A light snowfall. I know. Its not a big deal. There isn’t much snow out there at all. Its about as much snow as I expect when there is snow forecast and usually its gone by the next afternoon. However, this was no ordinary snow day for us.

An hour or so later, the snow had really started accumulating. The ground was completely covered. I was pretty grateful that the diesel had come equipped with a block heater which appeared to be working well.  In the next picture, you can see the “glacier” that had formed on the hood calving thanks to the block heater.

I worry about the diesel in cold weather, and I was pretty happy that it was plugged in. Thankfully, we have only had one cold weather related problem with it. That’s when we discovered the block heater and after a half hour of trying to locate the plug (that was in an hole too small for even my hands), we plugged it in and were good to go in a few minutes.

Because of our good fortune, I figured that the couple minutes of excitement we got watching the snow fall off the hood was going to be it for the day. I was wrong.

We went about our normal “morning” routine. When we headed of to work, we had some difficulties going up the steep slope we always use. No problem. We just took the other route. At that moment, we decided it might be best to put the truck in 4×4 and also avoid the interstate.

Other than watching a few vehicles lose traction, the rest of the trip to work was uneventful.

Work was work. 6pm-5:30am. The only difference is that we were recovering from a bug we picked up and were feeling mildly sick. There were also rumors that the interstate was shut down because of the weather. They seemed to be true. We can see the interstate from the job site and there wasn’t any traffic on it.

The real fun began after work. Johnny had offered some guys a ride home. He was going to wait inside for them, and I was going to go get the truck warmed up. Too bad the truck had other plans.

The truck didn’t want to start. It sounded like the batteries, but I figured that the diesel had gelled. I initiated the glow plugs a couple of times to warm it up. Johnny showed up at the truck a few minutes later, by himself. The guys were staying to get in more overtime and had found another ride. I bet they don’t know how lucky they were.

So again, my first thoughts were that the engine just needed to be warmed up but the glow plugs weren’t doing the job. No problem. We had the generator with us. We would just push aside the 5″ deep snow to make a spot on the ground and plug the truck into it. Unfortunately, we neglected to put a drop cord in the truck. Duh!

Johnny was convinced it was the battery, and I was convinced that the block needed to be warmed. Either way we needed supplies. Johnny being the super awesome guy that he is, trampled through the snow and ice (in a sweater, sneakers, and light nylon pant cargo pants) to Walmart where he picked up a quick charger and a drop cord. I waited in the truck like the “cold shy” person that I am.

Johnny returned with the cord and the charger. He freed the hood that had frozen shut, hooked everything up, started the generator, and we hunkered down (a phrase we normally reserve for hurricanes) in the truck anticipating another successful self rescue.

After a while, we started getting impatient. Johnny kept looking at the charger’s digital readout to see how much the batteries had charged. They hadn’t. He then walked over to our job site to see if someone would give us a jump. The only traffic that we had seen were compact cars that couldn’t possibly jump the F350. Johnny came back with a battery pack that the security desk gave him. It didn’t help in the slightest.

While Johnny was returning the battery pack, I decided to give my insurance provided roadside assistance a call. We had neglected to call them previously because we assumed it would be hours before they got to us since there were snow related car accidents everywhere. We were wrong. While I was on the phone, Johnny had returned with a truck that was willing to give us a jump. They tried for about 5 minutes and then Johnny sent them on because roadside was on the way, and he didn’t want to hold the nice people up.

My insurance company told me that they would have someone there in 40 minutes. It seemed like a good time to abandon the truck. We went into work for some warmth and coffee. Did I mention the temperature outside was probably in the single digits?

A few minutes later, I get a call from the tow truck driver. He said that he had been waiting on us for 5 minutes. Johnny headed straight there. The guy told Johnny that he had been hooked up to our battery for 10 minutes (I think the guy had some real concept of time issues). Anyway, the truck didn’t start and he said he was giving up on us. Johnny hinted at how nice it would be to get a ride to Walmart so we could purchase two new batteries. The driver offered to tow us the 1/4 mile to walmart for $150 and then left. I can’t say that I blame him, really. There was real money to be made elsewhere with a tow truck that day.

The clock was now rounding 10:00am, and we decided to do what we should have done all along: bite the bullet and replace the batteries that were in the truck when I got it with some new ones. So we hiked over to Walmart and purchased two new batteries (my big ass truck requires two). After a sandwich (mmmm.. I had forgot how much I like pastrami) and a warming up period, we snagged a cart to ferry the batteries and proceed back to the truck. I can tell you that pushing a shopping cart a 1/4 mile through 5″+ deep snow isn’t the most fun we have had so far, but we thought that it had to be a lot better than slipping on some ice and falling down while carrying two heavy duty truck batteries.

We made it back to the truck and installed the batteries. The truck cranked right up. Johnny tossed the old batteries and the shopping cart into the back of the truck. We went to Walmart to get our money for the battery cores and (of course) return the shopping cart.

On the ride home, we watched some more people who had forgotten how to drive in the snow slide all over the road. Perhaps they never knew.

We made it home safe, albeit late. Too late do to anything but sleep.  After the night we had, all we wanted to do was sit back, relax and have a drink. Unfortunately, the reclining chair was already occupied… with a lot of snow!

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I guess we’re starting to see the ‘real’ Washington weather. Our first week in the state was pretty dry, but the past week has been rather damp or perhaps moist. In fact, you could say it has been downright soggy.

Last Sunday, we headed towards Mt. Rainier National Park from the north side. The park is still closed, but there is a lot of forestry land around the park which allows dispersed camping. We spotted at least one exceptionally nice boondocking spot on the main road into the park, but as it was a fairly well traveled road, any and all turnouts were occupied. Near the park entrance, we crossed a rather long one lane bridge across the Carbon River.

Immediately, the road turned to gravel and around the first bend, the road was constricted by a fallen tree and a couple of large boulders on the opposite side. This particular section of road was more mud, boulders and tree roots than gravel. We had around 18 inches of clearance between the jacks and the obstacles. Not too bad, but the angle of attack required getting rather close to the edge of the road. Normally, this wouldn’t be a large concern, but we’d already seen the edge of a couple roads washed away that morning.

With Jenn’s help in the form of ambiguous hand signals (does anyone know what two crooked fingers forming a ‘U’ means?), we managed to get through the constriction without any new dings or scratches. Not too far up the road, we found a somewhat obscured pullout that would be our home for the next week.

I think we had one sunny day, on Monday, followed by four rainy ones. We then figured we might as well stick around through the weekend since Washingtonians seem to enjoy camping and grabbed all the good spots on the weekends. Anyway, it seemed like a good idea to let that hairy bit of road dry out some as there was a drainage culvert right above it.

So, how did we amuse ourselves for a week when we were rained in without internet? Better than you might expect two people to do while cooped up in the back of a truck. It turned out we were able to tune in an HD channel that played nothing but older movies and we managed to tolerate the commercials fairly well. There was also a good selection of radio stations, one of which happened to play both kinds of music – jazz and blues.

One thing I made sure to pack when we left was four decks of cards, which we actually used for the first time at Patrick’s party. I don’t think Jenn and I have ever played cards together, but we played a bit of gin rummy and I taught Jenn to play UNO using two decks of cards. We’re going to have to get a real deck some day! At one point, the house rules got downright silly: we were using poker chips, two decks of cards and a made up ’spinner’ for random number generation. The game was alternating between UNO and gin, with the winner of a hand allowed to spin for poker chips which could be spent to make up a temporary rule for the next game. Silly, yes. But, I won!

Jenn spent a lot of time being constructive as well. She’s been knitting me a pair of socks. So far, they cover about half of my foot. I think we’re going to have to get back out in the middle of nowhere before I can expect the other half. She enjoyed bragging about how all of her half-finished projects give her plenty to do during the moments when I was scrambling for something to keep me occupied. I played with my electronics kit a bit for the first time in two years and even managed to shoot a few arrows during a brief lull in the rain. Just enough rounds to ruin another arrow… 15 yards is really a bit too close for practice, but I was bored!

Somewhere in there during a lull, I climbed up on the roof and resealed an area that turned out not to be leaking. Four days of rain along with temperatures in the low forties overnight and low fifties for mid-day highs and we had some pretty awful humidity in the camper. Yep, raining from the skylight in the bathroom! Water forming on cans in the cupboards. As long as I was doing repairs, I fixed the connections on our inverter, which were not exactly up to code. The connections look much nicer now and should hold up much better, even if it is a bit harder to check the exact battery voltage now.

And then, there were video games! Yes, we’ve quite a collection of old games that we’re dragging around. After trying out a few things, Jenn settled in on a real time strategy game of some sort and I went to an old favorite – Slash’em. It’s a Nethack variant, and if you’ve never fought a nethack addiction, well, I suppose you’re like 99.999% of people. Any UNIX gamer will know Nethack, but there aren’t all that many of us! I’ve spent a lot of time playing Nethack off and on over the past 13 years and I’ve ‘won’ exactly twice. I don’t think I’ll ever ‘beat’ it.

For those keeping score on the costs of boondocking, I think we used roughly two gallons of gasoline keeping the batteries charged enough to watch TV, listen to the radio, read books, play video games and run the furnace. I’m guessing we used two gallons of propane keeping the thermostat set at 52, but that’s a bit harder to judge… I don’t actually remember when we last filled the propane.

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After working the scooter through the loose sand, I hit Cottonwood road and headed into the park. It was a pleasant ride, albeit slow. The first part was all up hill and the scooter was moving between 10 and 15mph. It was during this part of the trip that I realized I didn’t bring a jug of water. Not good. Once I made it up to the visitors center it sped up to about 30mph. From then on, it was smooth sailing. I stopped at all of the various markers and checked out some Ocotillo trees in bloom. I was lucky enough to see a rare purple aster that supposedly only grows in this area. The only wildlife I saw were a few lizards and a rabbit. No sheep for me… sigh. After a long ride in the Colorado desert, I finally made it in to the Mojave. I looked at my fuel gauge, but it hadn’t moved. I decided to go all of the way to White Tank Campground.

When I arrived there I was overcome by the scenery. The giant boulders surrounded by Joshua Trees were an awesome sight. I was so entranced I almost didn’t notice the time or my fuel gauge. I didn’t have a clock, but the sun was pretty low in the sky. The gauge read 3/4 tank. I thought, “Plenty of time and fuel, but I should head back.” I got to see a Joshua Tree! Too bad it took 30 miles.

I headed back home. This is where the fun started. My hands were a little cold, so I stopped to warm them up at a pull out. When I started off again the fuel gauge said 1/2. I started to get concerned. I was still about 27 miles from our campsite and 20 miles from the visitors center. Uh oh! Panic sets in, and I start driving slower to conserve fuel. The scenery had disappeared. All that was left was the gas gauge, the odometer, the road ahead of me and the faint hope that some off-roaders with gas cans would be around the next bend.

The next 20 miles were like that. Slowing down seemed to help. My gauge was moving very slowly. I thought that I might make it. I even chose to pass up stopping at the visitors center, because the gauge still showed fuel. But, it was not to be. As I made it up the hill just past the visitors center, the scooter died. I tried to start it, but it was futile. Grrrr… Most of the rest of the journey back to the campsite would have been down hill. I debated trying to coast down the 7 miles to the campsite. Then, I remembered that I didn’t have water. Seven miles, desert, no water… not good. Had I had water, I think I could have done it. Alas, I coasted back to the visitors center. It was closed. There were three cars in the parking lot. Only one wasn’t a subcompact. It was an SUV. I figured it was my best shot at a fuel can. Nope. He said I was in a good spot though. There was a campground up the road. By then all of the other cars were gone.

I started hoofing it up to the campground a half mile away. As I topped a hill, it looked like I could coast the scooter down the rest of the way to the campground, so I went back and got the scooter. I also figured that people would be more willing to give me a couple ounces of fuel if I was pushing the scooter. Damned heavy scooter. My brilliant idea of coasting down was destroyed. The scooter wouldn’t move on its own. More pushing.

Then the guy I asked for fuel at the visitors center drove back by. Oh joy. Here I am, alone, with a disabled scooter and now I have a stalker. Lovely, buried in the desert… ugh. He said that he thought I said “I could drive a few miles” instead of “I only have a few miles to go, so I only need a few ounces”. He offered me a ride or to try to find me some fuel. I told him that I would be grateful if he brought me fuel, but I am going to continue to the campground. He drove away. Relief. I tried to run beside the scooter to get it rolling down the hill, but when I jumped on, it would crawl to a stop (no fat jokes!). Back he came. Said that no one would answer at the ranger houses and that he would try the campground.

So close. I got to the campground sign but saw no campers. All up hill from there. I pushed a little further. No campers in site. I spotted a tent camper and his son. I asked if I was going the right direction to reach the campers. It was up hill. I was tired. I didn’t want to waste any energy. He said it was his first time there and he had no idea. He asked if I was the “one who ran out of fuel”. Obviously, the creepy longhaired guy in the SUV had been there. Maybe he didn’t want to kill me after all. Then, the tent camper offered to take me to the campers. I declined. He jumped into his jeep, started it, and told me to hop in. I accepted. I pushed the scooter into a parking space and locked the steering.

Being a big believer in self sufficiency, it was pretty hard for me to go around begging folks for help. I was more comfortable pushing the scooter up the sides of mountains than asking for fuel. I was still out of breath when I asked the first person I saw. They said they couldn’t help and asked who the guy that dropped me off was. The next folks, a man and his grandson, were much nicer. They offered me what they had, stove fuel. I asked if they had cell phones, but neither could get a signal. They let me know that if I couldn’t find fuel they would be happy to drive me to my campsite. Nice folks. That trend continued. Then, the stalker pulled back up with a can of gas. Hooray! I hopped in the “serial killer’s” vehicle.

I was happy, but worried that I had killed the battery when I tried to start the scooter earlier. Thankfully, I hadn’t. Greg, probably a nice guy and not a murderer, poured the gas in. I tried to start it. No go. Plenty of battery but no start. The scooter can be a pain to start when its cold. I figured after a couple hours it was probably cold again. I tried again and again. Ok, kickstart. Nope. Greg wanted to try to kick start it. Still nothing. Try the electric start again. And, again. Greg took the gas can back. I finally killed the battery. It was over.

I walked away and asked the tent camper if he had cell signal. Of course not. Greg returned. I told him the bad news. He offered jumper cables. I turned it on and tried to start it again. Omg, the battery recharged itself. Second try and it started. Then, it stalled. OK, I tried again and this time opened the throttle right away. It started, but then stalled in milliseconds. I tried it a few more times and it never started.

I decided to let it rest and Greg and I chatted. Turns out that he is a rock climber who used to work with a team training people. They have all long since moved on, got married, had kids, etc. But, every year they meet up in Joshua Tree on Palm Sunday and climb together. He was on his way home from it when I pestered him. He turned out to be pretty cool. He is now an Earth Science teacher who would rather mountain bike or surf than scramble around on rocks. I wish I would have met him and his lady in better circumstances. Good people.

OK, time to try it a couple more times. It was getting dark. The stupid scooter wouldn’t start again. I asked Greg if he was leaving the park for the night. He was. I decided to take him up on the offer to shuttle me to my camper. So I grabbed my helmet, locked the scooter and left it for dead.

Not much happened after that. Greg and I chatted about adventure sports, environments, and life on our 7 mile ride. I started to feel a little guilty about him sticking around so long to help me. He wouldn’t accept any cash for his trouble.

The scooter is a liar. I almost wanted to leave it at the campground. But, when I got home we packed up and went to rescue it.

Campsites mentioned in this post:
Joshua Tree NP South BLM Land
White Tank Campground

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I know these prices probably look low to many of you, but we are currently in one of the least expensive ‘fuel zones’ according to this map over at gasbuddy.com. The last I heard, diesel prices in Mexico are about half of the prices here in South Carolina. I guess it pays to be a country that is exporting oil and have state run petroleum companies. Hopefully we’ll make it into Mexico in the next year or two and brush up on some very rusty Spanish.

In the meantime, we have to deal with some pretty exorbitant fuel prices compared to a mere few years back. We can’t save much fuel by driving slower as we’re already trying to stay at the most reasonable speeds for fuel efficiency. This leaves only two choices: increase income to offset rising fuel prices or drive less.

The problem with driving less is you can’t see as much of the places you’re visiting if you drive to a campsite, park there for a week or two and then move on. A quick shopping trip on Jenn’s bike convinced me that if we were to rely on pedal power to explore the surrounding areas, we wouldn’t see too much.

A quick spin around the block on my brother’s scooter renewed my interest in hauling one along. These oversized toys are just plain fun to ride.

Our moped gets somewhere between 85 and 105 mpg, depending on which of us is riding or if we are both aboard. It’s not quite broken in yet, but currently manages about 35 mph with a single rider or 30 mph ridden double.

We’ve put a little over 200 miles on it in under a week. While I won’t claim it’s actually saved us much in the way of diesel expenses, it has certainly enabled us to get out and see the surrounding area far more than we could manage walking or riding bicycles.

We even managed to haul the metal detector and a couple of digging tools 7 miles down the road to Atlantic Beach to look for lost trinkets after Memorial Day. We didn’t find anything but pocket change and a toy car, but the scooter allowed us to choose which beach to hunt on rather than being limited to the one we are parked next to.

As someone that grew up in a ‘car culture’, having the ability to just get out and cruise around aimlessly without it costing an arm and a leg or taking time to break camp first makes this entire lifestyle much more enjoyable.

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