2015-04-03 49 -122
| Fri 3 Apr 2015 in 49,-122: 49.1608732, -122.5442341 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
In a little gully Northeast of Langley, B.C.
Participants
- Michael5000
- Jennifer
Expedition
This expedition happened a long time ago. After lots of Expeditions where things might have gone wrong, this was my first Expedition where things really did kind of go wrong. I didn't write it up at the time, but I did sent an email back to Mrs.5000 telling her about the day. It leaves out the part about how Jennifer and I had taken a nice leasurely Easter-weekend drive in the country out east of Vancouver, where she was attending a conference. It picks up the story as we arrive near the hashpoint.
Well!
Adventures have certainly been had today!
We pulled over close to the hashpoint, and the truck made an unholy gurgling noise. The hashpoint was down a ravine, which wouldn't have been too hard to deal with, but one was concerned about the gurgling noise, which sounded quite like... boiling.
Blah blah blah nearest town messed with radiator and fluids blah blah blah didn't work temperature gauge headed back towards red blah blah blah by the way Good Friday is a national holiday here, nothing open blah blah blah a little roadside garage, with a perhaps Ukranian guy, not especially delighted to field a traveler with a crisis but aware of the roadside mechanic's role in these matters.
Bad thermostat. Took him twice as long as he had hoped to take it out, because a bolt snapped on him. Jen & I played Agricola in a nearby Subway. 47-31. Like Patrick, she plays well but doesn't understand how important First Player is in 2-player.
Now I don't have a thermostat, which is apparently fine unless the temperature falls well below freezing; also, there's very little interior heat, and the engine temperature gauge doesn't work, which could be bad if a second, unrelated engine temperature incident occurred. But it's now a "worry about it when you get back home" issue, and Trucky is again spinning like a top, and all we can do is hope that there was no engine damage during the time before the problem became apparent. I don't THINK there probably was.
Eighty dollars Canadian isn't bad for a bona fide adventure, and since playing Agricola someplace was next after the geohash anyway, it seems that all's well as ends well. Got the doctor back in time for her key conference schmoozing de jour, after which we will reconvene for din-din.
Now, the message doesn't specify whether I actually jumped down to the hashpoint or not. I thought I did, but I don't have a strong memory of it, and Jennifer says she remembers it as a fail -- we were so distracted by the literal boiling oil that we didn't try. So, we'll call this one a memorable fail.
Postscript: Was the truck's engine damaged? We never found out. Eleven days later, a guy taking his 90 year old mother out for a pre-Mother's Day event was caught in suddenly slowing traffic, and I plowed right into him before I could stop. No one was hurt, thank goodness, but my 21-year old truck and beloved geohashing vehicle went from "near mint" to "no longer street legal" in one sickening bang.
Photos
We got pretty distracted by the engine trouble, and I don't think any photos were taken.
Achievements
Summary: This expedition failed to reach the hashpoint due to:
- (1) Mother nature (mildly difficult terrain)
- (2) Loss of focus on the Expedition due to serious automotive trouble.
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Michael5000 and Jennifer earned the It's a kitty consolation prize
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