Review: One More Setback, A Mechanical Story

A synopsis of a couple of eventful (in a not-so-good way) days:

Annie's little house in Petaluma

 Leaving Annie’s on January 16^th, we drove the Volvo to Applied GMC in Fremont to retrieve the repaired Pickle.  We paid up, we said good-by and reattached. We headed toward Santa Cruz, south to New Brighton State Park, on the coast, a 70 degree day…. perfect. Well, Hwy. 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz (especially the 1^st 20 miles to Scott’s Valley) is a bugger – a pretty steep pass and the GMC just crawled.  Michael figured the braking mechanism to the Volvo was not functioning correctly after having been disconnected, and that the Volvo’s brake was partially on – all the time.  We turned off # 17 into the town of Scott’s Valley – a busy sunny kind of California town – to find a place to park and have a look.  Deciding the first parking lot we chose was too crowded, we turned back out onto Whispering Pines Drive.  That’s when the front wheels of the Volvo didn’t follow the turn of the tow-bar, the car’s front bumper jammed into the tow bar and pulled loose.  Right there, right in the middle of the street, mostly in one lane with the car’s rear slightly blocking another lane!

 Whoa!! Hold everything!! Michael dove into action. What happened? What to do? Where’s my crowbar? Where are my tools? (Said simply, our things were still in disarray after abandoning the Pickle for a month and it had been broken into while sitting in Fremont. Yes, one set of tools was gone.)

Middle of the street, stalled, small cars inching past us on the inside lane, the rest backed up and zooming around us on the outside when their coast was clear. Fifteen minutes? Maybe 20, it took to dislodge the Volvo’s bumper from the tow bar so Michael could disconnect it from the motorhome.  Separately, they were driven to the nearest gas station on the corner. And there we were.

Knowing he didn’t have the necessary tools to remove the bolt, Michael walked to Integrity Automotive two doors down to see if they could do the work. They could.  Tomorrow.  A 1-hour job.  We left the Gherkin there and continued down Hwy. 17 to a campsite.

New Brighton Beach State Park – best CA state park yet.  Sites were on a bluff overlooking the north end of Monterey Bay with trails down to the beach.  Because of the upcoming 3-day MLK weekend, there were just a few sites open for one night only. We grabbed one.

Next morning we walked to the beach. It wasn’t a let-your-dog-run-joyously-Oregon-kind of beach, but oh, so pleasant. The sun warmed us quickly. We began planning what route we would take after picking up the Volvo.



Integrity Automotive, Scott's Valley

Not so fast! When we arrived at the repair shop at 12:30, the Volvo project had not yet been started and the mechanic was still at lunch.  We made sandwiches and waited…..Once the car was on the lift, the mechanic (with Michael in an advisory capacity) discovered that the problem wasn’t a broken bolt.  The nut attaching the bolt to the frame of the car had torn out.  Different problem.  Now the bumper would have to be dropped and a new plate welded to the frame to hold the nut and bolt = A 3-hour project and “it’s too late to start it today. We’ll get to it first thing in the morning.” Ok, where to camp? It was Friday night, the start of the 3-day weekend, and another perfect 70 degrees.

We drove to Big Basin Redwood State Park outside of Boulder Creek, probably 9 miles from the little woodsy town if you’re following a map, but if you’re flying by the seat of your pants in heavy traffic and not paying attention to road signs, it’s about 30 miles around the north end of the park, then south through the park to get to the campground. Did I mention the road was too narrow to have a yellow line, winding, roller coaster - like and tree-lined? We found a nice campground, though. The higher elevation and some very tall trees gave us cool, shady, woodsy and full of nature kind of camping.

A little brake repair at the campground.

The next morning we took the short way back to Scott’s Valley to Integrity automotive. We arrived at noon and the Volvo was nearly done. In another hour, the Gherkin was attached to the Pickle and we were on the road again.