“I’m gonna recalculate your face!”

Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy Fourth!

Busted alternator was indeed the problem, and maybe I was too quick to judge Larry dead wrong on his dead short diagnosis last Wednesday. According to our new best friend Al (he, the possessor of the last remaining alternator in St. Louis before the extended holiday weekend), a dead short battery is the number one cause of a busted alternator. Apparently, a dead short battery can cause the alternator to spin into overdrive and burn itself out. Our second breakdown occurred after the brand new battery, sans alternator, drained itself dead. Al patched us up, recharged our new dead battery, and we were mobile again.

Meanwhile, Kate and the girls toured St. Louis. The Gateway arch, the flooded Mississippi river (the crest of the 2008 flood had recently passed through St. Louis – and this massively swelled river was flying – a barge hydroplaned by as they watched), then on to the most important stop of the day – the largest brewery in the world. The Anheiser/Busch brewery tour is free, and includes a stop in the hospitality room, so it was a while before we saw Kathy again.

Scott and I drove into town to meet the girls at the brewery. My fancy-shmancy phone provided back-up technology for us as the girls had the GPS with them. It got us there is straight order, but unfortunately, we were rewarded with additional symptoms. A couple minor electrical problems started occurring – the left wiper would start by itself, a driver’s light would come on even with the car turned off, the right wiper wouldn’t come on at all. We parked at the brewery, and Scott began disassembling the dashboard while we waited for Kate to drain one of A/B’s 3600 beech wood aging tanks.

The conclusion was that we have an electrical issue, but it doesn’t appear to be bad. We aren’t sure what it is, but we have taken steps to ensure that the battery isn’t drained overnight, and we’re going to attempt to continue. The alternative is to sit and wait in St. Louis for 4 more days (at least), and then hope someone can diagnose and fix the issue. That would be a serious blow to our plans and itinerary, so we decide to go for it and see what happens. The only important question that I can see is – could this electrical issue have been the cause of the dead short battery which started this whole cycle of problems? Time will tell.

After a fine dinner within sight of the brewery, we were ready to find a campground for the night. Unfortunately, our friendly hosts from last night were full up, but Kathy called another campground not far away. They were just as friendly, and had a spot. We let them know we were pushing their closing time, but they assured us we were welcome. Just to give us an interesting evening, Jill, the sultry voice of our Garmin GPS, decided to lead us on a wild goose. It knew the campground, but to get us there the Jill led us on a half hour drive on a no-shoulder, narrow, and windy state road. When we got to the destination, we had arrived – at nowhere. Middle of the woods, no campground, and no civilization (it was 10:00 pm).

Eventually, we realized we could use the backup technology, found a website for the campground, and determined that the Garmin had the wrong address for the campground. The difference was a single letter, but thanks to Missouri's revolutionary Hwy naming system (Hwy A, Hwy M, Hwy T, Hwy AT, etc.), the wrong address for the campground was a real location. We corrected the address and set out for the proper location, but Jill got testy with us and continuously shouted “Recalculating!”, trying to convince us to go back to nowhere. We arrived at the campground an hour later, and rolled in for a quick sleep. The campground host was a super guy, got out of bed to show us to our site, and verified that we were the fourth recent victim to this particular Garmin glitch. Technology is making this a very different kind of camping trip. A bad address aside, it generally makes for a much more convenient trip and allows you to plan and coordinate on the road. It also makes for a scene out of Christmas Vacation as every phone, GPS, laptop, iPod, electric razor, camera battery, and bluetooth get plugged in for an overnight recharge.

Friday morning, we get a relatively early start to try to make up some time. The day is mostly a slog through Missouri and Kansas, though we got a great pick-me-up as we stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere to meet Kathy’s and my brother and his family as they traveled east to Orlando, FL. Chuck, Rose Marie, Kent, and Chase had stayed the last month at their new condo in Steamboat Springs, CO. They had a great time, including participating in a City Slickers roundup, but finally had to return home. We originally had hoped to meet up with them at their place, but the timing didn’t work out, and we settled for a quick lunch and a hug on the side of the road as we passed. Once again, technology helped and allowed us to meet at the best possible exit.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, just a long drive. We decided to forego a dry dusty Kansas roadside RV park, and drove all the way to Colorado Springs. For the third night in a row, we’ll be pulling in to a campground after it has closed, and once again, we’ve made contact with the people there and they’ve assured us it’s ok to come on in late, encouraged us even. Other than a need to sleep in some tomorrow, we’ve caught up our lost time. Just for you trivia buffs out there, that’s St. Louis to Colorado Springs in one day – about 835 miles. No additional electrical symptoms, and all seems well.