Wednesday, October 12, 2016

If You are Going to San Francisco

You're going to meet some gentle people there.

...Or so I've heard, though the people along the way have seemed kind, so far.

As you may have guessed by the title, we have finally made it to San Francisco, and yes, we did cross the Golden Gate Bridge.


Here's a blurry picture as proof.

And gee, has it been an adventure! This post is going to be a bit long, because something exciting has happened to us almost every day since last week. So, I'll start from the where I left off:

The night after my last post we finally landed in Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon. We stayed there two nights because we had a lot of laundry, shopping and exploring to catch up on. The first night, however, I flooded the trailer.

See, there's a shut off valve to the drain system of our trailer, which I assumed was to block water from gushing out before you remove the drain cap and attach the drain hose, but for some reason beyond my comprehension, this valve was installed between the drain from the sink/shower and the septic tank, rather than just before the drain cap. So, shutting the valve doesn't keep all the water in the septic tank from gushing out. Instead, it keeps the water from the sink/shower from going into the septic tank.

For all those who I just lost with seemingly random details, the story is actually fairly simple. I had this valve shut under the wrong assumption, and did the dishes. The valve prevented the water from going where it was supposed to, so instead of draining into a nice big waste water tank, it filled the pipes and backed up into the shower.

...And with the shower door shut and it being mostly clear soapy dishwater, I didn't notice it until after doing the entire load of dishes (which emptied the entire 20 gallon tank of potable water, so there was a good amount of water floating around the trailer [if anyone from ServiceMASTER is reading this right now, I can hear you facepalming]).


At least our trailer wasn't as flooded as this sunken ship we visited off the coast of Oregon.

Fortunately, the trailer was slanted at an angle, which meant that most of the water that did escape the shower ran to one end of the trailer where we had some thick rugs laying to soak it all up. Unfortunately, these were brand new rugs that Meredith had just bought for our trip, and we weren't even a week into it yet.

Now, that night in Northwestern Oregon it was raining pretty heavily, and Meredith was a bit distraught with her new rugs being completely soaked with dishwater, so I decided to set up the canopy that one of her clients had given her for our trip, to protect them from the rain and let them hang to dry.

Being a used canopy, it was of course broken. So it didn't slope perfectly and ended up collecting rainwater until it was too heavy and collapsed. It was totalled when we found it in the morning, but the rugs did remain mostly protected from the elements, and Meredith was able to launder them with the rest of our dirty clothes the next morning.


Stopping at a rest area on our way through Oregon, we were excited to find our state tree among the "Grove of the States."

Other than that, we made it through Oregon without much problem. We did end up missing a turn and backtracking quite a bit, but decided to take I-5 south anyways, rather than stick to the coastal route. After another day or two, we made it to California.

After passing through Redding, we decided to turn back toward the coast along HWY 36, which turned out to be a very rugged, curvy, mountainous route. About halfway through, we realized we were nearly out of gas and there didn't seem to be any more towns coming up for awhile. So, we detached our trailer and backtracked roughly half-an-hour. Meredith said a quick prayer and we made it, with maybe a single gallon of gas left in our tank. Had we towed the trailer all the way back, we likely would not have made it.

But that wasn't even the worst of our adventure on HWY 36. As we were coming down the other side of the mountains, the brakes went out. Turns out those curvy downhill roads are notorious for overheating brakes, or just wearing out entire brake pads. Ours were completely worn out.


A comparison of new brake pads (above) to the brake pads on my passenger side (below). The driver side brake pads were even worse.

We were able to make it safely to a large enough turn-out and, also luckily, we have AAA, thanks to my dad and step-mother back in Port Angeles. Unfortunaletly, by the time anyone arrived to tow us, it was almost 6pm, so all mechanics in the area were closed.

However, I did have some experience replacing brakes on an older car of mine, with the help of a coworker. It is kind of strange how everything I learned during my years at ServiceMASTER seems to have been preparing me for this trip, from demolishing and rebuilding the trailer, to the long drive hours, to dumping a waste tank. I feel confident with just about everything I try on this trip, due to my experiences from that job.

Mushy rant aside, I decided I would do what I could to fix the brakes and get back to our trailer that night. So, I asked to be towed to the O'Rileys Auto parts store in Fortuna. I bought all the parts and tools I would need and fixed the front brakes right there in their parking lot. I didn't finish until about 11pm, but I still did it and made it back to the trailer that night, like I had decided. And all for about $70.

So, the next morning we left HWY 36 behind, (good riddance) and made our way back down along the coast. We saw the Redwoods, which strangely looks a lot like Endor. We saw the "World Famous Tree House," the Drive-Thru Tree (which we couldn't fit through with the trailer), and the Glass Beach at Fort Bragg. And then we stayed the night at Van Damme State Park last night.


The World Famous Tree House is a living hollowed-out tree converted into a home. You can stand inside for $5.00.

The Drive-Thru Tree is, as its name implies, big enough to drive a car through... for $5.00. Kids don't like standing still for pictures.

The Glass Beach in Fort Bragg doesn't require $5.00. But there are no large trees. Ethan is not pictured because he is cowering at my legs, afraid of the "Big Juice," or toddler speak for Ocean.

Now, I wish I could say that that is all, but there is one last story from this morning. Meredith likes to leave her purse behind, and I like to lock things, especially when somewhere unfamiliar.

So, as we're about to head out for a walk around the Van Damme State Park, I lock up the trailer, but Meredith decided she needed another coat, so she asked for my keys. She then grabbed her coat, tossed my keys into her purse and locked the door behind her. As she shuts the door, I turn and ask her for my keys back, and she gives me the "uh-oh" look.

So, we are locked out of both car and trailer. All the windows are locked, and even if they weren't, they have built-in screens, so they can't be opened from the outside. Meredith decided to go and ask the park workers for help, since there are a few remodeling a nearby bathroom.

Just as they step out to see our situation, the guy driving their tool truck drives by, so they stop him and direct him our way, and we all proceed to unscrew and remove the entire window from the trailer, so we can reach in and grab Meredith's purse and unlock the trailer. Fortunately, I decided to bring the caulking-gun and extra caulking on this trip, so I was able to re-reseal (I've already removed and resealed the windows once) the window right then and there.

And now, after almost running out of gas a second time, we are finally here in San Francisco. I will likely be seeing my old friend Bill tomorrow sometime, and it seems nothing has yet been able to stop us completely. If things continue rolling at this pace, we will likely still make it to Alabama, albeit not anytime soon, and with much more life experience under our belts, and probably some well-earned bags under our eyes.

But I'm sure it'll be worth it.

A special mention for all those who've helped us along our way here so far: the AAA tow truck driver, the random stranger who gave me his headlamp in the O'Rileys parking lot, and the Van Damme State Park crew who helped me disassemble the trailer! Thanks for getting us this far! God bless!

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