44a - Nightmare in Oregon, Burns/Haines Oregon

On Sunday 8/28 we left Frenchglen Oregon for a 4.5-hour ride to Boise Idaho. We got about 1/2 hour down the road and Mike got a message on the dashboard that said, “Shut the engine”. So, we immediately pulled to the side of the road. Thought it was a hose (turned out to be a belt) but how do you get service in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday.

- Bad news: limited cell service and no internet.

- Mike unhooks the car and drives back about 10 miles until he has service.

- Good news/Bad news: he finds a place that can tow us Monday morning, but it will cost 5k 😳

- Good News: an Oregon state trooper knocks on the door; I tell him what’s up and he heads out to find Mike.

- Good news: he finds someone to come out and tow us in a couple of hours.

- Bad news: when Mike gives him how much we weigh he’s said he can’t do it as we are too heavy.

- Good News: Good Sam’s finally sends someone out to tow us. It’s about 3:00, we’ve been there since 10:00. The important thing about Good Sam's it's like AAA for a car and we didn't have to pay for a tow.

- Good News: they were great guys and looked at it to see if they could fix before towing us. They found it was a belt and even greater news Mike had the belt.

- Bad news: they didn’t have the tool needed to fix it and drove back to their shop to get the proper tools. Took over 2 hours for them to get back.

- Great News: after another 1 or so hours they were able to fix it. At about 6:30 we finally headed to the nearest town 45 minutes away.

Quite a day on Sunday but not totally over. We came to a repair place recommended by the tow people on Sunday to have them look at it to make sure we are good for the rest of the trip.

They looked at it immediately and found the issue but didn’t have the part. Mike drove about 2.5 hours each way (almost to Boise) to pick up the part and bring it back for them to fix. He actually drove the exact route they we would later take to get to the Boise campground.

We’ve missed our appointments in Boise today but luckily have been able to reschedule for Tuesday (passenger window replaced and hopefully the hot water heater finally fixed for real).

Mike got back at about 2:45 with the part and we got on the road about 4:30, which was a little later than we would have wanted. Going to Boise we would lose an hour and get there in the dark, which is never fun with an RV. We arrived at approximately 9:30. Two very long days.

I have to say all the people we’ve come in contact with have been so friendly and helpful, remember they were only supposed to tow us but spent about 3.5 hours getting us fixed. The guy yesterday actually apologized to me that it took so long. I said “you got here on a Sunday no need to apologize “. I guess the middle of nowhere is one of those relative things. I said sorry you had to come out to the middle of nowhere and he replied that where we were was fine. If this happened on the other side of Steen Mountain that would have been worse.

Oh yeah, while all this was happening, I got bit by fire ants on both feet on Sunday. I am very lucky that I did not get blisters or a rash but did have severe pain for about 8 hours. 😢All good now, wouldn't even know I got bit.

Two last thoughts:

- We thought Covid was going to be the roughest story we had. 🤣

- First visit to Oregon for both of us. And while the views have been fabulous, and the people have been helpful that’s it. Been there, done that, don’t need to do again. 😜

Here's hoping that we have gotten all the bad stuff out of our system. We have a 2 day appointment at Winnebago on 9/20 and thinking now it might be more like 3 as the list is getting longer. Then we go to Freightliner on 10/6 for the annual engine service and probably a bit more now.

Don't get me wrong with this rambling about a bad few days, the trip has been fantastic and a once in a lifetime thing. No matter how much we didn't like where we broke down it was in a lot better place than places it could have happened in Alaska and Canada. Onward east and south, we still have a few more tourists' places to go (Caters of the Moon, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Badlands).