Dirtkids

We’ve been back from vacation for about a week, long enough to get somewhat caught up on the life we left behind to play. A great time was had by all…ok, the dogs probably would’ve preferred more exercise but the combination of short hikes and rest was good for Bodie’s knee recovery…

The vacation nearly ended before it started. Friday night, we set out from Bishop with the goal of weaving our way over to Hwy 95 in Nevada. The plan was to crash somewhere along the road, arrive in Hurricane, UT Saturday and sneak in a ride at Gooseberry Mesa before continuing the drive to Moab. Not so wisely, Tom and I opted for a windy, remote road south of Bishop that on paper seemed the most direct route to 95. About 20 miles from the town of Big Pine, on windy 168, we passed the Ancient Bristlecone Pine park and were already agreeing to avoid this road in the future. We were driving two vehicles, not yet willing to take the $$$ plunge on the tow system needed to tow the Jeep Wrangler behind the motorhome. About 15 miles or so later, Tom radioed that he wanted to pull over and check on the motorcycles secured in the motorhome garage…he was concerned they had moved around. Pull-outs on this road were few and far between…

So we find a little pull-out on the left side of the road, slightly uphill. Tom is able to get 99% of the MH off the road, puts it in Park and walks back to check…everything is good. Until he can’t get the MH out of Park. Apparently the park pawl (gear) was under what is called “torque lock”…which basically means you need a nudge forward to get out of gear. Hmmm…how will that happen on a slight uphill in the middle of nowhere? It’s now about 10:30 at night, we’re both getting tired and not sure what to do. To make matters worse, we had no cell reception. We decide I should drive the Jeep back toward Big Pine until I get a signal and call the MH chassis manufacturer and possibly AAA for a tow option. I arrive back at the MH around 1:45am…chassis road service was limited to a person who could make further phone calls. AAA had less towing coverage than the chassis folks. The tow company that was contacted in Bishop wasn’t sure how they’d tow from where we were (and would charge $275/hr) and suggested a mobile mechanic be called in the morning. Frustrated, I just wanted to get back to Tom and to sleep. As a courtesy, the chassis folks called the CHP to make sure we were ok and not a road hazard. So we climb into bed after 2am…figuring we’ll try harder Saturday morning to figure something out. About 15 min later, the CHP flashing lights appear. Now keep in mind these guys are working in a remote area late a night…they really don’t have much to do. So they wanted to see if they could help us figure something out. After about 45 min of tinkering, still no luck. They thought we were off the road enough and left us alone to figure things out in the morning.

We slept for maybe 4 hr, tried a few more things in the morning and then it was Tom’s turn to drive to cell reception. He returned over 3 hrs later, with some friends of ours in Bishop. Chris, Amber, James and newborn Kai made the trek to the MH from Bishop equipped with tow straps, tools, etc. Chris was able to pull the MH forward enough with his Suburban to allow Park to disengage…but then we discovered another problem. The steering column shifter for the auto transmission was “limp.” It was cable-actuated and Chris and Tom crawled under the motorhome and found the issue…when the dealer was repairing a leaky hydraulic hose, they didn’t re-zip tie the shifter cable housing away from an exhaust pipe. The housing then sat on the exhaust pipe, melted and exposed the cable…which now had a space to slip out of the housing…the resulting loose cable didn’t allow for us to shift. Chris and Tom rigged a repair and things seemed to be back in working order!

The question now was do we safely head back to Bishop or go for it? We went for it! Although we were bummed to have lost nearly a day of vacation time, we still managed a quick Gooseberry Mesa ride, showers, plenty of food and good sleep on the way to Moab.

The weather in Moab started a little chilly early in the week and was nearly 80 by the time we left. Each day we managed to fit in some combination of hikes, mtn bike rides or moto rides. Although the drive was feeling long on the way there, once in Moab, we quickly remembered why we love it there so much. The scenery is breath-taking, the riding epic and given the never-ending winter in CA this year, the warm, dry desert was also nice!

The drive home was uneventful (thankfully) and the MH is headed back to the shop tonight for more warranty repairs (hopefully they don’t screw things up again!) Pictures follow, enjoy…