Brian picked me up from school letting me know that our Jeep had just caught fire (in a nonchalant voice). Since he was also smiling/lauging while telling the story, I thought for sure it was a joke. In fact, I didn't believe him until after all our errands had been run and we were home three hours later to find the Jeep after it had been towed. Now, it wasn't quite as dramatic as it sounds because only the engine caught fire and spewed flames under the hood, not causing any damage to the rest of the vehicle. But the damage is done and too much to save poor Sport.
How does a vehicle catch fire you ask? Good question. I'm not a Jeep (or any car) expert, but apparently it was having trouble with the starter and while Brian was trying hard to start the car, it was causing friction and heat under the hood, thus catching all the "gunk and oil" under the hood to catch on fire.
Did I mention this was in front of Brian's office building? Did I also mention that Tristan was in the backseat, buckled in safely while all this was happening? As soon as Brian saw flames, he grabbed T and rushed him up to the third floor where his office is while Clint (who really is the hero in all this), grabbed a fire extinguisher from the nearest office and sprayed all the flames until they were gone. Phew. And what an embarrassing scene for these business partners who are trying to be professional.
So, I guess we will be purchasing a car a little sooner than we expected. Truth be told, the Jeep was supposed to be my temporary car to last me through grad school (graduated six years ago) after good friend, Ali, sold her college car to me. But, Brian kept telling me he wanted to "drive it into the ground" before we bought a new one. Well, I guess he got his way...
Okay, onto Adventure #2 of April Fool's Day weekend: After realizing the Jeep was no joke, we decided we'd take Clint & Sarah up on their offer to go to her cabin in Camp Sherman. Maybe we were hoping the Jeep incident would take care of itself if we left for a weekend. As we were heading out of town, Brian decided to take a shortcut way to Central Oregon. We'd never gone that way before, but he assured me it was much faster. Thinking we'd already had our one bad incident of the day, I took his word. Even as we passed the sign that read, "Road not maintained in winter", I still didn't speak up. I mean, so what if it had been one of the snowiest winters on record? It was a week into spring and had been 66 that day, so that definitely meant the road over the mountain would be okay, right?? Even as we had to swerve around boulders in the middle of the road and tree branches that covered almost both lanes, I trusted our captain. When we started driving over feet of ungroomed snow with sheer dropoffs down to the Clackamas River below, I finally said something. Oh, and we hadn't had cell service in over an hour. I started thinking about the poor couple from San Fran who was in a similar situation as us and who ended up having a very bad outcome after getting stuck. I realized the parrells to their story and ours were so close, that I had to say something. So, we turned around and had to go almost all of the way back home before getting on the original path to Camp Sherman. What should have been a three hour drive turned into seven. With a baby and two dogs in tow, that's really like 24. After we made it, we realized what a bad idea that was. No one really knew we had taken that way and would not have known where to look for us if something had happened. Horrible idea. Even though it had been 66 degrees that day, it began to dump snow the entire rest of the weekend. Several feet blanketed even the main road home. The only difference is that that road is maintained. Again, bad idea on the shortcut.
It doesn't just end there. That was only Day #1! The next day, we decided to go on a day hike to a nearby cave. We had to drive only eight miles from the cabin. As we were halfway, we began to encounter a similar scene as the day before. Except this time, there was more snow on the ground and we had another group of people with us. It only took us 15 minutes before we realized that we needed to turn around and go for a walk near the cabin instead. Much smarter this time around. Moral of the story: There is no distinction between winter and spring in the Oregon mountains. And do not take back roads until June, maybe.
Clint's truck ahead of us after getting stuck.
Brian deciding he could go in Clint's tracks to forge ahead.
"This is what the Land Rover is designed for." Apparently not. Us also getting stuck.
Later that night, we were supposed to meet up with B's sister and husband for drinks & apps, but since Ryan was sick and we didn't get the message until after we were almost to the restaurant, we decided to have a George night out.
T Man playing with Dad's phone while waiting for our food.
Tristan's favorite part of the weekend!
After a very eventful two days, we left early on Sunday morning hoping to get back home before something else came up. Luckily for us, we had a very uneventful ride home and were back safe sound before noon :)
The Camp Sherman cabin - thanks again for your hospitality, Maxwells!!
What a weekend!! I have been waiting to hear about what happened, and it did not disappoint!! Glad you are all safe and sound though and no more "back roading" for you :-)
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