We made a mistake…

No water and the vans engine is dead- a mistake

The middle of the summer. A dusty gravel road, a hot blazing sun, no water and no way of getting out. Not Mexico or Morocco. We are in Oregon. And we made a mistake. We drove without any water. And the vans engine is dead. Completely. It just died and thats it. It wont start no more. We do have no idea why.
Even our solar charge controller failed on us. So we do not have any solar power neither. The dogs are thirsty and so are we.

We know we passed one creepy looking mini mart. It kinda look like the one we saw in a movie before… the hills have eyes… was it?
As I enter into a dimly lit shag through a squeaking wooden door my eyes need a while to adjust. After a while I see cloth, trash and cat food in every corner and a few minutes later an elderly woman with no teeth and a fat, hairy cat on her shoulder appears behind a thick red curtain greets me friendly and tells me where to look for the water bottles. Small bottles only but I grab all they have and luckily it should be enough until the next day. In all honesty I feel a little relived as I step out into the sun…

Two days and two nights we stayed here. We were lucky enough to find a water hose from an electricity station close by in the dry pine woods that surrounded our campsite/ work area. And once more I checked wires, fuse lines, connections and tuning. I cursed, screamed and sweated. I swapped the carburettor and in the evening of our third day the engine started. The four of us danced a little victory dance than jumped into the van and started driving. Long into the night we kept rolling, stoked and happy that yet another time somehow we made it.

See you on the open road one day

Peter & Sophie