Day 7

Despite our better judgement, we awoke at 4:30am (who wakes up at 4:30am when they're on vacation?!). On the way out of town, John felt a sudden deceleration and weird behaviour in his rear axle. He immediately suspected his rear pinion. After jacking up the rear and rotating the pinion, he was convinced that the pinion bearings were shot. There wasn't much he could do about it so we drove back to Icehouse, retrieved the pickup, re-installed the 'Cruiser's hard top, and switched back to "highway" tires (those of us who had them). We drove back to Placerville where John headed straight to Warden's to pull the third member while the rest of us gathered at the Albertson's supermarket. Ice and refreshments were bought for the drive home. Armin and Dave spent some time trying adjusting the CJ's carb. It was running rich and having a big impact on fuel economy. As I mentioned earlier, it wasn't my fault. Waiting to hear the verdict on John's pinion bearing wasn't an option for the Lippmann's. They had to leave immediately and drive through the night if Pam was going to get home on time. Speaking of whom, Pam was having an allergic reaction to an insect bite so she had to take some antihistamines in Placerille. Rob, John's passenger, also had to get home to take care of some bills and work before catching his flight to Manitoba. And Gord needed to get home because he only had enough medication to last till Saturday. So, we bade farewell to half of the group.

Ron and Dolores, Jonathan, and Sue & I went to Warden's to see how John was coming along. Just as he guessed, the pinion bearing was bad. Fortunately, Danny Warden had a lot of spare third members. Unfortunately, it would also take about 3 more hours to install. It was already past noon and we had our own deadlines. I had promised Sue that the second part of this trip would be a drive up the Oregon coast. With a whole day spent repairing the Bronco and Land Cruiser, and now a damaged pinion, my promise was looking rather worthless. Although she really wanted to get going, Sue agreed that it would be best to wait for John. Ron and Dolores left after another hour. Two hours after that, John, Jonathan, Sue and I finally left Placerville and began the journey home. Danny Warden lent John an open diff, low ratio third member (great for highway cruising) and didn't charge a dime for the use of his shop, tools, and assistance. Both times I met Danny and his staff, I was impressed with their welcoming demeanor and professionalism.

Now that we were mobile again (and not broiling in the oppressive heat of the parking lot), we were determined to make good time and hopefully get half way through Oregon by 10 or 11 pm. No, we weren't strung out on crack. But Sacramento rush hour traffic conspired against us. By 11 pm, we found ourselves in southern Oregon, in the dark, almost out of fuel, and looking for a gas station that was open. That's when Jonathan radioed, "Does this road seem bumpy to you?" "No," I replied. "Okay, well then I've got a vibration in my Jeep."

Great, that was the last thing we needed. Ten minutes later, Jonathan reported that it had gotten even worse. At first, we suspected a bad drive shaft u-joint but it was unusual for one to fail so quickly. At the next gas station (which was, of course, CLOSED!!), we had a look under his Jeep. Our best efforts at poking and prodding didn't reveal any play in the u-joint. We were worried that the CV joint had lost some bearings because we didn't have any spare parts for it, nor a spare CV shaft. We spent some frustrating minutes driving around the very tiny community of Glendale to find a campsite for the night but only saw teenagers hanging around hoping for some Friday night excitement, which, on that evening, could have been anything that wasn't sitting still and turning brown. With no other option left to us, we got back onto I-5 and continued north. By a stroke of luck, the next exit took us to the Meadow Wood campsite which was where we stayed on the first night of our trip. It was also near a gas station that had diesel (for John). Like the others, this gas station was closed but at least we had a place to camp! We pulled in and took the exact same camp site we had when we first arrived just over a week ago. The remainder of our un-used firewood was still there as well. We set up our tents in record time and collapsed into our sleeping bags.

Day 8

After a nice, sound sleep, I awoke to find the tent empty. Sue was already in the shower. Taking that as my cue to get out of bed, I had a quick washroom visit and then got to work removing Jonathan's drive shaft. As soon as the rear u-joint came out, the source of the vibration became obvious. One of the caps was filled with dry, rusty powder; the remnants of what used to be its needle bearings. The opposite cap was also devoid of grease and contained freshly-broken needle bearings. It looked like the bearings suddenly began breaking which would have accounted for the rapid onset of drive shaft vibration. I used the Tiger Tool u-joint tool to quickly remove and install and fresh u-joint. John chided Jonathan for neglecting the u-joints as we greased everything that was greasable on the drive shaft. A quick test drive confirmed that the u-joint was the problem and the vibration was now banished.

We packed up and spent the next four hours driving before stopping for gas and lunch. We were close to Portland which was where Sue, Jonathan and I would be turning west for a brief visit to Cannon Beach. This was basically all of the Oregon coast that we had time to see, due to the day lost on the Rubicon and the extra four hours in Placerville. John decided that he would also join us, since he didn't have any pressing engagements at home.

After nearly falling asleep several times and going through various combinations of opening the window, splashing water in my face and slapping myself, we finally arrived in the incredibly scenic town of Cannon Beach. There was only one camp site in town and like every other form of accommodation, it was fully booked up. We ended up camping at Seaside, about ten minutes away. That evening, we did non-4x4 things such as walking on the beach and dining at a nice restaurant so I won't bore you with the details. However, I will say that Cannon Beach is a very romantic place and if I were to go there again, I would be inclined to bring just my wife and leave John and Jonathan at home.

Day 9

Struck camp, went back to Cannon Beach to eat at the Pig 'n' Pancake (highly recommended, by the way), did some shopping (obligatory souvenirs), and made a run for the border. Jonathan's vibration came back but mysteriously faded away as we neared the border.

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