Arrival and Getting Stuck

I got to Seaside Oregon today, and promptly got stuck.  Spent some time on the beach, diagnosed an inverter issue, and am staying the night at Dismal Nitch.

The last two nights have been spent in places where it was around 80°+ at 10pm, so I’m thankful to have a working fan.  However, it’s even better to be in a place that feels comfortable, without running the air conditioning or constant fans!

The plan was to meet Lee in Seaside, Oregon, as the weather there is/was good.  Much cooler than most of the rest of the country it seems.  There’s a place here where you can drive out onto the beach, but the signs do warn that four wheel drive is required.  No problem, I have four wheel drive.

What the signs should have said is “you must have four wheel drive, and maintain at least 30mph until you get to the packed sand.”  I drove in carefully, and that was a mistake.  The great white knight tried very hard to not get stuck, but momentum is what is required to get through loose sand.  Fortunately this was a spot where the locals were accustomed to novices like me getting into trouble.  I was able to borrow a shovel (that needs to go on my amazon wish list), and dig out a bit.  Lee came over and hooked up his tow strap (another item to go on the list), and we quickly got me unstuck.  I then, after learning the proper technique, applied nearly full throttle with a running start and made it through the loose sand.

After that whole incident, I was a sweaty mess.  Really nice to have your own shower and fresh clothes with you!

Next up was diagnosing a problem I’ve been having with my inverter.  I noticed the other day that the inverter was cutting out while I was attempting to use the toaster oven.  It was also about 90° in the camper, so I figured the batteries weren’t at their full capacity and were giving up the ghost a little early.  The next day I tried to use the microwave, which is a lower wattage item and has never given me any trouble, and the inverter wouldn’t run that either.  It would run my laptop without issue, but that’s under 100 watts.  It also beeps and goes into protection mode when I first turn it on, and won’t run until I turn it on again.

There is no reset function, or user-serviceable fuses to replace.  The only real test I could do was to isolate the battery issue and test it again.  So I removed the inverter, used some jumper cables to hook it up to my truck’s giant dual batteries, and an extension cord to run a load in the camper.  Same result.  By eliminating the batteries as a source of failure, it means the inverter itself is having issues.  This is rather unfortunate because I do a lot of my cooking with the inverter.

The company that makes the inverter is located in Bend, Oregon.  About 4 hours from here.  If I need do, I can actually take it in for service.  I will of course be calling them first, sometime tomorrow morning to see what they have to say.

On a completely different note, I’m really enjoying the weather here in north-west Oregon / south-west Washington.  It’s so nice to get out of the heat.  I was actually cold for a brief time today! It was fun!

Tonight I’m staying at a roadside rest off of a state highway, not an interstate.  The place has a local name of “Dismal Nitch”.  I have no idea how it got that name, but I feel very comfortable here.  The weather is cloudy and cool, and there’s a variety of other people staying in their vehicles and RVs here.

One thought on “Arrival and Getting Stuck”

  1. I thought about you on the beach last night when you called…low tide ? Glad white knight got out ok. Gorgeous pictures…..much nicer than what I am looking at now in my fluorescent box. So glad you are out and enjoying life.

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