Karma. Karma as it seems is the answer to everything. In my last life I must have been an elephant, and much to my chagrin I must have stomped around and squished all of the precious little grasses, thus tipping the Karmic scales in the favour of vehicular breakdowns.
It started like this. A long time ago when it was cold and I turned on the Jeep at Bella Vista, the battery light came on and the volt meter dropped to zero. At first I was quite concerned, but after driving for about thirty seconds the gauge returned to normal and I was good to go.
A few weeks later I was faced with the same phenomenon. Then, this began to happen all the time. I first thought that the battery was in trouble, but it is a new battery. Then I thought that it must be the alternator, but again, the batter was fine and continued to charge and hold a charge. Then I thought that a wire must be loose and shorting out. And after that I thought that it was likely that the gauge was broken.
This was compounded by the issue that whenever I plugged in the Jeep it seemed to blow the breaker on the outdoor plug that it was connected to. To me this said that there was some kind of resistance problem, but in all of this the Jeep kept working so everything was fine.
Spring came and things were looking good. I hadn't seen the angry red light and the Jeep was working better than ever.
Last weekend I was heading to Bella Vista for the long weekend, and I made the mistake of saying to the crew upstairs "well at least I don't need to get the electrical problem fixed until next winter!" This tempted Karma, and like a vicious beast it set the gears in motion.
I was packed up, and ready to go, and in no time I was leavin' like a jetplane. I headed south towards Rocky Mountain House and then West towards Nordegg. With the tunes blaring (to drown out my own singing) I raced through the Kootenay Plains and into the Icefields Parkway.
For those of you who have never driven this route, I will explain something about the Icefields Parkway. The Parkway is in a park, meaning that there are no amenities, and through it runs Highway 93, that heads straight south to Radium and then to my destination. The issue is that in a park, and parks are places for nature... just nature.
So when I was deep in the Icefields Parkway and the little red light surreptitious flashed on. Oh oh.
No matter, the light had been on before and it had always goon off soon after... and it would... oh it would. I kept heading down the highway, thinking nothing off the angry red light, when suddenly the tunes cut out and I heard nothing but my own barren voice. My words trailed off and I looked at my radio. All of the lights were off. There were still lights on my control panel, and that red battery light kept on glaring, so I did the only thing I could think of, and that was to keep going.
There is nothing in the park. No mechanics. No service stations. No cell phone coverage. Gah.
So on we went. Things were going fine, and I must have made it another thirty clicks when I finally knew I was in real trouble. The little red light went off. Actually, my entire control panel went dead and I watched in horror as all of my dials rolled back to zero. Battery? Zero. Tachomoter? Zero. Speedometer, Oil, Temperature? Zero. There was one benefit to all of this, my odometer was also blank leading me to believe that these were free kilometres.
Not knowing my speed I just kept on truckin'. I was starting to figure that I would need to stop in Lake Louise to try and find assistance, and that was ok, afterall it wasn't too far off. Also, combustion engines really only need power to start right? Well... sort of. The old combustion engines, but with digitally enhanced fuel injection and whatnot power is a necessity. That meant that as I was merrily rushing down the highway and climbing a steel hill there was a nasty shudder in the Jeep. I tried to give it more gas to keep the engine running and there was a nasty shudder.
It was over. I quickly pulled over to the side of the road and listened carefully to a sputter... sputter... and nothing. The Jeep was dead.
Alright. No big deal. Still light, still warm, and I still have one more use on my CAA card. I cracked out my cell phone and looked at the little display. Zero bars. Gah. Well, I knew I was close to Lake Louise by the distance I had traveled, and I could see the familiar valley that Highway 1 runs through so I knew I could not be far. I got out of the Jeep, walked down the road not ten metres and the bars on my cell phone lit up with signal.
That... is luck.
I called CAA and explained the situation. They said a truck was on its way. I called a few other key people to explain the situation, and I told them that a truck was on its way. I put my phone back in my pocket and paced back and forth while I waited, singing out to the mountains. Two people stopped to see if I needed help. Two in an hour! This sounds ok, but when we were stuck in Nova Scotia we had to hide in the car because just about every single car stopped to see if we needed help.
The driver arrived and loaded the Jeep on his truck. He asked where I wanted to go. I figured that I should head to Lake Louise or Banff, really anywhere with a mechanic. There was the issue that no mechanics would be open this weekend, but whatever, I could get a ride later. He asked where I was trying to go, and I told him Radiumwards. He said that since I had a CAA Plus card I could be towed 160 km. We did some quick math and then we were on our way.
It was beginning to look like I would make it to my final destination afterall.
The driver took me all the way to Invermere which was 156.4 km from where I had been stuck. We dropped the Jeep in front of a mechanic and the driver headed back to Banff. It was late now. What was supposed to be a five hour drive had turned into seven. My sister was offering her husband to pick me up, but they were a forty minute drive away. I had been chatting to a friend of mine on my phone so I messaged her to see if she was still awake.
She was.
She was only fifteen minutes away, and she graciously offered to pick me up and drive me the remaining few kilometres to my destination. When we arrived we visited for a few minutes and then she headed home.
I headed to bed. Gah.
It took a while to sort out a plan, but I did eventually sort it out. The mechanic would not be open until Monday, so the Jeep was kinda stuck (and also across the street). I would leave it in Invermere and head back to Calgary with my sister and her husband. Then I would borrow their spare truck and take it to Drayton. I was going to take my Dad's sweet new truck, but my next trip to Calgary would be with my work truck so then I would have Dad's pimp ride for a few weeks. The old red truck it was.
There seems to be a slight shudder from the front driver's tire, but it is a reliable machine and I took her all the way to Drayton without issue.
I spoke to the mechanic yesterday, and today, and they have the Jeep in the shop. At the very least the alternator is gone, but if we are lucky the battery will still be good.
What a gong show.
I think my bad Karma turned around the moment the Jeep broke down on that last hill before Lake Louise. From then on I have had only good luck. The tow driver could take me all the way to Invermere. My good friend could take me to Bella Vista. I could get back to Calgary, and even borrow a truck to get back to Drayton. Hopefully the Jeep will be fixed in the next few days and in the next few weeks I will trade it with the truck.
It was one hell of a ride, but what an adventure.
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