We travelled to Oregon's Summer Square Dance Festival in Pendleton this weekend, a distance of about 220 miles from Portland. Pendleton is in Eastern Oregon's desert, and it was plenty warm -- in the 90s. We had both kids, both dogs, and our 25' trailer in tow.
The weekend started out very badly; when we got in to Pendleton at about 10 PM Friday evening, the RV park I had reserved turned out to be a combination trailer court and RV park. It looked like a junk yard. When I knocked on the door of the office, a grumpy old woman in her robe came to the door -- she was already in bed. I don't know how anyone could expect to operate an RV park and not have folks knocking on their door at 10 PM on a Friday. She pointed me to a grassy area and went to bed. Fortunately, she never asked for my name when I made the reservation, so we left.
The real adventure started Sunday afternoon when we headed home. No sooner did we get on the freeway than I noticed some of the idiot lights were on -- the air bag light was solid, and the battery light came and went. Then, I noticed that the battery voltage meter was pegged off the top of the scale -- a sure sign of a dead voltage regulator. I turned on a bunch of equipment, the voltage went down and the battery light went off, so I continued on. Shortly, both lights went out and the meter went back to normal. I held my breath and crossed my fingers that it had just been a freak occurrance.
About 120 miles later, at The Dalles, it became clear that the voltage was steadily going down: the voltage regulator had taken out the alternator, and we were running on battery only. In another 30 miles, at Hood River, the van was dead. Fortunately, I managed to take an exit and get to a side street. After an hour or so, we had called a local tow company and managed to locate the only RV park in town. The tow truck couldn't tow a van and trailer, and no tow truck could take a family of four plus two dogs, so I was hoping the truck could charge the battery enough so I could drive to the park.
Sure enough, he did that, and left us so we could set up and unhook things. When my wife went in to register, the desk folks informed her that ABSOLUTELY no pets were allowed; we would have to lock the dogs in the trailer and give no hint to the residents that they were there. Plus, we could only have the spot until Tuesday. That was the last straw for her.
After more phone calls and pleading and cajoling, the owner of the tow truck company said he would call the owner of the local body shop, who had some cars for rent. The guy came in at 6 PM on a Sunday evening, unlocked his shop, and rented me a minivan (thank you, D&S Collision Repair in Hood River). The minivan was big enough to take all of us plus our critical junk the last 90 miles to our house.
But wait, it gets better. At 8 AM the next morning, I got a call from the towing yard, which also had a repair garage (River's Edge Towing). They had confirmed that the alternator had expired. They had one in stock and could have it done by 10 AM. I was stunned, given my experience with the repair shops in Portland. The wife and I headed out to Hood River, and when we got in at 10:30, the van was fixed, operational, and washed clean. When the alternator in the SAME VAN expired a year ago, Colvin Ford in McMinnville took four days and charged almost $900 to put in a rebuilt alternator. River's Edge in Hood River put in a brand-new alternator in two hours, and charged $380.
We returned the rental, hooked up the trailer, returned it to the lot, and got home by 2:30 PM. As emergencies go, we got off pretty easily.
And again, a big thanks to River's Edge Towing and D&S Collision and Body in Hood River.
