A long airstream, fungi hike, and another breakdown
We have been lingering near Astoria because Kerri had a hair appointment on Saturday morning. It also gave me the opportunity to offload our just-replaced stove/oven. Saturday officially marks Big Blue’s return to oven-less-ness – back to just a two burner stove. After a few hours of waiting around in a parking lot, Kerri returned with slightly shorter and more colorful hair (I notice these things). A quick visit to the Columbia River Maritime Museum for a round of being a tourist, and multiple stores to restock our supplies then ensued. Finally, with a single hour to kill we popped into Lewis & Clark National Historic Park to walk the dogs before a scheduled meetup with John and Laura of the Long, Long Airstream.
Sorry I have no photos to accompany this post. That’s just how the weekend went.
We pulled into Lewis & Clark Golf & RV Park – where John and Laura were camped – and immediately spotted them parked in the grass. Their trailer is a whopping 34 feet and comes with it’s own zip code. Originally we were only going to hang out for a few hours, grab dinner together, and then pull out under the cover of darkness. However, the grassy area beside that long aluminium hotdog was so inviting. We paid up for a night, socialized the night away with a great couple, and woke the following morning ready to haul out.
However, that morning Big Blue was running worse then ever. While Kerri was still packing up the interior, I successfully replaced the already replaced coolant temp sensor (again) and the oxygen sensor, which I picked up the day prior. That appeared not to help. We were headed back to the National Park to hike and mushroom hunt but in that few mile drive, I knew we were going no where until Big Blue’s problem was found and replaced. So, I sent Kerri off on a hike all by herself while I pulled the hump and got to work replacing plugs, cap, and rotor just in case it was a simple fix. It was not.
I kept hunting, referring to both my service manual and the Internet, and checking item after item. This is why I hate computerized vehicles – all you can do is *hope* it is not the computer itself, which it often is. This day it was not, finally finding that one of the two fuel injectors was not spraying properly. Well that would explain all the behaviors the van has been emitting in the past week!
Kerri returned with a couple large fungi (death plants if you ask me) and some berries. Then we slowly drove the van the four more miles back into town where an auto parts store who *said* they had the part over the phone, did not (as usual). So, I had to order it and wait. By this time the injector had completely failed and Big Blue was literally running on only half his motor. A four cylinder engine does not propel Big Blue very fast and that was all we had now. We returned (barely) to the Golf and RV Park, paid up for another night, and awaited for the part to arrive in the morning only to repeat the drive back to the parts store on that half-motor. The part did arrive first thing in the morning, and within just five minutes it was replaced. Big Blue was back and firing on all eight!
This makes the fifth breakdown (all minor) this year alone (1, 2, 3, 4, and now this one)… not including the fire. I’ve never had so many issue with the van before. I suspect all the rattling and bumping down long and pot-hole-infested roads might be some of the cause. Old frail parts is another part of course. At least he has been giving me these problems in easy locations (knock on wood) to fix them.
We had enough time in the day to get the heck outta town and back into the free-to-camp State Forest just across the state line… whew, what a busy weekend.
