(written on the 25th from notes taken previously)
It’s been a bit of a frustrating day today. I woke up early to the sound of someone who had just driven by me.
I don’t remember when that was, but I’m gonna guess it was around 7:30 ish, and I think I stayed up from that point on, so as not to miss anyone else.
There was a car that came by after that, coming from Temple Campsite, but I think it was a hybrid, so… no go for me.
While I waited, kicking myself as the time ticked by, for not having been up early to catch people, as that seemed, in hindsight, to be the likely time of day to get help. 😅
I also took pictures of the scenery. 😊
Finally, somewhere around 9ish, a lady who lived just around the corner started driving toward me from across the bridge, pulled over when I flagged her down, and was willing to give me a jump.
🙏
If I remember correctly, I started continuing down the glacial valley before remembering there was a side road to explore. 🙃
So I turned around, drove back to the bridge, and then hopped over to the winding side road and into the canyon you see in the first picture above.
It was a short drive but a beautiful area, and I snapped some pictures while perched on the side of a hill in the native bush of a the less-frequented portion of the local sheep herd’s domain.
I drove down the little river valley to where the road ended at a nice little campsite with a pavilion you could shelter in.
There were a couple of ladies there who had tent camped overnight.
I didn’t stop, both as I didn’t want to disturb them, and because I wasn’t so keen on fending off the little sand vampires, so I just made a slow loop through the campsite and drove off, back up and over the hill, down to the main glacial valley, across the bridge and toward “civilization,” stopping to take some photos on a pretty little spot.
I ended up driving all the way back to the little area next to the bathroom I’d hung out at yesterday. I then spent pretty much the entire rest of the day dismantling the Golden Kiwi trying to figure out the shifting issue.
If I haven’t mentioned it, at some point, the Golden Kiwi (TGK) lost the ability to down shift, which makes going down steep hills much more challenging if I don’t want to burn up my brakes. All three forward gears, L, 2, and D all function exactly the same–they’re all D.
Also doesn’t help the resale value. 😅
Along with that issue, the PRND2L indicator doesn’t show what gear I’m in, and the reverse camera doesn’t work.
It was today that I discovered the reverse lights don’t work either.
😒
So I dismantled the dashboard, trying to get a look at the wiring. I did find that there were two wires that had been cut. One of them was spliced into a hot wire on the steering column but then went nowhere… The other was a ground, grounded to the dash, but also went nowhere. Both had simply been cut but never capped off, so to speak.
I couldn’t find any other wires those cut ones went to. 🤷
I pulled off the dashboard indicator panel and checked the bulbs–none burned out.
Everything I’m finding everywhere points to the neutral safety switch as being the issue, but I have no wiring diagram to be able to test it. 😕
Wanting to fix it anyway, I decided to pull off the switch to maybe take it apart and clean the contacts inside (probably a smarter thing to do while parked in the parking lot of a junkyard 🙃, but I went ahead with my idea. 😅).
Concerned about doing damage, it took a while to figure out how to get the switch off (although barely a five-minute job once you know how). Gratefully, I was able to get it off without doing any damage. 🙏
Unfortunately, I found that the switch wasn’t disassembelable. 😒
After spending pretty much all day, and having been careful to disconnect the battery while working on it, I was taken aback and a fair bit frustrated when I found the battery was once again dead.
Ugh. 😠
Once again, I was going to need to flag someone down from the road above to come down and give me a jump. There was another person parked in the same area, but I didn’t know if that person was hanging out inside their van or out and about. I had seen him outside his van at times, but I didn’t want to bother him, and I thought that I could relatively easily get help from someone on the main road.
I was wrong.
I spent, I’m just going to guess maybe two hours? waiting for someone to come by who both could and was willing to help.
My frustration compounded when after trying to get a ride for a good little while, I stopped for maybe a minute to use the bathroom, during which time, the only vehicle capable of giving me a jump The entire time I’ve been waiting, drove by.
Murphy’s freaking law. 😠
I tried and tried and tried, and as the day got later and later, the more frustrated I got with the timing of the missed opportunity.
There weren’t many cars going by anyway, and when cars did go by, nearly all of them were hybrids.
I was able to flag down one non-hybrid car, but they weren’t comfortable using it to jump start because it was a rental. 😕
Finally, I gave up and finally decided I was willing to bother the person who I thought might be inside their van on the other side of the grassy parking area down by the shore.
So I walked over to the van and called over to the van from just a little ways away to see if anyone was in there. There was, and he said he was willing to help, and I said that I wasn’t in any kind of a hurry at all knowing now that I had someone who could help.
So I hung out in my van, just veging out waiting for him. Maybe I ate in a little bit? I don’t remember for sure.
Eventually, the young man came over, a really nice guy, maybe mid twenties, named Ben. He got my van jumped and going, and then we chatted for a fair bit.
Before I drove away, I think I did one last test that required me to put my headlights on (checking the dash to see if just fiddling with things had fixed the illumination problem on my PRND2L gauge.
It hadn’t, but was it still being light outside, I forgot that I had my headlights on. 😅
I drove back up the glacial Valley along the lakeside to one of the places that I knew for sure was a freedom-camping-allowed spot, pulling all the way down onto the rocky beach, an absolutely beautiful spot to be. 😊
After the frustrating day of dead batteries and zero progress despite spending all day trying to figure out my van, I just wanted to vege out.
Which I did.
I was also super conscious of my car battery, not wanting it to die again, so after only a little while, I went to turn my van on to recharge my battery, only to find it dead–again.
😡
I was… not happy.
It was the headlights. The golden kiwi is old enough that there’s no warning to let you know you’ve left your headlights on, and with it still being light outside, and with years and years of never having my headlights on unless it’s night out, I just simply forget the lights are on. 😕
Ugh.
Dead. Again.
I had tried to be so careful today, so careful. It was pretty discouraging to have had the day go the way that it did, but I guess it makes for a good journal title for the day. 🙃
Gratefully, and quite surprisingly, I managed to quite quickly flag someone down who had a jump pack and was able to get me jump started–an older couple, towing a boat.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! 🙏
With the day I had, I just let myself sink into oblivion, veging out until waaaaaaay late.
Not the most encouraging day. 😅
~ stephen
Lift the World 