Two Breakdowns Later

Taking the coast road was beautiful, especially the redwood forest we passed through (mostly when it was dark). The local cappuccino was almost as good as Jim’s. Timewise it saved us none and cost us more but at least we were not driving through a blizzard. Much of the road was twisty so slow going. Oh well. We will get there when we get there. Our master mechanic Miguel in Uplands (a city that seems to be part of Los Angeles) is scheduled to go to a big GMC rally in Quartzite on Monday the 15th so he wanted us to arrive on Friday the 12th. It will be the 12th but just barely at this rate!

As we were zipping merrily up the Grapevine – 4 lanes of heavy traffic (in one direction) all going at least 120 km/hr (and that is the speed limit) and climbing at least 4,000 feet; we were congratulating ourselves on how well the motor home has been running! – ohhhh yes, we know that is a mistake, especially going up a steep grade at 11:00 at night. Suddenly the motor started belching smoke into the cab releasing a horrible stench – I start shouting directions – we pull over to the side of the road onto the narrow shoulder – and :

a) we both leap out
b) only I leap out while Lorne sticks his head into the motor inside the motor home

Oh yes and what would you pick? What do you think happened? The answer dear friends is b. Truly! There is an access to the motor between the driver’s and the passenger’s seats and he had opened this up and had stuck his head right in there! Meanwhile this smoke and stench was filling the motor home. I was thinking - What is he? - nuts? I thought we were on fire and was waiting for it to blow up like in the movies.

He mutters something like – It’s steam… It smelled like smoke to me and was certainly black!

Did I mention it was very cold? Winter coat cold! After trying a number of things in the freezing cold that didn’t work we managed to pull the motor home over to a side road that we were lucky enough to be close to and spent the night. Of course in the morning Lorne knew exactly what was wrong and fixed it. It was the thermostat – it had stuck shut so the motor overheated – he took it out so the water could circulate.

A thermostat for the GMC is a $6 item so it was easily replaced once we got to Miguel’s the next morning.

Miguel worked tirelessly and by Monday we were on our way – that is until we were about 20 km down the road at a Walmart parking lot picking up last supplies before Mexico. Lorne went to start up and it would not go. Miguel had left already for the rally but we called him on his cell to get a recommendation of where to get help and he sent his son who arrived in about 15 minutes! It turned out to be the starter so we now have a new starter too.

So while it was bad luck to have these breakdowns at all it was very good luck that they were so easily fixed; were close to Miguel; and they did not occur in some remote area in the Baja. So – now we are truly on our way.