We drove with no problems to The Dalles where we arrived at our favorite mom and pop breakfast place in time for a yummy breakfast. After breakfast we headed on to Pendleton and managed to find two geocaches along the way. If you don't know what that means, check out http://www.geocaching.com for info. We are pretty heavy into it.
We started up the steep grade past Pendleton and into the Blue mountainsl. All seems well.
Then it began. When we arrived at the Summit sign, marking the top point of the Blues, Susie noticed that the heater stopped working. I checked my temp guage and was shocked to see that it was pegged in the hot line. I shuttered.
Raising the hood, I was greeted with steam and water spraying out of the overflow. We sat for 15 minutes to cool off, got some water from the trailer and filled the radiator. Cranked up and drove about 1 mile and it immediately overheated again. I started thinking as the engine cooled for another try, "its either a bad water pump, a bad fan, or a blown head gasket. My heart told me that it was the head gasket....big repair."
We filled and drove again, noting that the fan was indeed bad, but we made it only 2 miles and repeated the steam scene. I figured that if we could only get to La Grande, 18 miles away, we could get some help. Its mostly down hill, so we cranked the engine, started coasting and shut it off coasting on dead stick. A risky business but we were desperate and desperate people do desperate things.
We coasted all the way to La Grande starting the engine only on short uphill legs. When we wheeled into town, we spied a Walmart. Ahah!!! Free camping. After spending 2 hours traveling only 18 miles, we were tired so we set up camp in their parking lot and looked around for help. To our surprise, we were 6 blocks from the jeep dealer and 1/2 block from an RV dealer. Be had some supper, did some shopping, hot wired the fan, in hope, and then bedded down for the night.
We started up the steep grade past Pendleton and into the Blue mountainsl. All seems well.
Then it began. When we arrived at the Summit sign, marking the top point of the Blues, Susie noticed that the heater stopped working. I checked my temp guage and was shocked to see that it was pegged in the hot line. I shuttered.
Raising the hood, I was greeted with steam and water spraying out of the overflow. We sat for 15 minutes to cool off, got some water from the trailer and filled the radiator. Cranked up and drove about 1 mile and it immediately overheated again. I started thinking as the engine cooled for another try, "its either a bad water pump, a bad fan, or a blown head gasket. My heart told me that it was the head gasket....big repair."
We filled and drove again, noting that the fan was indeed bad, but we made it only 2 miles and repeated the steam scene. I figured that if we could only get to La Grande, 18 miles away, we could get some help. Its mostly down hill, so we cranked the engine, started coasting and shut it off coasting on dead stick. A risky business but we were desperate and desperate people do desperate things.
We coasted all the way to La Grande starting the engine only on short uphill legs. When we wheeled into town, we spied a Walmart. Ahah!!! Free camping. After spending 2 hours traveling only 18 miles, we were tired so we set up camp in their parking lot and looked around for help. To our surprise, we were 6 blocks from the jeep dealer and 1/2 block from an RV dealer. Be had some supper, did some shopping, hot wired the fan, in hope, and then bedded down for the night.
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