When I was deciding on what type of tow vehicle we’d get (4×4 vs 2wd,
diesel vs gas, van vs truck) I never considered getting a 4WD vehicle.
The extra weight, the extra gears; I just couldn’t justify it when we
had travelled all over dirt and sandy roads in the Westy without a
problem. I also doubted I’d EVER find a diesel 4WD 15 passenger van.
I’m sure you can get one from the factory for the price of a small
house. As a result, we have managed to get stuck at least five times
and each time we get into a dicey road I wish hopelessly that we had
4WD. I’m thinking a 7000lb van + a 9000lb trailer somehow outweigh a
Westy…Yesterday, before we headed anywhere near the beach, I asked a fellow camper if the sand was soft; it LOOKED soft but he assured me that it was fine. Well, we must have found the only Not Fine spot. We dug in but good and before I buried the real axle and the electrical connector I decided to stop. We unhitched the trailer, I setup the tripod and spent 2 hours trying to move 2 palm trees. I swear, the fronds or trees or mountains will move in my direction when they see the tripod coming out of the basement. It is like a challenge to them; to try to move into the line of sight and make my signal wonky. I finally moved the tripod to the water level and got online. Well, not AT the water level…but we had a nice breakfast of radiated fish.
So bright and early this morning, before coffee, before work, before getting online, before Yoga, I started to build my Ruta Maya. I found large adobe bricks and planks of wood and made myself a road. When the boys saw how much fun I was having, they and Jamie got into the act and helped with the construction. We packed up the trailer, disconnected everything and drove full blast out. I had a nice turn to make and had constructed another road for the curve and as I took it the dirt and sand were flying. But we made it out. We’re now camped on hardpack; not as close to the waves as before, but we can hear them quite well at night. The beach view is not so bad that we can’t see what is going on; I spotted a cowboy (he was quite an old man) herding a bunch of cows down the beach. Ellen LOVES cows and ran after them like a little puppy. The gauchero stopped when he saw Ellen and insisted that she try his mount. She was in heaven.
Insulted by the recurring trips to sandtraps and mudtraps, the van has decided to throw a little tizzy. Either that or bad diesel. It is running really rough and a panel light indicates an engine problem. We’re thinking it is either bad gas or a clogged fuel filter, so we’ll probably be here a week to sort it out. We’re hoping that the clouds will soon clear and we’ll have a fully sunny day.
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