Take the Long Way Home. Car Trouble, Again!
North Coast Roadtrip travelog #7
Back home - Mon, 29 Mar 2021. 11pm.
We wrapped up our three-day weekend road trip to California's north coast today, driving some 440 miles home. Along the way we managed a handful of stops- including one to drop off some rocks, a few for attempts at lunch, and one for a serious hike on the Mendocino coast.
Had we gone "straight" home via the shortest possible route it still would have been a long day, with just over 400 miles of driving. We added to that by dodging out to the Mendocino coast, through the towns of Fort Bragg and Mendocino, to visit Russian Gulch State Park and hike 5+ miles to a waterfall there. That's what pushed us to 440 miles of driving. Door to door, it has been a 14.5 hour travel day.
Beer O'clock?
Traveling through Fort Bragg meant picking up some beer. I mean, it's always beer o'clock somewhere, right? The town is home to the North Coast Brewery, which makes several beers of which I'm a fan. On past trips through I've ordered beer samplers with afternoon snacks. But since it was only lunch time and there were still many miles to hike- and drive- I merely bought some beer to enjoy later.
"We've got a few specials right now," the beertender at the beer shop informed me, "Including a make-your-own-6-pack special. Combine any 6 individual bottles you want for $10."
"I didn't come this far to buy loosies," I snarled playfully. We both enjoyed a laugh.
Five minutes and two six-packs later I was back on the road. It's not the 44-bottle armada I bought last time I passed through town. Many of those from that previous trip I can buy locally. This time I grabbed six-packs of a stout and a dark lager that aren't carried by distributors.
A Hike and Car Trouble
Car trouble cropped up as we entered Russian Gulch State Park. After we stopped at the kiosk to pay our entry fee, the car didn't want to shift into forward gear. The gear selector physically wouldn't move to the "D" (drive) slot. On the third try it did, but only barely. It slipped out of gear occasionally. As I nursed the car down the hill to the trailhead parking area I wondered if we'd have to call AAA after our hike.
We managed not to think too much about the car trouble while hiking. We enjoyed the trek. At first I didn't think we'd done this hike before, but toward the end of the way in I remembered it. It was pouring rain last time, so lots of things looked different today with not-shitty weather.
As I've done with other hiking treks this trip, I'm skipping pictures for now because they take time to prepare. I'll follow up with them in a few days in separate blog posts.
Sweating the Drive Home... And the Next Repair Bill
We got back to the car around 5:30pm. "Maybe it will have magically fixed itself," we agreed, both of us knowing the chances of that were remote. And we were right. The car hadn't magically fixed itself; the transmission was still struggling to engage "Drive" mode.
I was already mulling what the nature of the problem could be... and what it would cost to fix. Car trouble- and the cost of repair- is/are a sore point for me right now. It's just ten days after getting the car back from the shop, with a $1,400 repair bill. The problem is different enough that I don't suspect the shop of screwing anything up, but it's still galling to face downtime and expense- not to mention the possibility of being stranded by a breakdown 200 miles from home- so soon again.
Well, the fact that I wrote "Back home" in the byline at the top of this blog tells you that we didn't get stranded. The car behaved just enough for us to get home.
And that's where we are now. Home. We arrived sometime after 10 this evening and unpacked the car. I took a shower to clean up from the long day and help unwind before going to bed. It's late already, and tomorrow's a work day.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/44852.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
Back home - Mon, 29 Mar 2021. 11pm.
We wrapped up our three-day weekend road trip to California's north coast today, driving some 440 miles home. Along the way we managed a handful of stops- including one to drop off some rocks, a few for attempts at lunch, and one for a serious hike on the Mendocino coast.
Had we gone "straight" home via the shortest possible route it still would have been a long day, with just over 400 miles of driving. We added to that by dodging out to the Mendocino coast, through the towns of Fort Bragg and Mendocino, to visit Russian Gulch State Park and hike 5+ miles to a waterfall there. That's what pushed us to 440 miles of driving. Door to door, it has been a 14.5 hour travel day.
Beer O'clock?
Traveling through Fort Bragg meant picking up some beer. I mean, it's always beer o'clock somewhere, right? The town is home to the North Coast Brewery, which makes several beers of which I'm a fan. On past trips through I've ordered beer samplers with afternoon snacks. But since it was only lunch time and there were still many miles to hike- and drive- I merely bought some beer to enjoy later.
"We've got a few specials right now," the beertender at the beer shop informed me, "Including a make-your-own-6-pack special. Combine any 6 individual bottles you want for $10."
"I didn't come this far to buy loosies," I snarled playfully. We both enjoyed a laugh.
Five minutes and two six-packs later I was back on the road. It's not the 44-bottle armada I bought last time I passed through town. Many of those from that previous trip I can buy locally. This time I grabbed six-packs of a stout and a dark lager that aren't carried by distributors.
A Hike and Car Trouble
Car trouble cropped up as we entered Russian Gulch State Park. After we stopped at the kiosk to pay our entry fee, the car didn't want to shift into forward gear. The gear selector physically wouldn't move to the "D" (drive) slot. On the third try it did, but only barely. It slipped out of gear occasionally. As I nursed the car down the hill to the trailhead parking area I wondered if we'd have to call AAA after our hike.
We managed not to think too much about the car trouble while hiking. We enjoyed the trek. At first I didn't think we'd done this hike before, but toward the end of the way in I remembered it. It was pouring rain last time, so lots of things looked different today with not-shitty weather.
As I've done with other hiking treks this trip, I'm skipping pictures for now because they take time to prepare. I'll follow up with them in a few days in separate blog posts.
Sweating the Drive Home... And the Next Repair Bill
We got back to the car around 5:30pm. "Maybe it will have magically fixed itself," we agreed, both of us knowing the chances of that were remote. And we were right. The car hadn't magically fixed itself; the transmission was still struggling to engage "Drive" mode.
I was already mulling what the nature of the problem could be... and what it would cost to fix. Car trouble- and the cost of repair- is/are a sore point for me right now. It's just ten days after getting the car back from the shop, with a $1,400 repair bill. The problem is different enough that I don't suspect the shop of screwing anything up, but it's still galling to face downtime and expense- not to mention the possibility of being stranded by a breakdown 200 miles from home- so soon again.
Well, the fact that I wrote "Back home" in the byline at the top of this blog tells you that we didn't get stranded. The car behaved just enough for us to get home.
And that's where we are now. Home. We arrived sometime after 10 this evening and unpacked the car. I took a shower to clean up from the long day and help unwind before going to bed. It's late already, and tomorrow's a work day.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/44852.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]