a pool game and meeting a sketchy gypsy that
Sonoma sidewalk
Chilling out with the pups and Eugene Bryce was sure was trying to con us we had a great time!
We had the first of our engine problems here, visited our first Napa Auto parts store and after creating an engine heating shield out of aluminum foil pans and getting our spark pugs some socks, we were on our way again! This time back to the coast to see where Charles and Mia were born, near Salmon Creek, CA. Saw the house they lived in and found the abalone shells Helen had decorated their yard with 20 some yrs ago! Also happened to be the place where they filmed A. Hitchock's "Birds". Beautiful driving up the coast!
More engine problems, Charles under the hood most of the evening, but soon back on the road and found a great little spot with some blackberry bushes to stop for the night while we BBQd some chicken and veggies. The street we found was named "Monica Lane"...weirdly enough the sign was missing the next day when I wanted to get my photo taken with it...
Headed north along the coast and took a short detour to see the big redwoods. Drove to the "tree you can drive
Salmon Creek
Hanging out with Alfred Hitchcock and his birds through" only to find out that Eugene (our camper) was a little too tall to make it through😞 We settled for pics of ourselves inside. Shortly after our clutch started acting up and Charles spent the afternoon rebuilding the clutch master cylinder and getting a mouth full of brake fluid while I ran around with the dogs...so lucky to have a mechanic along on the road trip! Found a beautiful spot in the trees off the highway right next to the Smith river for our next camping spot for another BBQ and awesome evening.
Great to wake up in the trees, wash up in the clean stream water and let the dogs explore! Headed back inland to Oregon to visit another friend, Rex and as we pulled into Salem Poor ole Eugene started to smoke...I was driving and pulled up to a red light. I freaked out and jumped out of the car while Charles, resisting the urge to run and take cover, switched spots with me and calmy drove the rig to the closest drive-way...which also happened to be his Alma matter. He quickly found out the smoke was not coming from under the hood, but from our
driving the #1
California coast auxillary battery which had blown a fuse while trying to power our fridge. Another trip to the Auto parts store and another quick fix from the "Amazing Charles", while I bonded with Charles' friends and drank pink drinks with the girlfriend and was entertained by their dtr's magic show!
Ready for smooth sailing heading north, however as soon as we crossed into Washington the brakes started locking up and squealing! You know what's coming next, yes, "Autozone" and me providing moral support while Charles replaced the brake pads in a boiling hot grocery store parking lot... Finally back on the road with a couple coolers filled with ice and food (secondary to no more fridge as above) and we got a solid hour on the road before there was a huge bang. After a quick pull-over C states..."We don't have a flat...yet...but we should put on a new one at the next town."...Well, we didn't quite make it as poor Eugene's tires were just a little too tired and this time it was more of a gunshot sound as the tire blew off and scared the dogs in the back so that my biggest one jumped right over the
Morning coffee
Sidewalk of "Monica lane" enjoying coffee with the crew gate separating the cab and camper and into my lap!
"Amazing Charles", I will call him AC for short from now on, crawled under the camper and somehow changed it to the spare on the side of the crazy busy 4 lane freeway while semis were swerving to miss half of our tire which was still on the highway and heading straight for him, then swerving sharply the other way to miss him! Finally back on the road with 4 intact tires and heading to the next town for the evening and night. Less than 5 minutes after we got on the road our camper started filling with exhaust smell...seriously? we haven't quite had enough? We made it to the town of Olympia, WA and parked by a beautiful lake for the night. Olympia is a cute little town, unfortunately all we saw of it was the tire store, the muffler man and the mechanic...good times😉 Turns out when our tire blew off, it knocked the exhaust pipe right up into our camper quickly filling it up with all the exhaust...the muffler man called it a tinderbox just waiting to explode. Nice...trip was almost over right then and there.
"Drive-thru" tree
AC holding up the tree A few bucks later (slight understatement) we had 4 new tires, a fixed exhaust pipe and we were ready to head for the border! I got behind the wheel feeling confident that Eugene was road-ready and worthy. ..I made it 5 blocks (that may also be a low ball) and being a newbie at standard driving stalled at the intersection. No biggie, I quickly tried to start it up before the green light but alas, the engine was not turning over...just clicking. Again AC took over and pushed the rig through the intersection, down the hill and into the nearest parking lot. I was pretty much in tears, breaking down and ready to take the next flight I could find out and away...anywhere to get away from Eugene. AC took a look at the engine and due to my frantic ravings called the mechanic (after attempting to jump the battery and doing some other problem solving) who after a few hours and a couple more bucks (again a downplay) figured out our battery problem and had us back on the road....
That's probably enough for one read.....What happened next? Did we ever make it to Canada? Did we give up on Eugene and just fly home? If you're still interested, stay tuned for part 2...coming soon
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