So now that we have slept, a quick recap on our situation yesterday. We (Autumn, our friend Craig Eno, and I) left Gresham yesterday morning at 6am with the intent of driving 14 hours to Southern California for a Dystopia Rising SoCal LARP. Because Autumn Hartley has been practicing her driving very intently recently in preparation for getting her license, we took her car, Frankie, a 1991 Toyota Camry with an automatic transmission, so she could do the majority of the driving on the long open highway stretches. All was well until about 11am. I had taken over driving after our last gas up so that she wouldnt have to deal with the steep grades between Grants Pass and Yreka. About ten miles.north of Grants Pass, the car shuddered violently several times. We pulled off to the left shoulder and it jerked again several times: something was obviously catastrophically wrong. An hour or so later, we were in Grants Pass at a mechanic, being told that they would run a full diagnosis but that it was likely either the transmission or CV joint - a major repair job either way. We polled our travellers and made a call to Pat Hartley who at that time was five+ hours east of Gresham (so ten or more hours away) beginning his own multi-day hiking adventure. Our consensus was to rent a car in Grants Pass and continue our journey, while the mechanic assessed and repaired Frankie, as the timing would probably be about right to pick him up on our way back. The other options (having Pat turn around and drive down to get us or having the car towed back to Gresham or just waiting in Grants Pass for a few days for the repair) seemed almost as expensive and much more depressing... Pat was more than willing to do it, because he is amazing that way, but I insisted that we make the best of a bad situation, and he finally relented and again again let us handle the situation on our own. So, after several hours in Grants Pass, we rented a little Kia Sol, and loaded it with our gear, including the new car top carrier we had invested in for the trip. However the next few hours were a fiasco as well, including a broken buckle on the carrier strap that necessitated frequent stops and eventually cramming all our gear into the body of the vehicle (complaint letter number one topic: plastic tension buckles on gear designed to hold cargo to highway speed vehicles that make the device unusable when they snap.) Fast forward to 11pm... we have now been on the road for 17 hours and still have 7 to go to reach our reserved hotel in Corona (near the LARP site). It becomes obvious that driving til 5 (23 hours with me now as the only driver because of the rental agreement) is just not going to be safe. We know the hotel has a policy of charging for a full nights stay if you chance less than a day before your stay, but we have had some rather extenuating circumstances and so we figure it is at least worth a call to see if there is a way they can waive the charge, since there is no way we can make it to Corona before 5am at this point. Knowing that I was asking for an exception to their rules, I called very apologeticly and maintained a very polite and beseeching tone the entire call. The first woman I spoke to (Miss Patel) had a very strong East Indian accent and I had to ask her several times to restate things. She finally put another woman (Camilla) on thr phone when not only had as strong of an accent but was flat out rude as well. She told me literally That is your problem!and insisted that I had to call a different number (which she could/would not give me) because we had made our reservation with the hotels online site rather than in person. I politely thanked her and tracked down the reservation number online, where I got told that only the hotel itself has the ability to waive that charge. So this morning I am going to call and speak with their manager and try to get it sorted out. We made it as far as Bakersfield, in no small part due to the hilarious story time of Craig, who had both Autumn and me laughing so hard were crying. This morning we hope to hear from the mechanic about the availability of a used transmission for Frankie, and to finish our trip to Corona for our zombie adventure. I have to say, my travelling companions handled thus craziness better than I could have asked for. Autumn loves Frankie with the devotion that only first cars elicit, and she just got her first job last week (and doesnt start til later in the month) but she is handling the major repair with more aplomb than a lot of more experienced folks would. And despite not knowing us well, Craig has been a source if calm and hilarity throughout the trip. Every one is not only safe and sound, but making the most of what could have been a hellish situation. So thanks to all for your good wishes. We really appreciate them and I am sure they helped to keep our spirits light (or at least comically bitter) yesterday!
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 16:36:46 +0000
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