“Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip…”
Important information to know before reading this Series of Unfortunate Events:
Vancouver, WA to Cape Disappointment State Park = 115 miles
Cape D. to Long Beach, WA = 7 miles
Cape D. to Astoria, OR = 20 miles
Astoria, OR to Seaside, OR = 16 miles
Seaside, OR to Curtis Trailer = 88 miles
Ah, it all started out so well. Greg and I made a decision. All of you who know us know that we have a lot of trouble with decision-making. But this time we decided to take the trailer out and actually did it. We prepared the trailer on Friday night, asked the neighbors who park on the street to move their cars for us, and were pulling out of the street at 8:11 Saturday morning. We decided to head for Long Beach and stay at Cape Disappointment, hereafter known as Cape D. (To be accurate this is the State Park formerly known as Fort Canby. They changed the name for the Lewis & Clark centennial for all of you Northwesterner’s who wonder where the heck I’m talking about) on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington. We had a nice event-free drive down. It rained a little, nothing spectacular. I enjoyed the greenery and flowers. The dogs slept in the back seat. We all had a nice time.
We got to Cape D. State Park around 11:00. They had sites available so we moved in and got all set up. We were very excited to be there and so proud that we had made a decision and made good time getting down there. And we were hungry. So we decided to go in to Long Beach to find some lunch. We found a nice Chinese food place and had a tasty lunch. After lunch we thought we’d check out the beach. Long Beach is one of the few beaches in the area you can drive your car on. We went down to take a look and decided that the sand looked way too soft and if we drove on it, we’d probably get stuck (we don’t have 4WD, you know). There is a paved, one-lane road that takes you down to the beach that we were on while checking out the conditions. Greg very carefully turned the truck around, but managed to get stuck anyway. The driving wheel slipped off the pavement and we had no traction to get out. Sigh. We tried sticking a beach towel under the tire. No luck. Then we tried the Mexico blanket that covers the seat. No luck. Then we tried the vinyl floor mat that covers the back of my Expedition. Still no luck. Greg walked up to see if he could find someone to pull us out and got a lot of unhelpful comments like “Sure, I’ll pull you out…for a hundred bucks!” Snort, snort, snicker, snicker. Oh, yeah. It’s a riot when someone gets stuck in the sand. Ha ha. We should do it more often. Knowing I would be blogging this whole adventure (and not yet knowing what an adventure it would really be) I took a picture of us stuck in the sand:
Please note the blacktop just behind the back wheel, well, kinda behind it. We'd rolled forward a bit by this time. Note too the blanket/towel under the wheel. And do you like how the flag looks like it's coming out of the top of the car? Pretty cool, huh?
Eventually, some nice guys in a little truck (how embarrassing!) came along who had a towing cable thingy and they pulled us out. They didn’t want any money for helping us either. This was actually a good thing since I only had $3.00 in cash. I’m thinking that a $3 thank-you wouldn’t be much of a thank-you. I gathered up my now destroyed towel and floor mat and my intact Mexico blanket (those things are indestructible) and said a prayer of thanks.
Anyway, we thanked the helpful guys, flipped off the ones who weren’t so helpful as we drove by and headed back to the campground. On the way Greg noticed that the battery light was one. Very weird. Greg kept an eye on it on the way back and the battery level kept dropping. When we got back to the trailer and turned the car off, he immediately tried to start the car again and nothing happened. And thus begins the long story.
I tried my cell phone. No service. Oh, of course not! We decided that we better take care of this car problem right away by getting the car jumped and driving in to Astoria to Costco for a new battery. For some stupid reason I don’t have jumper cables in my truck (well, I didn’t then, but I do now). The stupid camp host, who are there to help, was completely unhelpful and left us to fend for ourselves. So Greg went around asking people at the campground if he could borrow some. Apparently I’m not the only one who travels without jumper cables, because he had to ask a lot of people before he found someone. Then I had to ask someone to give us a jump. People seem very reluctant to jump you. Hmm, that sounded weird. Anyway, we finally got the guy next door to jump us. The car started, we loaded up the dogs and headed to Astoria (see above mileage chart).
About halfway to Astoria, you know where we were going to buy the new battery, the car drops dead. Nothing works. No hazard lights, no windows, no nothing. Greg is able to steer to the shoulder before he looses momentum to a spot where we are more or less safe. After some swearing I remember that the new insurance I signed up for has free road side assistance. We’re saved! Yay! I call them and say we are on vacation, our car died and we need a tow. “Where are you located?” the person asks. “Oh,” says I, who was smart enough to check the mile marker right before the car died, “We are in Washington State, south of Long Beach and Ilwaco on Highway 101 at mile marker 7. It’s just over the Oregon border.”
Look, here's proof I knew what I was talking about:
Here we need to pause in the story. I want all of you to go to the computer and see if you can figure out within a 5-mile radius where my car was located at that very moment. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Keep track of how long it takes you now.
Please see Part II for the next installment. No cheating and reading ahead, now!
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