Mount Hood/Car Trouble

We will do our best to make the following entry short and sweet, but today was one of those days you catch yourself doubting the whole road trip idea.  It started off with driving all the way to our campsite (which we had abandoned due to location, heat, dealing with Oso, etc) to pick up our tent and some gear before heading up to Mount Hood.  It was pretty crazy having it be so hot and dry (near 100 on the highway) and approaching a mountain that was covered with snow to pretty low elevations.  We were kind of sore from all of the biking around Portland and hiking the day before so we just wanted to do a quick loop to a place called Mirror Lake that had views of Mt. Hood and was not too far into the park.  Disclaimer:  this next part isn’t especially exciting or inspiring, but is part of the road trip experience, so here we go. 

With almost 130,000 miles on it, it isn’t going to set any endurance records but has still been a great car.  The climb up the mountain on this fateful hot day in July was just too much.  Seriously right as we got to the trailhead, the engine overheated and smoke started pouring out.  After popping open the hood and finding the fans still working but the engine coolant gone (that had just been added a week prior), we decided to let it cool off a bit during the hike.  The car started up and had cooled down enough to make the trip downhill, which would hopefully be enough to get closer to civilization.  After barely making it to a gas station before overheating again, we added some coolant and hoped for the best and pointed the car downhill.  After a couple minutes it overheated again and it was time to call AAA.  The only trouble was the timing:  it was Friday afternoon (3:30) before Independence Day.   After an hour or so the tow truck managed to find us (even though we unknowingly were a quarter mile from his garage) and he drove us down to a mechanic and on the way had one of the tires on his tow dolly (luckily not my car) pop and ride the rest of the way on an axel.  The mechanic told us that we would not be able to get it looked at until Monday (not surprising since it was 4:30 on a Friday) but after some tears from Beth (not in front of the mechanic) and a quick discussion, Jason (wonderful human being) decided to, in his words, “pay it forward” by saving our trip and taking a look under the hood.  It ended up that the radiator had a huge crack in it and had to be completely replaced, which was a miracle that he even found a new one at this time of day.  Jason (@ Stephenson's in Sandy, Oregon if you are ever in the area) ended up chatting with us for the next three hours while he fought and miraculously got everything fixed around 7:30.  It is seriously people like this that give you hope, and not to get all cheesy, but we were both stunned at the generosity and humor he had during the whole process (it was way cheaper than expected and we didn’t even tell him about Oso’s surgery).  Whew.  Sorry about that.

We will make the rest of this one short in case any brave souls are still reading.  The two of us spent the night biking around Catherine’s neighborhood meeting seriously kickass people and having a wonderful time at a jorts (cutoff jean-shorts) party that had great dancing and a keg of local IPA.  A wonderful end to a trying day and boy are we glad to have a futon to be sleeping on.