Alternator Adventures and Misadventures

The boundary between an adventure and a misadventure is a thin one, and partly a matter of perspective.  This trip the van has provided us with a few experiences that tread the boundary between these two.  Case in point, the experience of the failing alternator. 

I’ve had alternators fail on vehicles before, so I have a fairly good idea of the symptoms – loss of charge to the battery, dimming of the headlights, and eventually if the battery becomes dead enough, failure of the engine.

We have put significant load on our alternator this trip – a cooler is frequently plugged in.  The DVD video screens are also often running.  To top it off, there is usually a wire running to the GPS unit and a cell phone battery charger.  Sometimes to top things off we run the battery charger for the camera or (new today) an FM broadcaster to send a signal from a phone with MP3s to the car radio.  Perhaps this last gadget was what finally did our loyal alternator in.

It had stuck with us through the deserts of southern California, and the mountains of the Sierra Nevada in Sequoia and Yosemite.   It survived parking in San Francisco.  But the Coastal Range was its last gasp. 

We stopped to cook dinner at a lake shortly after beginning our climb into the mountains.  Unwisely perhaps, I left the cooler plugged in while we picnicked and swam for two hours.  This lowered our battery, and put additional strain on the alternator when we returned. 

Soon after darkness fell, as we traveled through the national forest of a steep descent paralleling the rapids of the Trinity River, the battery charging gauge began to plunge.  We pulled all extraneous electronics load off the system, but had to keep the headlights on.  We had just passed a campground, but along this road small forest service camp grounds seemed to be spaced every fifteen miles or so.  And so we rolled down the hill, hoping to see one. 

The hill ended, we crossed the river, and began an ascent.  Still no camp ground.  The battery charging gauge was at zero.  The headlights were dimming.  Still no camp ground. Finally, a sign.  Camp ground.  We speeded past it.  Oops! Said Patricia.  Missed it.  But we hadn’t missed it as things turned out, for the camp ground was just ahead.

We pulled into the first site.  Down to the second.  The battery was so low that the window I had rolled down wouldn’t roll back up.  And there we stopped.  Engine shut off. Camped for the night whether we willed or no.

The small loop we camped on held no other campers, six camp sites, and two well marinated pit toilets.  We selected the site just behind where the van was parked, well away from the toilets.

For Miriam this was all adventure.  She said “wow!” as we explored the campground by flashlight.  She enjoyed moving our stuff from the van to camp.  She thought the entire matter well worth celebration, including climbing into the tent while we pitched it in the lantern light. 

Sarah was a fabulous help with setting up the tent and getting things in place.  David climbed onto the pad we would soon want to move into the tent and fell sound asleep (we had to wake him to get the pad). 

Fortuitously, Al and his wife pulled into camp not long after us.  They were traveling from Las Vegas to Redwood National Park for three days of camping with friends.  In the morning, Al said, he would help us with a jump. My hope was that perhaps by charging the battery, we might find a way to limp out of the mountains and into a territory populated enough to possess a well-stocked auto-parts store.

I slept poorly, and after getting up at 7:00 went for a pleasant run / hike down the steep trail to the creek running at the bottom of the valley.  Someone has a mining claim on the land, and a sign warned us not to take any minerals.  Apparently they come periodically to pan for gold.

In the morning, we did charge the battery for a bit, but Al seemed on a hurry to go.  His wife didn’t fancy using the toilet in camp.  So instead we gave him the information he would need to call Nationwide roadside assistance for us once he got to a territory will cell phone reception, and sat back to wait. And wait. 

Just before the tow truck finally arrived, I got the other resident of camp to drive his aged Ford F250 Diesel up to charge the van battery some more.  It might have been better to leave before the tow got here.  On the other hand, we might have been stuck somewhere else down the valley. 

Once the tow arrived, it became apparent that our party would have to divide, as he refused to transport 7 in the cab of the truck.  After I rather frightened Patricia by unloading supplies for an emergency overnight bivouac, I departed. 

The children and Patricia stayed to build houses for toy animals and do school assignments.  Miriam took an hour long nap, a brief respite from being under foot.  The sun rose higher and grew hotter.

Sarah said: “The camp is dreary and we are dull.  It has the atmosphere of making everyone want to nap and not do school work but the work must be trudged through.  Everyone is resigned to the fate of staying here, but not necessarily happy about it. Miriam took a quick nap on a sleeping bag spread on the ground of one of the many campsites we had all by ourselves, but awakened and tried to walk through poison ivy.  Everyone was very happy when Dad got back.”

Meanwhile, the tow driver and I drove to Willow Creek where he set the van down in the Chevron lot across the street from a Napa Auto Parts store.  I immediately went in and received the hoped for answer that they indeed had the alternator in stock.  An hour and fifteen minutes of work later, the van was repaired, and back on the way up the valley towards camp.  The alternator adventure/misadventure was all finished, except for the task of repacking the van.  It was time to make a somewhat delayed visit to Redwoods National Park.

States Traveled So Far

1. Virginia
2. West Virginia
3. Maryland
4. Pennsylvania
5. Ohio
6. Indiana
7. Illinois
8. Missouri
9. Kansas
10. Oklahoma
11. Colorado
12. New Mexico
13. Arizona
14. Utah
15. California

Tired Trails

We set up camp at midnight among the boulders and pines in Sequoia National Park.  There was no way we could fit all our food and everything that smells like food to a bear in the bear box.  What smells like food to a bear?  The obvious – food, coolers, trash and the not so obvious – toiletries, cleaning supplies, and car-seats.  The decision was made to leave what was in tubs in the van, put the loose items and trash in the box, and move the children into the big tent with us.  No separate tents last night.  If a bear was going to be curious about the food stuck in Miriam’s hair, I was not going to be even a few feet away.  All the bear warnings had my own mama bear on high alert.

We slept well, to the sound of a rapid waterfall, but not long enough, especially Miriam.  Camp was hard this morning.  The kids tried to be helpful, but everyone was tired.  Jesse went on a spontaneous hike with David.  Miriam clung.  I fussed and fumed a bit about the van, specifically the stuff that we do not need, are not using, and yet are schlepping across the country.  A tennis shoe without its pair.  School books.  (What was I thinking?)  Two pairs of too small hiking boots.  The ginormous Shakespeare volume.  I have the back packing figured out now, but still struggle with the middle.  Eh, I have five more weeks.  Right?

Grits and bacon were eaten.  Clothes were changed.  Van packed, and we were off to a ranger talk at General Sherman, the largest living tree in the world.  297 feet tall.  These sequoias are unbelievable!  We then hiked the Congress Trail, a two mile loop.  I think Anna complained almost the entire way, until I stayed back with her and got her talking.  The ranger touched on the importance of naming the trees in the park, so I asked Anna what she would name the different trees.  Every giant sequoia on the last mile of that trail got a name, and I got our girl happily out of the woods.  She then said she’d like to name the trees in our yard when we get home, and thanked me for walking with her.  Such a sweetheart!

Miriam of course fell asleep on the way to the ranger talk.  She fell asleep again in the baby backpack on the last mile of the Congress Trail.  Poor girl.  She was such a happy hiker, walking and running along, but so very tired too!  That was a second short nap, since it only lasted as long as it took for us to eat lunch at the van.

At that point, we decided we were just plain tired and wanted to get near Yosemite at a reasonable hour, ie not set up tents after midnight, so we started off down through the mountains, across the valley, and up another set of mountains into the Sierra National Forest.  Walmart stop in the valley for snacks, one dinner item, and pull-ups.  Miriam started using the potty two weeks before we left, but we keep forgetting to take her, her signs are so subtle, and we are tired of cleaning up after her.  Pull-ups to the rescue!

When we entered the Forest, Jesse started looking for a place to camp.  I thought we were headed to a campsite, and was too tired for another “adventure”.  First campground we came to had two spots left, and we were given the best.  This is the best out of 30 sites, and is lovely.  We are tucked back behind the trees, right beside the creek but not too close that it is not safe for little ones, there are trails for the big ones to explore, there’re perfect spots for both tents, it’s not too far from the bathroom, no bear boxes (because there are no bears snooping around here) and there is INTERNET. 

The two youngest dug in the dirt and then dipped in the creek.  Everyone else went wading.  I fixed dinner, which everyone liked, but it’s not a favorite.  I think I will just cross it off the list.  Trader Joe’s sausages cooked with sliced apples, rosemary, garlic cloves, apple cider vinegar and a bit of oil did not make the cut.  We also had watermelon!  Sarah picked some wildflowers for me.  Very pretty!  And David started to write about our trip.  Hooray!  Leah has been super helpful with Miriam, and pretty agreeable all around.  With this many people traveling for this long, that’s a good thing!

I walked Miriam around the campsite, once around the loop, and all children were asleep before 9:40pm.  Jesse washed dishes.  I enjoyed said Internet, although it started to fade as the hour passed.  We found that camping is nice, when it is more than a place to pop up the tent when you are too tired to drive.  Now it’s time to douse the embers and sleep under a blanket of stars.  Tomorrow we’re off to Yosemite!  

Grand Canyon North Rim

I think we saw the Grand Canyon in perhaps the best possible way in order to really develop a sense of the scope and scale of the canyon.  We began with the north rim of the canyon.  Although the north rim views are harder to come by, and less dramatic – you cannot see the Colorado River from the views we went to – they are the ones from highest up, and they are ones that involve looking down long side canyons.  If you understand the vastness of even these side canyons, then it is easier to understand the size of the full canyon when seen later from the south rim.

My favorite walk on the North Rim was the one which began directly at the visitors center and lodge.  The path descends gently on a long spur of rock jutting out into the canyon with side canyons cut close to either side.  David had great fun climbing the rocks beside the trail to reach various vantage points.  Miriam wanted to do this too, but was confined to her backpack, and bribed with skittles to remain in that vantage.  Anna wanted to climb the rocks too, but selected a too-challenging starting point, and I refused to help her up it – sometimes the capacity to get yourself in trouble is a good way to limit the degree to which one encounters trouble.

While waiting for a ranger program at the North Rim campground – the ranger didn’t show – we talked briefly with a man from Germany who has been bicycling the world since 2011.  He has toured all over Europe, and also much of the United States.  He maintains a blog, and writes about his journey. 

My emergency repair kit came in handy on the North Rim as well – while getting things ready for lunch I noticed that one of the back tires of the van had lost a lot of air – down at 20 PSI from 80 PSI.  At each stop I added air to the tire, nursing it back to 65 PSI by the time we departed.  At the service station at the junction of Rt. 62 and 89A it had dropped to 60 PSI, and the very friendly young men who work there as a summer job did an excellent job of fixing the flat after removing a screw from the tread.  Jacob (one of the men) said working at this shop was a family tradition – his Grandfather worked there many years ago for six summers.  Then it was on to the South Canyon.