Losing the Astro
We left Moorpark on July 22nd, driving two vans. Jenny went with Glen in the Astro and I had the boys with me in the
Safari. We made it as far as the Cajon Pass heading north
on I-15 just north of San Bernardino.
I was several cars behind the Astro when I saw a cloud of
smoke and the Astro moving over to the side. Glen got
it safely to Call Box 192 and this wide spot by the side
of the road. Another motorist pulled in to see if she could
help, but left when I pulled in behind. Glen then called
AAA and explained that we needed a flatbed truck to come
get us off the freeway because of the box on the back
of the Astro. It was a long wait,
especially since we hadn't had dinner yet. And because
the Safari had had to be jump started in Moorpark (the
dome lights had been left on), I didn't want to run the
battery down by using the lights or letting the guys plug
in the GameCube. We tried playing Categories and talking
about anything I could think of to distract Alan, who was
rather agitated.
Three hours and several phone calls later, around 11pm, we finally got help. An Apple Valley-based driver heard of our plight
from the dispatch office and came to get us, despite it not
being on his regular turf for calls. He said other drivers
had turned the call down because they wouldn't be reimbursed
enough by AAA to make it worth their while. He took us
first to the next exit where there was a small Del Taco so
we could get something to eat. Then he took us to a
motel in Victorville for the night and promised to come back
in the morning to take the Astro to a garage to see what
was wrong.
The diagnosis the next day was a thrown rod that had punctured
the oil pan. Given the age of the van (20 years), it wasn't worth it
to replace the engine, so we signed it over for salvage,
rented a U-Haul truck, and transferred everything out of the Astro.
We even took the rear seat out and put it in the Safari so
we'd have more elbow room for kids for the rest of the trip.
Isn't GM engineering wonderful.
Here's all the stuff we'd had in the Astro. It's probably not
surprising it just gave out.
Then we drove both the Safari and the U-Haul back down I-15
to the ABF terminal in Fontana. The smoke wasn't us this time. It reminded us that things could have been worse. This
was a truck on the uphill side with visible flames around the
cab. Once in Fontana,
we transferred everything
we thought we could do without for a couple of weeks to
the end of yet another ABF trailer, and placed the bulkhead
in position.
Then back up Cajon Pass, return the U-Haul in Apple Valley, and finally get
back on the road, just about exactly 24 hours behind our
original schedule. We crossed the Mojave Desert at night,
which was probably a good thing, since the temperature at
10pm was registering as 102, and quit for the night in
Kingman, AZ, sometime around midnight.
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