The Dalles is where we’ve lingered for the past couple of days. We’re here to visit with our Winnebago Group who are staying in their rigs at the local Eagle’s Lodge. We didn’t bring our trailer because Diane didn’t want me to aggravate my poor pitiful shoulders any more than necessary. I was, of course, all in for that relief.
The shoulder (left) is actually getting better after giving me a ton of grief for about three weeks. It was damaged a bit on my last tumble to the asphalt a few weeks ago. That happened just when I thought I was on the mend. Silly me, right? The fall is just now revealing its true damage in the form of a bruise on my left shoulder. When I first fell, I thought the main damage was to my left wrist which hit mother earth first. But that turned out to be the pivot point for me to rotate forward and bang both my head and shoulder on the ground, along with everything else.
It took more than a week for the shoulder to produce a bruise, a sign of its displeasure for being treated so badly. I’ve mentioned before about the beatings I’ve taken over time that failed to produce bruises like everyone else. I feel kind of cheated for that. Seems like I should get bruises just like normal people do.
So, here in The Dalles, we are living in an AIRBNB unit that is pretty much in the heart of the city. The old part of the city. Our travelling friends paid us a visit so I took this photo;
Historically, this house was part ofthe churchyou see in the back and was called the nunnery. This porch services the one unit we rented as well as the main house that fronts Fourth Street.
This is our room. It’s a studio with a fridge and micro.
The view out our side window.
Here’s a view of our side windows, all three of them.
Here’s a look from the courtyard.
Today we had lunch in the courtyard. Simple fare from Burger King.
It’s been a fun trip except for last night when I was dealing with high blood sugar because I chose to eat an entire serving of lo mein too late in the evening. It wasn’t a good night.
Tomorrow we return home. Max will miss his time in the sun.
This might really be update #1 but I’m not sure. The last post was from 3 days ago and I’ve only had to return the truck once, over last weekend. I think I may actually have mentioned that. During that return visit to Emmert, they found nothing wrong. The truck started fine every time they tried. So, I gave back the EV and we got back to normal.
Thankfully, things are just fine. While pondering everything that’s going on it occurred to me that Emmert is looking at the problem from the wrong perspective. They focused on the fact that the truck wouldn’t start but the reality was that we couldn’t unlock the truck at all. When looked at with narrow eyes, I can see how that relates to our inability to start the truck. It’s certainly an empirical truth but not being able to start isn’t the key point. We just couldn’t get to the starter button using the electronics so lovingly installed for our use. I say that tongue in cheek. There are way more bells and whistles than any normal person needs and when trying to figure them out one tends to get very confused. That takes away the fun of having bells and whistles.
So, there is a plan to make this truck go away and replace it with a different version that is easier to figure out. Another aspect on a replacement truck is that it might be a little closer to the ground, so Diane doesn’t have to jump to get out of it. There is not plan to make a change, just a notion to be considered.
There will be more discussion on this at a later date.
It’s been eight days since the truck was temporarily traded for a new Blazer EV and we’ve since returned the loaner, and just today traded back so they can work harder on the truck.
I was told that the problem with the new battery was that it was a bad battery. I found that interesting. We traded the loaner back for the truck and it worked fine for two days before it went belly up again. That was last Friday. I couldn’t unlock it with the FOB.
So, I measured the voltage on the battery and got a stunning 3.36 VDC reading on my handy meter. That’s not quite enough to turn the engine and, apparently, not enough to respond to the key FOBs.
I walked back to Emmert and told them what I discovered and asked them where they would like me to park the truck when I brought it back. They all hung their heads in wonder that I was having such a problem.
I walked back home, hooked up my new battery charger and let it run on high amps for an hour and was blessed with the engine’s roar when I tried to start it. I drove it back to the dealer and left if running in their driveway while we did the car exchange once more. I suppose I could have just walked home, but I’m getting tired of doing that so I asked for the Blazer EV again. They complied.
My opinion is that the truck’s computer is suspect. We should know on Monday what’s up. I’m thinking they need to take the truck back and give me something that’s going to work a while.
Yup. I’m still sucking air, as my friend Junior used to say. That may surprise some of you since I have a history of harming myself in various ways. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened lately.
Except for my left shoulder. It’s kind of wonky and I’m scheduled for physical therapy to address that malady. That starts on May 8th. If I can still use my keyboard then, I’ll tell you all about it.
Before I go too far into this, I’ll admit that there may be some repetition about previous posts. You have permission to skip the repeated info.
Let’s talk about our truck. As you know, it sat idle in our driveway while we were off sampling the weather in Arizona for the last part of 2024 and a bit of 2025. I may have mentioned the issues we encountered previously, but things have progressed. For the last few weeks it’s been unreliable about starting. The first episode was during a trip to Portland for something I don’t remember, maybe a Costco visit, then lunch at Chang’s Mongolian BBQ. After lunch it wouldn’t start.
It would lock and unlock with the FOBs but the big START button did not function. Therefore, the engine didn’t start. I decided to try the remote start feature which worked fine, but I could not get it out of that mode. That means I couldn’t put it in gear. It’s supposed to shift modes when you press the unlock button after the remote start, but that didn’t work. That meant the truck wouldn’t let me put it in gear no matter how hard I tried.
So, I called AAA for a tow back to St. Helens so they could figure it out. While waiting for the tow truck I kept trying stuff and finally wound up slapping and pounding on the dash in the vicinity of the START button. That apparently caused something to wake up because it actually started the next time I tried.
Feeling lucky, I called the tow truck driver and cancelled the tow and away we went, directly to Emmert where I handed them all the keys and walked home. I was losing faith in that rig.
A couple days later, they reported that there didn’t seem to be a problem because it started every time they tried. Feeling brave, I drove Max to Wiggle Buttz, a dog store, to have his nails trimmed. He was. begging for a trim. When the toe nails were trimmed we jumped in the truck to go home but it wouldn’t start. I only tried once. Then we walked back to Emmert and I gave them the keys again and told them where the truck was parked and we went home.
It was during this period of being truckless that we went to Seaside for the weekend. Diane wanted to see the super low tide in person. So, we went and had a good time. Max got to spend time on the beach running just as hard as he could and, though it rained a bunch, we enjoyed the stay like we always do.
Diane took her Mom’s fancy walker to the beach and discovred that it glides suprisingly easy over the sand.
So, while Max and I played, she sat peacefully watching the surf up close.
Max was perfectly content laying on the table watching the surf from a distancd.
Can’t say I blame him because the beach was very busy with folks carrying clam guns that apparently are very popular during low tide. I’ve never seen Seaside Beach like this before.
Looking north there were a few TeePees people had built and we chose this one for our next home.
We took one long walk, about 2 miles to Norma’s and back just to get this required photo of us at the Seaside Turnaround.
Emmert called and told me they had analyzed about 40 error codes that all pointed to low voltage and deemed that we needed to replace the battery. I said sure, so they did. That was Friday, a week ago but we were at the beach in Seaside so couldn’t get it until Monday.
I went back to the dealer, paid the $580.00 that wanted for the new battery, and they gave me the keys. I happily went to the truck planning for a leisurely drive home, but it wouldn’t unlock with the remote.
I didn’t try anything else before taking the keys back to the service desk to report this failure. We went back to the truck and the service writer couldn’t get it opened with the remote, either. He pulled the manual key out and opened the door but there was a disturbing absence of dome and dash light when the door opened. This was an indication that the $580 was not well spent even though their specific testing of the old battery revealed it was bad.
After scratching our heads in unison for a bit, they said they would like to keep it for another few days to see what more they could find. I said, “sure, if you can give me something else to drive because Diane and I both have places to be at the same time. They wound up giving me one of their rentals, a 2024 Blazer EV which is pretty nice. I drove it home and tried to get the truck out of my head for a bit.
Today is Saturday and the truck will be there until Monday at least. I checked yesterday and it was in the shop, which is good, but they still had no clue what the problem is. That wasn’t encouraging.
So, I think we’ll just go out and burn up all that electricity stored in the EV’s batteries. It tells me we can go 216 miles before it requires a charge. Perhaps we’ll find out if that’s true.
In the mean time, Max is glad to be home and that the crick has dropped low enough to go wading like normal. One of his favorite things to do after a walks is to take a dip in the crick.
Temporary Sanity ... 