Day 91, Monday, November 7, Dash Point State Park C

Day 91, Monday, November 7, Dash Point State Park Campground, Seattle/Tacoma

Fortunatelty, my neighbor did not cotinue his efforts to renovate his RV last night.  He left in his car early in te evening. However, starting at about 8, I started to hear distress yelps of some hapless small dog, as if lost and caught on something in the woods behind me. After listening to those mournful cries for an hour, i finally tried to call the park rangers but only emergency calls were permitted.  Then, my neighbor returned and i realized that the cries were from his two small dogs he had left behind in the RV. I was not only relieved but reinforced in my rule to never abandon my dogs while i go off somehwre to enjoy myself, although i did that twice this trip so far in Anchorage when Stefanie and I went out for our farewell dinner and brunch. But Donner was amply rewarded. 

Despite my hope to get a good night's sleep last night, i only managed 6 hiurs and finally got up at 4 to prepare for my trip up to Seattle and Gordin's garage. I left at 6:15 while it was still dark and struggled with the back roads with one headlight. Struggled, and kept one eye peeled for the State Troopers who love to give tickets for headlights missing. I felt like a fugitive the whole 35 miles, which took two hours in the mornjng traffic. Just a week ago i could do 130 miles in that same time and encountered perhaps 3 cars the whple time. This morning, my guess is that  in that time i encountered thousands of cars, all speeding past me despite my new engine. I just wonder what this congestion and speed does to our nervous systems. I know what it does to mine.

I got to the garage at 8:15, just as Steve, the mechanic to work on the Defender, arrived, and he set out right away to get to work. (Steve,by the way, has a rescued dog named Stanley from North Carolina, so we binded immediately, He was awarded a coveted On the Road  patch for his kindness toward animals and, i hoped, Defenders.) Since ther is no waiting room per se at the garage, Donner and I played homless for the next 10 hours and wandered the streets, first to a nearby Starbucks, where we were the only patrons aitting outside in the 50-something weather, and then to the streets. Twice, though, i took refuge in a smoked salmon shop and Donner and i enjoyed the most delicious smoked king red salmon south of Price of Wales Island in Canada.

At 5:30, Steve handed me back my keys and with them my Defender.  He had changed the headlights, changed the oil and oil filer, topped off the differential oils, checked for the differential oil back-flow probable I discovered on day 4 of the trip, repaired the energency brake, replaced the motor for the windshield water spray, changed the front shocks, changed the U-joints, retrieved my ECU's serial number so I can order a chip to improve the performance of my new engjne, assessed why the check engine light is still coming on, adjusted the idle, assessed the noise from thr catalytic converter, among other things. Somehow, when i got behind fhe wheel again, I felt i was diiving a new vehicle. Boy, those guys are good. It is no wonder his lot is filled with about two dozen Land Rovers waiting patient,y for their turn of attention. Also, as it turns out, with Steve's almost 10 hours today and Gordin's time on Friday, there is no way that they could have gotten all the above done on Friday even if i had arrived on time, so things worked out for the better, despite the three day extended layover here.

Afetr waiting for the Seahawks traffic to die down, we drove through Seattle in the  dark looking for a Home Depot to stock up on some supplies, although i hate driving through strange cities and i hate driving at night, a double whammy.  I will not describe the near-incident that almost happened as i left the Home Depot parking lot except to say that it confirmed my rule to avoid those two evils of road trips.

I still have not made my deicison on where I am heading tomorrow, if indeed i do get back on the road tomorrow. I will make my decision tomorrow depending up a number of things, including the weather and how my sciatic nerve issue is acting up or not.  The options are: head southeast for DC, head south on I-5 toward Sacramento, or head to the west coast highway, the original route. This happens at this place on every road trip i take.  If i do go south, Yosemite is probably out, but there would not be enough time for me to enjoy it and be home by Thanksgiving. There's always next year.

More tomorrow.

Ed and Donner, from on the road

www.OnTheRoad.camp