Hiccups Say Head Home

We've reset the transmission a few times since our trouble in Santa Fe, and it worked when we had any hiccups. Unfortunately, after Ogden, Reba (our 1995 VW Eurovan Rialta) wasn't interested in any gear after 3rd. Gorm looked at me stressed and said, "we're going home, we'll hit these parks again another time." We were under 700 miles from home, so I canceled all of our remaining camping reservations and we headed towards Seattle. We could rarely break 50 in 3rd so it took us several hours to reach Boise. We had a HarvestHost reservation there and camped peacefully overnight. Our plan was to hit another HarvestHost in Ellensburg Sunday at a brewery. Sadly after gassing up in Pendleton, we lost 3rd too. We managed to exit the highway and roll into a parking lot. There was a dead dear with only the legs recognizable desicating on the barbed wire fence...We called AAA and asked for a tow. After 3 hours of no help, we started Reba and drove in 2nd 7 miles to a hotel with a pool. We have a list of mechanics to call Tuesday morning to see if they work on our rig. Once we find a shop, we'll call AAA for a tow again and hope for better luck.

Had an amazing time regardless. The U.S. has so many beautiful and unique national treasures to explore.

Lessons learned:

- Reba is a great weekender but for longer trips, we want an RV with more power and more easily sourced parts and mechanics. Looking at Ford Transit AWD high roof campervans.

- Boxed non-dairy milks prevalent on NW shelves are strangely absent in camping town grocery stores in mountain states, especially Utah.

- Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are still delicious.

- Not working is awesome.

Today, we plan to lounge by our hotel pool with ice cold beverages and pretend we are somewhere more exotic than Pendleton.

The ViKing's musical selection: Breakfast in America, SuperTramp

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