So destiny would give me a solution to my pesky pod problem- and not even a few days later one appeared at our local Salvation Army, at a third of the price I had bought the last one! I was hesitant and debated using the strap system so I didn’t have to upgrade a whole another pod to fit our needs.
After leaving, we almost immediately turned around and purchased it. It was much more sturdy. It took a bit of work, I had to reverse the hardware so it would open the direction we wanted, drill the new mounting holes, and give it the now standard Gaco treatment- but once it was installed it rock solid! (Pictures coming of it in the next chapter 🤫😉) Needless to say- I had the other pod on the market in a heartbeat. It would be a good pod as long as it was loaded in the right direction. In the end, I was able to sell it and almost cover all of my expenditures between the two pods; here’s the pics from when I listed it.
A bit of time passed and it was time for Serenity’s last big run of the year! We were excited to hit the road and get away from the small town blues for awhile. We had originally planned on going up Friday and returning homeward bound Sunday night. The plan was to drive up and spend the night in Girdwood. Wake up early with enough time to get in our yawns, stretches, and coffee before meeting up with the owner of the 4×4 Odyssey. Then we would drive up to Palmer, play board games that day and maybe even that night. After that we would spend our last day in Anchorage kicking back and stocking up for a return to our small town away from everything.
Since we could move our schedules around enough- we decided we could slip in an extra day and head up Thursday night. I messaged ahead and made all of the necessary scheduling, and Thursday afternoon we drove out of Homer. When we arrived in Soldotna we talked ourselves into stopping at the Chinese Buffet and catching dinner. 😋
A little side story- Homer is an expensive place to eat, and people have adjusted their sales and business accordingly just to keep their businesses open. Well, with the shift, the last of the legendary buffets left in Homer went the way of the dinosaurs- and became extinct. 😢 So in other words, when we went out of town we always were down to hit a buffet!
After an awesome dinner we went out to get back on the road. When we went to go- there was no go. I went through and checked what I could- but since we were out of town we ended up calling the local cab company for a jump. With the assisted power she turned right over- and I drove her straight over to O’Reilly’s down the street. We kept her in view and running while I went inside to talk to the sales staff. A few minutes later we were standing around the hood with a tester checking her out. It didn’t take long to confirm that the alternator was out. 😬 The gentlemen then checked if they had one in stock, and that was a big no.
So we had a choice to make. It was getting late, and with the dark creeping in we knew shops were going to be closing soon. As Serenity sat there running, her LED lights shone brightly- so we figured at least we were lucky enough that the LEDs were energy efficient enough the truck could still run the lights.
I messaged the people we were supposed to be meeting to update them on the situation. The gaming situation was fine to hold off on, and the gentleman that owned The 4×4 Odyssey said if we could get up to Girdwood we could help us do the swap. We could risk going North- but it was still a 3 hour drive at least, and once you got into “the pass” of mountains cell phone reception was few and far between. So we decided no to that. We agreed to meet a day later.
We could wait in Soldotna until a shop opened up the next day, but I didn’t know which one to go to or let alone trust.
The other option was to go home. If it was necessary we could pull over if we had to- and any distance we made would be that much closer to town if we had to get towed. We could try to emergency get her into a shop in town we trusted and with luck be able to make the trip later in the weekend. So after a few moments of deliberating- we were going to shoot for home.
It was now dark, but luckily our lights were still shining. We borrowed one last jump from the kind salesman at O’Reillys- and we were off. Immediately I noticed we would be pushing it on gas- but could probably make the trip. Once we launched from Soldotna we eventually became surrounded by darkness. Our headlights faded down a bit as we drove, and we slowed our pace. We could still see the lines of the road, but it became harder and harder to do so. I pulled over as traffic overcame us, and we devised our new emergency plan. It was either this or pull over now and get towed in the morning; we were going to shoot for Ninilchik. ⛍
It was a half way point and it had a gas station that might have a gas can and a jump pack. About 45 minutes of coasting along in the dark we arrived. I left Serenity running as we went in to talk to the gentleman at the counter. He was super helpful, and we agreed that I would park away from the pump for the night. I would get up in the morning, borrow a gas can and put some gas in Serenity. Then I would jump her using the jump pack and we would shoot for home in daylight. He would leave a note so that his morning counterpart would know what was going on. As I went to exit the gas station, someone stopped me and said “Were you driving that RV?” I acknowledged, feeling nervous that something else was wrong… He continued on to say “The only lights you were driving with is your maker lights next to the headlights!” I told him our tale and that we were stopped for the night. I apologized if it caused him any trouble and thanked him for letting me know.
I couldn’t believe it! We had navigated the majority of our way down here on the marker lights alone! It explained why it seemed like the headlights got dimmer… Though a testament to how bright the LED marker lights were, that was too sketchy! Finally having a safe landing spot we went to settle in for the night in our wonderful little home when we ran into another problem…
All of this had happened, and we had spent our day prior to our trip planning on charging our cell phones during the drive time. Even in emergency power savings mode our phones were not going to make the night. Laura came up with the idea to head to the local bar about half a mile down the road from us, we could plug in our phones and play pool until we had enough juice to make it through the night. I was tired, but it was the only plan that was going to work so we could have an alarm clock to wake us up in the morning. We headed down, had a few drinks, primed the jukebox and racked it up. A few hours later we were good to go- and it turned out to be lovely evening. 💑
The next morning we were on, and the plan went off without a hitch. We were on our way down to Homer, and Laura was on her phone calling our local mechanic. Redline was closed, so we went with our favorite mechanic that we used for our other vehicles; Robert @ Sunny Services! (Previously, we had agreed that due to his garage height- motor homes were better serviced elsewhere) In this case though- we had to see if he could help with our Toyhome. He called and checked and the O’Reillys down in Homer had our alternator. His shop was booked though. 😨 Robert is an awesome guy, the ‘Give you the shirt off of his back’ kind of guy, so he offered that if I could get Serenity there with the alternator, that he could advise me through the swap. If we wanted to make this trip work; it was my best and only chance.
When we hit Homer we swung by our house and left Serenity running so we could pick up our pickup. We drove both vehicles, purchased the alternator and pulled into the parking lot at Sunny’s. I had never done an alternator swap before, but it turns out in our case, it was not going to be the most difficult process. Robert told me what to do and we went to work. An hour later (still having managed to keep my tradition of giving myself greasy, bruised, and bloody hands) we had the new alternator in! 🔧
Robert offered to put the truck battery on his maintainer- we happily agreed to wait in town a bit longer. We were already worn, dirty, and tired and we hadn’t even really started our trip. This allowed us to go by O’Reillys to get a core charge refund for the old alternator and drive home to catch a shower, power nap, and breakfast before heading out to retrieve Serenity.
We arrived at Sunny’s ready to hit the road. Robert was happily chatting with some of his friends, but I waited patiently. After all, he had saved our bacon and asked nothing in return. We totally said we would buy him lunch, but someone else ended up doing it before we could. Robert is always paying it forward, and I think that gets a lot of lunches for he and his crew as Thank-Yous. 😆
Eventually though- Laura couldn’t wait anymore and gave him the nudge. 🥵 He comically said “Oh! You want to get on the road!” He looked at me and said, “I didn’t know you were on a time crunch!” (He totally knew we were- but he likes to tease the hell out of anyone he likes) 🤣 We retrieved and hooked up the battery. Robert looked over the cables with me and advised that there was no urgency- but maybe next spring to consider beefing up all the battery cables. I agreed- it was a good idea for next season. With that we gave him our thousand thanks- and we were back on the road! It was about the same time we had left the day before ironically, but I was used to living my life a day late and a buck short! 💵
We let everyone know we were on our way- with the same plans just a day later. 😉
Geoff Murphy 3/15/2020