This week we finally launched for a “shakedown cruise”. A simple one-week trip to the Hoh rain forest to see what living out of the bus would be like, to be away from our sticks and bricks home and resources, and spot any major problems we might come across. It’s been a learning event for sure…
Just on the outbound leg, we had a few minor catastrophes that could have ended our dream then and there! Mom and I noticed a sound like chains dragging and decided to pull into a parking lot just a few minutes out to ensure The Toad was properly hooked up. That’s when I noticed a coolant line had popped off and we had lost most of our coolant! Luckily we were within walking distance of a Walmart and I was able to buy enough coolant to refill after I reattached and snugged up the hose.
And we had missed one of the safety cables on the toad, so we got that fixed too!
Later we stopped at a truck stop to refuel, top off the water tanks, drain the waste tanks and get a full weight for reference. While stopped I wanted to check on the hose that popped off. I noticed it was leaking a bit and tried to snug it up a bit more and it popped off again! Once again we lost most of our coolant, but this time I triple-checked the snugness before refilling the system. I made a note to add a second hose clamp when we got back.
Finally, though, we got to the beautiful Minnie Peterson campground just outside the Hoh rainforest. It’s a first-come, first-served primitive campground. No water, power, or even dumpsters; just a single BYO TP vault toilet for 9 camp sights ( 1 ADA, 1 hike-in only). We grabbed sight one, which happened to be the only one available when we got there, but it was great! Plenty of space to park The Bus with room left over for the kids’ play tent.
Mom here: Dad forgot to mention our epic vomit adventures! The night before we were to leave, Dad wasn’t feeling great. He thinks he actually had a light fever, but he slept it off and was fine. He did sleep an hour or two *after* I wanted to leave in the morning. The day of, The Girl wasn’t feeling great. She actually retreated to the house to sleep on her mattress in her old room, never mind that she didn’t have any bedding or an actual bedframe anymore. But, she seemed fine once we left.
The adventure really began once we made it to the Hoh. The next day, The Boy was feeling terrible. He actually tried to run out of the bus to throw up outside, but didn’t make it, and threw up all over our front steps! He’s a pretty resistant patient, so continued feeling terrible and vomiting off and on for the next couple of days. Eventually, though, we were able to get enough in him that his stomach would keep things down, and he felt fine by our third full day. (This is really the biggest reason we didn’t leave the campsite for a couple of days.) It felt great to know that we could handle a sick kid on the bus! Okay, back to Dad:
We spent a few days just chilling at the campsite, but did venture out in The Toad to explore the local beaches!
On another day, we ventured into the Hoh Rainforest and explored some of the hiking trails.
And we made a friend at the campground who gave us all Henna tattoos!
It went fairly smooth, but there were still some problems that needed to be resolved; our shower drain still wasn’t quite right, and a handful of minor issues that we fixed before launch. Every day we thought of something we needed that we didn’t bring, and we brought some stuff that we may end up not bringing again. We revised our pre-trip checklist and learned why some items really need to be checked well.
While we thought we secured the cabin well for travel, we still had some loose items to secure. I think the biggest lesson learned was when something breaks, take the time to fix it right when it breaks, and don’t make “good enough” or “I’ll do this right later” repairs. On the return leg, barely 20 minutes on the road, our dashboard lit up with all the warnings and our engine temp went from nominal to red line! That coolant line had popped off and we managed to empty the radiator! Suffice to say our “easy 3-hour drive day” turned into 12 as Mom had to take the toad into Forks twice to fully recharge the coolant system, and get a hose clamp!
