In my last post I detailed my drive from Fayetteville, AR to Watsonville, CA in order to pick up the new camper shell for Taco Negro. At least the adventure waited until I arrived in Watsonville.
I would love to say that I calmly took control of the situation, reached under the seat for the portable jump-starter that lives for this exact situation and got on with my dinner journey.
Not quite. I called Michael and asked him to talk me down first. Why was I panicked, you ask?
It’s so stupid: I’ve never jump started a car before. Ever. Before Taco Negro, every vehicle I’ve owned (yes, all two of them) were stick shifts. When they didn’t start I just did something called a roll start. You do need a bit of a hill, or someone to help push, but you basically get the vehicle rolling with the clutch in and the shifter in second. Once you get some momentum, pop the clutch and give it some gas. Easy-peasy. I say this because my old Ford Ranger went through four starters during the 18 years I drove it, and I got pretty good at the roll start.
Anyway. I know you can damage your battery and/or your vehicle if you screw up jumping it, so yeah. I panicked.
Michael was so awesome. He gently reminded me that the device I was holding (my phone) was capable of much more than just making calls. YouTube to the rescue! Together we got everything hooked up. I turned the key.
Success.
I drove to O’Reilly auto parts in Watsonville, the closest one. Since I worry too much about nothing, I of course went through all the awful possibilities in my head along the way, but in the end it was just a dead battery. And the guys at O’Reilly were super helpful.
So it was a lot later than I intended when I got to the Tamale Factory, but let me tell you: those were some damn good tamales.
Picking up the camper the next day was another adventure, and I am so grateful that the seller, David, was interested in my success. The process took four hours and involved phone calls back to Boss Hawg Off-Road Accessories (in Bentonville), who’d done all the suspension modifications on the truck. Among other things.
Let’s just say that while this slide-in camper is removable, I have no plans to do so. Ever. Taco Negro is now the permanent overlanding vehicle.
The new challenges discovered during the drive home? No more rearview mirror. Acceleration is now nil. Braking is beyond mushy. (Dry weight of the shell is around 900 lbs, which is why we had to modify the truck’s suspension.) And gas mileage? Oh Lordy. I charted every fillup on the way home. Flat roads? About 15 mpg. Hills? It dropped to 12. And that was just with the dry weight. The Fleet has a 20-gallon water tank and the more stuff you bring, the more the entire rig weighs.
Most of those complaints went away when I spent a night “camped” at the Walmart in Edgewood, New Mexico. The overnight low was 27 degrees.
I had a sleeping bag, sure, but the Fleet has a heater. As well as a stove. I was unbelievably comfortable when I got up that morning and made coffee and breakfast in sweatpants and a t-shirt.
Best coffee I’d had in a while, let me tell you.
The other adventures on my return journey involved figuring out my new gas mileage and finding places to park at night. Not every Walmart allows overnight camping, and across Oklahoma in particular pickings were s-l-i-m. I ended up at the Lucky Star Casino, which was fine until I realized that the Lucky Star is not actually open 24 hours a day, so I had to break down the camper and drive for 20 minutes just to go to the bathroom on my last morning of the trip. Good times.
But I got home safe and sound. Next posts will give you a detailed tour (lots more pictures!) as well as our initial trips before the Big One: where we live in our new setup for a whole month!
Stay tuned!