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Published: March 29th 2009
Stranded
We decided that Shoshone, CA was a very nice place to be stranded An odd smell begins to join the chaos that was pounding our ear drums.
Oleg had enough. He did not want to go any further. The funny noises started shortly after Kelso Sand Dunes in Mojave National Preserve. We had continued on to Baker, CA to fill up the tank before heading north to Death Valley. We came across the end-of-President's Day Weekend-return-to-L.A.-traffic that filled the main road of Baker, but after lunch simply headed off again into the desert, leaving the traffic behind. Oleg was a bit unhappy, but we hoped the
ba-bump wasn't too crucial.
Powf! Screeeeeeeeechhh! Imagine metal-on-metal, or fingernails on a blackboard if you will. We pulled over and inspected underneath, inspected the tires, tried slowly driving forwards and backwards to see what the noise was all about. After some loud klangs, Oleg decided he could go a bit further.
But only a little bit further. A local guy pulled
Oleg gets a ride
We got towed from Shoshone, CA to Pahrump, NV over to help us scratch our heads. The sound seemed to be coming from the left back wheel on the driver's side, but it wasn't the wheel that had been low on air earlier in the trip. It had to be something with the wheel by the sound. Dave touched the wheel hub. Red hot. Uh oh. Wheel bearing. This could be costly.
We slowly limped, four-way flashers flashing, to Shoshone, California. The local guy said the nearest mechanic was in Nevada, but at least Shoshone would have a place to stay, food and a phone. By the time we reached the town of about 7 buildings (wikipedia lists Shoshone with a population of just over 50 people), the car was filled with the noxious oil-smell of brake fluid.
We tried calling AAA for road-side assistance, but after they called back at 6pm to say they needed a more detailed address of where we were, we gave up. I was highly amused by the lady at AAA...it made me wonder what would have happened if we didn't manage to get the car to an actual village and stayed on the side of the road in the Mojave Desert.
Up into the Stratosphere
We had a cheap room at this casino...but never did go up to the top! She insisted we had to give an address, despite my protests that there was no way the tow truck driver could miss the gas station on a street with only seven buildings. None of the business cards we received from the locals had actual addresses, just listing the road as highway 127. She wanted us to give a city as our location, and Shoshone did not seem to fit her criteria. Finally I called back to cancel the tow truck, although the request was inactive and the tow truck company had never heard from AAA.
We limped poor Oleg over to the motel where the nice lady gave us a room and said we could leave Oleg parked there until the tow truck came. We crossed the street to the one restaurant in town, where we were very happy with the hospitality and great food at the Crowbar Café and Saloon. It was the type of restaurant service and home-cooked food that we had been seeking for months. So if you ever find yourself in
Shoshone, California, stop by the restaurant!
The next morning, we checked on Oleg, who still smelled a bit oily, and went to have
Paris?
We spent quite a bit on drinks here... some breakfast. We ended up calling AAA again, this time explaining that the only mechanic for miles around was in Pahrump, Nevada, and they might as well send the tow truck from there. And no, we didn't have a more detailed address, the town only had seven buildings and if the driver couldn't recognise either the post-office, gas station or restaurant, then we had bigger issues to worry about. We set up our chairs and waited patiently by the car for the tow truck. A lovely cat named Boo decided to keep us company for a while, and I mailed a few post cards.
Finally the truck arrived, and upon seeing it, I recalled the guy at AAA neglected to ask what was wrong with the car, nor did he inquire if the car was 4WD or 2WD. We had a busted wheel bearing on a 4WD vehicle. After some more head-scratching over whether it was possible to tow the car with the wrong truck, we pulled out our chairs again and waited for the driver to get the proper flatbed truck.
And so we were on our way to Pahrump, Nevada. The stunning scenery lifted our
Boo
Boo the cat kept us company while we waited. somber moods, as we both feared the worst fate for our Oleg. But as we drove into Pahrump, our moods dropped on the sight of a billboard announcing that a wanted man, armed and dangerous, was last seen in the area. What kind of town did we end up in?
Our mechanic, Mike, was a like-able fellow, a Navy guy born in Newfoundland but raised in America. He took a quick look and confirmed our fears. The diagnosis: busted wheel bearing, $104 for the part, 3 1/2 hours of labour, pushing the total to a minimum of $400. As we had only paid $600 for Oleg, and my credit card was getting a bit full, we just couldn't afford to fix it. We inquired the distance to Las Vegas, and wondered if we could slowly limp there. But after a kilometre down the road, we knew Oleg was done. He didn't want to go to Vegas. He didn't even want to go into the town of Pahrump. He screeched and groaned to the hotel, and screeched and klanged all the next morning as we drove to the Salvation Army to get rid of stuff and search for an auto-wrecker's. One
Oleg's Resting Place
This is where we had to abandon Oleg :( wrecker's eyes lit up at the sight of Oleg, but he was after a healthier engine and wouldn't give us a dime for him.
Finally, the
powf to end all powf's occurred on Red Rock Road, out of town. The wheel bearing was done. In fact, it was actually
smoking. No more. Oleg was done. We asked some locals for a wrench to take off the license plate, and tried to call the auto-wrecker's again, offering him the car in exchange for a ride back into town. With no response from the wrecker's, we offered it to the 19-yr-old who was eyeing the car. Although we did try to get a bit of cash, we gave up as he insisted he was broke until the following week. So we hopped into his muddy monster of a truck to get our ride into town, and signed the car over to him. At least Oleg didn't end up at the wrecker's. Hopefully he gets a bit more love out there in the desert.
We miss you, Oleg. He was a good car, getting us 10,193 km. He was our home and our friend. May he rest in peace and
Back to NYC
And we're back to where we started! Or, the Las Vegas version of it have a little more desert fun.
We'll end our trip in Las Vegas!
And so we caught the shuttle bus from our casino hotel in Pahrump to our casino in Las Vegas, the Stratosphere. It was quite a work-out getting all of our stuff from our drop-off at the Sahara across the road to our casino. Walking distances in Las Vegas are not to be taken lightly, as each casino takes up the equivalent of a few city blocks or more.
We set off to explore Vegas, trying to protect our wallets from the money-spending atmosphere. We experienced Fremont Street and the neon lights, saw the waterworks at the Bellagio, and found cheap drinks and fun drinking buddies at the Diablo next to the Monte Carlo. We also watched lava flow at the Mirage, heard the pirates and wenches fighting at Treasure Island, and found the one source of free internet at the Coffee Bean in the Miracle Mile of shops near Planet Hollywood.
My brother drove out across the country and met us there, and together we discovered the indoor rainstorm in the Miracle Mile, got ripped off as we tried to buy
Inside the Bellagio
Artwork inside the high class casino drinks in Paris, watched more waterworks than my brother could handle, tried to set a record for the amount of business cards received by the "Girls Girls Girls" immigrant workers on the strip (within a few minutes the boys had a pile a few inches thick) and eventually found the cheap booze on Fremont Street once our wallets were close to empty.
Other oddities we encountered while in the circus of Las Vegas: the M&M shop with four floors of chocolately goodness, the fashion show that appeared out of thin air and disappeared quite promptly thereafter at the Fashion Show mall, the lions at the MGM Grand, the man on the segway who would sneak up on customers in the Miracle Mile, and the live entertainment tax at Margaritaville, which lead to three $5 beers costing us $22. We also received countless offers of timeshares in Las Vegas (although we were ineligible as we claimed we were from Quebec or Australia), missed a great opportunity of getting a photo taken at the drive-thru wedding chapel, and had several offers of marriage licenses. We also missed out on the gladiators fighting at Caesear's Palace, or the circus performers at Circus
Waterworks
The famous fountains have over 800 different sequences Circus. Nonetheless, I think we had our fill of the ridiculousness that defines the desert oasis.
Viva Las Vegas!
10,193km. 17 States, 6 armadillos, countless crocodiles, rain, snow and humid heat. We spotted the license plates of 49 out of the 50 States (although Dave spotted Hawaii later), 8 provinces, 4 Mexican states and 1 Australian state. We saw beautiful nature, bustling cities, industrial areas and run-down towns. We met a lot of great people on our travels, took lots of
photos and have plenty of good American memories to take with us.
And that, boys and girls, is the end of our tale.
USA A-OK!
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