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Halp! What is this??

So I’m not usually one for sunrises, and in truth, I wasn’t up for this one, but I’d like to think I would have been had I known. We arrived in total darkness last night so we didn’t know this was here.

Oh course, the first thing that I need help with on the Jeep is the existential dread I experience because I own it.

We made an admirable effort to get out of Sacramento on time, sped along by the AirBnB owner who showed up right at check-out time. I felt bad about that, but we were out within the next fifteen minutes. We drove across the street to the church parking lot to review the route this morning, pick a lunch point, and confirm all the pieces were working.

We pulled out of the church headed out of town and before we’d even made it to the corner, George radioed that he needed to stop because of a “Check Gauges” light an an oil pressure warning. Turned out to be that his oil pressure sensor was failing and had leaked a bit, but it was still pretty minor.

We bought a replacement sensor and decided to replace it later; he’d just had an oil change, the pressure was fine.

From there, we hopped back on US50 into the Eldorado National Forest toward South Lake Tahoe. I don’t know about the others, but it didn’t take long for me to learn that Red has no freeway hill climbing power, in just about any gear. I fell embarrassingly behind at all the mountain passes today, but I made up for it with what happened next.

We’d planed this to be a beautiful drive day, with some forest roads and a few off-the-highway detours, but no trails or offroading today. That’s not how it went.

It wasn’t what any of us were expecting, since Geroge’s lying atlas called this “Other Paved Road.” There was mud, leaves, pinecones the size of traffic cones, rocks, washed out dirt path. Then it got much worse.

Deep into the forest, we hit two major snowy areas. One time we had to dig the Rover out and clear it a path. The second time, I had to use Red to yank the Rover out and we had to dig away what seemed like the remains of an avalanche.

Then we turned a corner and hit a major problem. The road was snow-covered as far out as we could see with 4 to 5 foot high, powdery snow-drifts that no one had tried to pass through yet. It was quickly evident we’d spend the next two days trying to get through it, and we weren’t even half-way to the top of the pass we were climbing. So we ended up turning around and heading back to the highway.

Heading down was much faster, and just about as fun as the trip in. We did have a couple major bounces that caused an explosive unpacking of all the luggage and supplies in the back, but the cars appear no worse for the wear, and I’m so proud of all three. (But espcially that Jeep…)

The descent over the US50 pass into South Lake Tahoe was stunning in every way, and our lunch place ended up still being open when we arrived at 8pm. After dinner it was another hour to the cabin on Lake Topaz. We arrived in total darkness, had a toast to the day, watched a little dash-cam craziness, and went to bed.

Is this a bad time to point out that yesterday was the first day in my life to put a vehicle in 4WD?

After a long afternoon in the Eldorado National Forest, we climbed through the mountain pass into the Lake Tahoe area. The descent toward the lake was absolutely breathtaking.

Today wasn’t going to be offroad at all. Just some rural highways and a couple forest roads between Sacramento and Topaz Lake by way of Lake Tahoe. This is what George’s atlas defined as “Other Paved Road.” It got worse. But I will say, this was incredibly fun.

The spot of our first breakdown, across the street from the AirBnB. Jeep’s oil pressure sensor is leaking, which is the exact problem the Bumblebee had last fall. Leak is slow, so we’re gonna grab one on the way out of town and replace it tonight in Topaz.

Guys, I’ve got a warning light for oil pressure, need to pull back in.

Fixin’ to head out from Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe via the Eldorado National Forest!

Happy of Mothers’ Day to Karen, Sue, Anna, and Deborah. Our gift to you this year is that we all did safety-related repairs today.

Since we finished finding cars yesterday, today was focused on fixing and tweaking and errand running in preparation for the first drive tomorrow, including a major haul at the Harbor Freight.

George had described the driving quality of the Jeep as “alarming,” so it went to Pep Boys first this morning. He maintained that he had shorted the purchase budget as much as he did so he’d have a sizable repair budget and would know that the most important bits were in good shape. I think he just wanted to get out ahead of yet another repair bill nearly the size of the purchase.

Evan spent the entire day on the Rover. Its curiosities are many. He replaced the headlight which blew again two hours later, repaired the rear wiper and front sprayers, fixed the latch in the rear jumpseat, and “tried to replace the wipers but that didn’t go well.” Also, the tape deck ate the tape adapter he bought to play music from his phone (yes, those are still for sale, pick them up at Pep Boys in the bargain bin). And this afternoon, I caught him reading the manual, not the service manual but the drivers’ manual that comes with the car that explains what all the buttons are. He also had two of the tires replaced.

Red got most of its work done yesterday afternoon, but I followed up with a wiper replacement, discovering to my surprise that the sprayers do actually work, and ferrying folks around on their errands. I do still have this giant subwoofer in the back that I don’t want, but Josh included with the sale. It isn’t hooked up and I have no interest in doing so, but it’s just in the way. I don’t even know anyone with a subwoofer. … Do I know anyone who wants a subwoofer?

Today’s field trip was out to the Pick-a-Part junkyard for some lift gate struts for George so that he can open the back gate without it crashing right back down. Junkyards are always a lot of fun. I did find two 4Runners out there, but they had already been picked clean.

Pep Boys called George back, all I heard him say was, “Yeah, that’s about what I was expecting.” Then he walked over and explained that major suspension work was being replaced and that his power steering pump couldn’t be flushed because the hose had what the mechanic described as a “hemorrhoid” and none of the replacement hoses he ordered were long enough, so clearly a previous owner re-positioned or incorrectly replaced the pump. Also, the rear right shock was seized (so, almost fully extended and not collapsible, which is why his car felt like a wobbly table at a restaurant where one of the feet is too tall).

This evening, we did a lot of installation work for cameras, navigation, and various creature-comforts in preparation for tomorrow’s first drive. George discovered that the gross seat-covers on his front seats weren’t necessary, just an unsuccessful attempt to mask seats that didn’t match. Then he ruined it with this thing:

Tonight ended with dinner at a sushi place in downtown Sacramento and a quick run to Safeway for water, road snacks, and more caffeine. Tomorrow we head from Sacramento to Topaz Lake, which not very too far. About two hours, a test drive.