Another breakdown, Moose to the rescue

We arrived in in La Pine, Oregon safe and sound. The city, not large at all but tons of traffic, has an auto parts store to get the part for Big Blue. It’s a part that I have replaced one before, and I didn’t expect it to take too long to work out again, but the auto parts store did not have one in stock so a one night stay would be in order. Luckily, a Moose Lodge was just a few miles down the road and they welcomed us to our very own shady RV spot, complete with water and electric. I do miss spending time at the Moose Lodges that I come by. Kerri and I do not do it often enough, thanks mostly to her amazing dispersed camp scouting skills.

With an evening to blow, we went in to the lodge for a drink and to say hello. With a new lodge comes the standard Q & A about who we are and where we come from – always an interesting topic to others, us being nomads and all – and eventually settled in for a private game of shuffleboard while we enjoyed our drinks.

In the morning the part was available by 9AM, and so was I. A few minutes later I was in a dirt lot one block over and yanking the wheel off the van to access the part needing replacement. My worries from the previous night turned out to be warranted; the ball joint that popped out of it’s perch did more damage to the control arm that holds it than could be repaired by hand. I stuffed it back into place as best I could, and returned to the parts store to order a new control arm – which would take two days to arrive.

I don’t mind a few day wait, especially when we have a Moose Lodge to hang out at, but by Thursday of that week a heat wave was arriving with high 90’s in the area. The part was to come in by Tuesday morning, leaving not a whole lot of time to get the hell out of town. If we had more time, the part could have been acquired for half the cost, but we know our limits when it comes to temperatures  (85 degrees by the way) so we gladly paid the extra.

On the Monday, we got an extra work day in since we had noting else to do and electricity. On Tuesday morning the part was in the store by 8AM, and by 8:30 it was replaced on Big Blue. We decided to take the time to do one final load of laundry in town before leaving, along with a few extras from the grocery store. But, by 10AM we were rolling out of La Pine with a happier van (minus a new cold-start issue that popped up that very morning). We are off to find higher ground to get out of the heat that was coming.