V14E7- Jeep Trouble After Astoria

Do not jump from rocks is what that said. Oh, you can see it from here. You can certainly hear it. There's not much to see. Okay, Chris has had two servings of coffee today. You're being silly. Wow, that is a lot. Pacific Northwest. The week of rain we just had. Yeah, you can kind of tell it's really misty. Look at that. How cool. Are you going to go in? Yeah. It's dripping like our uh... That's intense. Where do I begin this week? First of all, the weather last weekend was beautiful. Especially after the rainy week that we had before. Shannon and I seized the opportunity to stay on the coast last weekend. We spent another night at Cape Disappointment State Park in southwestern Washington where we enjoyed more time on the beach. And we also did a little bit of sightseeing. What do you think, Chris? The original GPS? Well, it seems... Well, I can't argue with this informational kiosk. And busy. But not outrageously so. Guess what I'm making? Chili. I'm making a mash-up of Texas and Cincinnati chili. And honestly, for space and simplicity, I'm keeping it really not very veggie-heavy. We've got to wait until the pin goes down. There. It went down. So now... So now we can... It's not gonna look good. It literally is just plain ground beef. Here it is. Delicious dinner. I'm putting it in my mouth. The next day, we crossed the bridge into Astoria, Oregon, where we had some delicious fish and chips. And then we went on a hike to an amazing waterfall. There is Astoria down at the bottom of the bridge. Hey! Half and half. Halibut and cod. Looks really, really good. So what did you think of this place? Fish and chips. Can't go wrong with that. It was delicious. Yeah. And we get to sit in this lovely greenhouse. And they have some fun stuff to purchase. The owner came out and chatted with us for a while. She was absolutely lovely and gave us a few more suggestions for other places to eat in town. Yeah, we're gonna be in Vancouver at 2.30. So we don't have a ton of time and we still have to find a place to camp. Yeah. Somewhere near Eugene. Yeah, we got some things to get done today. After we left Astoria on Sunday, we made it our mission to drive back to Vancouver, Washington, where we'd pick up my Jeep RNG. The week prior, the starter went bad. So I had the Jeep towed to a nearby dealer to have the starter replaced. While the Jeep was in the shop, they also took care of a bunch of other things. Brakes, ball joints, tie rod, radiator. I had no idea how badly it needed that stuff. But RNG feels much better and much more solid up front. There is, however, an outstanding issue. The dealer tried to remedy a check engine light. Trouble code P0365, which points to a cam position sensor. They tried replacing that cam position sensor twice, and both times it still yielded the same trouble code. So before I picked up the Jeep, they called me on the phone and told me that the check engine light is still lit and there might be a genuine timing issue with the engine. A check engine light is fairly normal, and I don't usually lose sleep over that. But the Jeep was also in limp mode. That's when the Jeep's computer says, hey, we think your engine might not be running right, so we're going to cut back on the power delivery. The dealer then reported that it'd take a much deeper dive to diagnose. So I decided to ask them to hold off in favor of finding a specialist. So with the Jeep situation, the question is, where does that leave Orangey? And to be honest, that's what I'm trying to figure out right now. I put out a short video on YouTube right before this one where I ask, where is a good place to take the Jeep in the Portland, Oregon area for service? Well, I want to thank absolutely all of you for your responses, because not only was it extremely helpful, it was essential. I honestly was at a complete loss and didn't quite know where to take Orangey. Now it's a day later, and I have an idea of what my course of action is going to be. More on that next week as things unfold, but generally I'm going to prioritize getting to the bottom of the timing trouble codes. This might be much a do over nothing, and Orangey could be fixed up in a matter of hours, but it could also be something else. It does have me thinking though, if Orangey does need major work, what then? Should I find something else to drive temporarily? Should the Jeep be retired? Should it be replaced? If it's replaced, then with what? I'm reluctant to replace a vehicle that's been tailored to suit me perfectly over the years. Orangey does everything that I need it to do, and it does it all very well. Nevertheless, let's brainstorm. If I were to ever replace the Jeep, what type of vehicle do you think I should replace it with? I welcome your ideas in the comments. So this is the third week in a row that we've been thrown some sort of vehicular curveball. I was very much planning to explore more of Oregon this week, but instead, like I did with Washington last week, I think I'll share some back footage from some of my fondest memories that I've experienced here in Oregon. So I get to here, and there's a junction. It just keeps going that way, which is great. And it went down this way, which wasn't on my topo map at all, so I was a little bit curious. I get out of the Jeep, and I run down this road on foot, and then I saw water glistening over there. Who finds this? I mean, this is perfect. I wasn't just looking for a place to spend the night, I was looking for a place to spend the weekend, spend a few nights. By just going a little bit further down the beaten path than everyone else, you can find some truly wonderful places to call your own. This is extremely peaceful. This is only the third time that I've used this screen room. I'm glad that I have it, but I certainly don't use it often. It's just a lot of setup and teardown. Sorry for all the wind noise in this scene. This was recorded back in 2017, before I had my fuzzy microphone to help block the wind. How is a critter... How did a critter get in here to gnaw up my M&Ms? Fortunately, this bag of candy is the only exposed food, but I'm just impressed by the fact that it happened at all. When I saw that mouse in New Mexico the next morning, I spent three hours emptying the Jeep and reloading it. I'm not doing that again. I sure wish I had some M&Ms. What's that? Hey buddy, how deep are you? Yeah. The water's so clear, you can see me entirely now. Okay, come on man. One of my fondest memories ever. In this scene, I'm parked on the beach on a misty morning, making breakfast for my son, Cole. This is it. I'm in the National Forest outside of Detroit, Oregon. And low elevation, about 1600 feet. I'm gonna try to camp here tonight. I got a late start tonight. I didn't even get into the National Forest before the sun went down. So I got kind of lucky with this campsite. But it's nice, it's secluded, elevation is relatively low, and I think I'm gonna sleep well tonight. So I am stoked. I'm still on East Coast time, so every morning I've been waking up at 4 a.m. It's a lot of fun. Just been in my jeep for the past three hours, looking at Instagram. And hilarious cat pictures. Thank you, roast beef sandwich. Wow. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. I mean they are, no I can't, I don't. Oh, my mom knows that well. This view just opened up. Yeah, it did. 30 down. Oh, now mine's spiked a lot. I've got 25 up. So as long as we have line of sight to the west, we'll be in a great place. Oregon. Love this. It's Friday around midday, and I'm not usually recording video this late in the week. I'm usually editing. In fact, I am in the process of editing this video that you're watching now. I was just waiting for the rain to stop so I could record my wrap-up. Yesterday we left Eugene, Oregon after spending a few days in town for scheduled van maintenance. We scheduled the maintenance weeks ago. There's no problem with the van, it just happened to coincide with the jeep trouble. But yesterday, just before dark, we ventured into Oregon's backcountry to find a functional base camp for a couple nights, and we ended up here. We found a great flat spot where we could settle in at the end of a BLM road spur. I have no idea how next week's going to play out yet, aside from dropping the jeep off at another shop to have it looked at. Beyond that, I'm just trying to be as fluid as possible, and I'm considering this whole ordeal as part of the grand adventure. And that it is. I hope you all enjoyed this week's story. Thanks for following along, and we'll be back next week.