Car Troubles: Day #8-#15 (ish)

We're currently at the Grand Canyon. And it's awesome. But we've had tons of adventures and I haven't updated at all, so I'm going to write up the past adventures and publish them in installments (which probably won't happen much more until we get home).

On our way out of Seattle we decided it was time for an oil change. So we roll into a Midas in Puyallup Washington around 10am. We’re hanging out in the lobby when the Midas guy comes out and says, “Your oil change is done, but your front wheel bearings are bad”.

But they’d just been replaced. A week before leaving home. To say the least, I’m a little dubious. How trustworthy is Midas? But then, both Kelly and I are more than a little dubious about Dad’s mechanic at home who did them originally.

So we call Dad. “Stop at another mechanic and get it checked out”.

We peace out of Midas ($74 – oil change, inspection, new windshield wipers) and quickly spot a fairly busy looking mechanic down the road.

Explaining the situation and my mistrust of both previous mechanics to the new mechanic we leave the car with the third mechanic who says “it’s going to take a couple of hours.” Isn’t there anywhere faster? “Not if you want a good mechanic.”

Now we’re in the middle of suburban sprawl. You know, four to six lane highways surrounded on all sides by chain restaurants and national brand stores. There are sidewalks, but when driving through these kinds of places I always think who would walk here? We walk down to Borders for a few hours and browse to kill time.

“The bearings are bad. Want me to replace them? It will take the rest of the day.” It’s now about 2. But driving the 4,000-5,000+ miles to home on bad bearings could mean the loss of a wheel at 70 mph. Go ahead and replace them I say.

Asking around we hear there’s a Best Buy across the street from Borders. So we scurry across the four-lane highway, again feeling out of place in the cars-only wasteland of suburban sprawl. Best Buy yields us a copy of V for Vendetta ($10) and I have my laptop. But we need a place to watch. “There’s a Starbucks across the road.”

So we cross another gigantic intersection while dozens of drivers stare at us to reach yet another paragon of American suburban consumerism. There we sit outside and fight with car noises, old men with shopping carts, and the Starbucks soundtrack to hear Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman defeat the evil that is post-apocalyptic, ultra-conservative, fascist England. ($5 - coffee).

We get a call around 5:30 and trudge back down the road to get the car. The bearings had been replaced, but were apparently defective, because they have gone bad again in only 4,000 miles. ($520 – new wheel bearings and an honest opinion)

I wish I could say that was the end of our car troubles.

We were soon in San Francisco hanging out with the one and only Matthew Case and the long lost Kyle Staley (former CSM co-worker from NYC). It was an awesome time of catching up, seeing some of the city, meeting the current CSM hosts, and eating amazing Mexican-Salvadorian food.

At one point in the evening we’d gone to an overlook to see the city. It was beautiful, but when it was time to leave, we couldn’t get Kyle’s key to turn in the ignition of his truck. He tried. I tried. Matt tried. Kelly tried. Ana tried. We tried every which way possible. Eventually Ana’s dad tried. No combination of turning the steering wheel, pushing the gear shift, raising and lowering the steering column, rolling the car, disconnecting the battery, praying, or jumping up and down would get the key lock to disengage. So I called AAA.

Within 45 seconds the AAA truck driver had the car started. He showed us what he did and within 15 seconds was gone again ($0 – woot! AAA)

We get back to the housing site, and Kyle gets it to work once. And only once. He ends up crashing for the night because we can’t get the truck started again.
Fast-forward a few days. We’re driving from Yosemite National Park to Sequoia National Park. We stop in Fresno for gas and to try to get internet. After filling up I go to start the car and it lurches forward. Not supposed to happen.

Another call to AAA. The gas station guy has us push the car out of the way one way, and then 10 minutes later, the other. We get towed (AAA - $0) and dropped off at another mechanics.

But we're again lost in suburban consumer sprawl. More walking across large intersections. More gigantic shopping plazas. More hot sidewalk. We shop at REI for awhile. We end up (surprise) at Starbucks for internet and (surprise) it's not free.

"The main clutch cylinder line is leaking. It's going to take a couple of hours".

So we decide to watch Batman: The Dark Knight ($15). (which was excellent... until the end... can you say... thematic confusion? more on that later)

Towards the end of the movie the phone rings. I realize it's the mechanic. And it's almost 6pm. I call him as soon as the movie ends. "Did you forget about your car?" No... I was just in a good movie. "We close in 10 minutes." I'll be there in 10 minutes.

But we're more than a mile away. I end up sprinting through suburban sprawl in my sandals leaving Kelly to tote the bags and stuff back.

I make it in 11 minutes. ($350) We live to see another day on the road.

Seriously hoping there are no more car issues... but Ebony has been making that noise for a couple of days...