Month: October 2009

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Still Shaking

Miranda will be getting her new brakes tomorrow, the process taking all day, so, being 130km from Vancouver and aware that I have at least one more ‘big’ hill ahead, I’m going to do the drive in the toad to see if I need to hire myself a driver.

I’m just not ready to get back on the proverbial horse. Oh, driving on flat, no problem, but I’m not ready to put myself back in a situation where I could find myself careening down a hill. I’ve received mixed opinions about the route ahead; some say that it’s ‘almost as bad’ as the road behind me while others scoff and say the worst is behind me. I want to hit the road feeling more confident than I feel right now.

I do seem to have lucked out with the mechanic; the estimate is fair and I’m being given a substantial discount on parts. The tire will also be replaced at no charge (a 250$ value on its own).

The brakes would have needed to have been rebuilt completely at some point during my ownership of Miranda, so the cost doesn’t hurt nearly as much as if I’d blown the engine or ripped the air conditioner off the roof ( 😉 to Croft) and I intended to give Miranda new shoes before leaving for Dawson in the spring. I’ve now got two bought. 🙂

I’m still trying to decide how I feel about my decision to take the Sea to Sky highway knowing ahead of time about its legendary grades. I think I was over confident because of the ease at which I crossed the Rockies last fall as well as my experience with some of the grades on the Alaska highway. What I can’t decide on is if the scare of my life was worth the breathtaking scenery and the excitement of taking a new route. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.

But I will say that if I’d been stranded on that mountain last night in a car, it would have been a completely different experience than being stranded in my own home with access to a proper dinner, hot shower, heat, and my own bed. I was also grateful that the runaway lane had a small spur into which I was able to tuck Miranda (thank goodness for the emergency brake) so that I was not blocking this vital laneway in case someone else experienced a similar emergency.

I also learned just how easy it is to tow Miranda and was surprised by how small the tow truck was. The driver parked the truck at the top of the runaway lane, backed Miranda down the spur behind the truck, hooked her up, and just backed the whole kit and kaboodle up the highway until he was at the right angle to drive down the hill. *boggled*

Interesting fact: roadside assistance was going to send me a tow truck from Whistler, for which I would have been charge a 150$ premium. Calling someone local on my own saved me 30$. Thank goodness I had cell service on that mountain and that my GPS had the phone number of an auto place. They couldn’t help me, but at least the person understood my predicament and was able to give me the number of someone who could help. So many things went right yesterday for all that went wrong.

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Shit Happens

Shit happens.

I am disabling comments for this post and will not welcome emails about it, especially from people with recriminations and after-the-fact suggestions for how I should have dealt with the situation without them having been there. I know this sounds harsh, but the only reason I’m even sharing this story right now, when my heart is still in my throat, is that it’s part of my story.

It happened, it’s being dealt with, I’m alive, the cats are alive, my RV is fixable, and I’m going to have one hell of a story to tell my grand-children (should I ever have kids, of course).

Let’s just say that all the preparation in the world and all the doing of the right things in the right order did not stop my brakes from crapping out on me in the middle of the worst hill in British Columbia. Had someone not been blocking the first ‘runaway lane’ I encountered, I would have been fine, albeit shaken, but the lane was blocked (the car better have been in the middle of an emergency of its own). So, I had to do what needed to be done to get around two hairpin turns to the next ‘runaway lane.’

I arrived there at a higher speed than I would have liked, but safe, and except for cooked brakes and smoking tires, all wasn’t bad.

Then a tired exploded and burst into flames and made me grateful that I take fire safety seriously and had a fire extinguisher.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so everything was closed. I hunkered down, endured one of the longest nights of my life, and was able to call for help this morning. I was grateful last night to have access to a hot shower, good food, and heating. Imagine how much longer the night would have been otherwise. Being close enough to a town with cell service was yet another blessing.

A tow truck arrived promptly at 8:30 today and took me to a garage in Pemberton, north of Whistler, where I will be comfortable until I can get new brakes and replace the tires. The estimate should be forthcoming.

A special mention needs to go out to my mother who is helping me manage this crisis. I’m a very proud person and it’s not easy to ask for help, but I suspected that it would take more time than I have to get access to my emergency funds, so I made call. Merci, mom!

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Quick Update as I Boondock My Way Across British Columbia

Very quick update!

I am posting from Prince George. (Les, if you’re reading this, I won’t be stopping in on this trip, thanks!) I can’t do justice to the last four days with a free Starbucks wi-fi connection, so details will have to wait. 🙂

I am now at my third day of boondocking and will be boondocking again tonight, with no hardship whatsoever. I have plenty of battery juice, heat, running water, a fully charged laptop, and plenty of reading material. And I’m not even running the genset! I just solved my battery charging issues from the spring; more on that in my next post.

As for the genset, it probably needs a new fuel filter seeing as no fuel whatsoever is getting into it but it runs fine when I inject gasoline directly into the carburetor. I’m going to go price one at Canadian Tire this morning, but if it’s expensive, I won’t bother for this trip seeing as I’m not in dire need of the extra power.

My decision to take the Cassiar Highway was one of the best I have made in my thirteen months on the road. More about that will follow. 🙂

Unfortunately, the weather being what it was in Nugget City, I didn’t make nearly as much money as I would have liked, so I’m in a real rush to get to Campbell River and a new job. I’m therefore doing long days of driving and provided Croft says it’s okay ( 🙂 ), I might be there at the end of this week!

Long days and cold nights not withstanding, these have been my absolute best days on the road so far, bar none, just because I’m finally living my dream of a self-contained life. If only I could have my own internet, but I’m now back in ‘civilization’ and my Starbucks account gives me two hours free DAILY at their hotspots so I can at least check in periodically. 🙂

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Weather-Made Decisions

Last night it was so cold I should have turned on the furnace and I woke up to a frozen water hose. Tonight, the temps are dipping to minus eight and the high tomorrow will be zero. I am therefore leaving and hope to be on the road by two (it’s 12:30 now), just need to get the darn hose thawed and the tanks dumped. I’m pretty excited as I’m about to enter new territory. I should be back online when I hit Prince George.

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Life Without Sewer

I’ve entered my third week of life without sewer and I’ve decided that it sucks. 🙂 My black tank can last for over two weeks, but if I take even a short shower each night, I can’t go longer than a week with the grey. I took advantage of the dump station when I moved up to the restaurant, so my black tank is still fine, but the grey is full again. *sighs* Here is how I’m dealing with the situation:

  • Using Less Water: I only shower twice a week, Navy-style, and bathe in the sink the rest of the time
  • Using the Black Tank’s Extra Capacity: I do the dishes in a large mixing bowl and throw that water into the black tanks. Same thing when I bathe in the sink.
  • Using a Bucket to Dump: Since my sensors are useless, I only know that the grey tank is full when it backs up into my shower. When that happens, I dump a couple buckets worth of water and haul them out to the dump station. This gives me just enough space in the tank to last a couple more days.
  • Not Getting Too Comfortable: I leave the rig in a semi-packed state so that it only takes fifteen minutes or so to pack, unhook, and go dump when the black tank is full.

My grey tank contains nothing that is environmentally damaging, just some biodegradable detergents. I’m sure that it’s more damaging to the environment to fire up the ol’ engine and drive the klick round trip from my site to the dump station. But the fines for dumping on the ground are scary and there is also the threat of jail time, so I choose to remain law abiding even if the law does not make sense in my situation.