Broken Hitches And Forest Fires And Evacuations, Oh My!

From Cannon Beach we traveled south about 110 miles to Newport. I had visions of a a pleasant travel day taking in the sights of the beautiful coast on this spectacular September day. My plan was about to change. I am pretty sure God was giggling behind a cloud because he knew that very soon he was going to have my undivided attention.

As we were ambling down Hwy 101, I noticed The Den was rocking a little more than I could recall from previous trips. At first I attempted to brush it off. The idea that something was “off” stuck in my mind like that annoying tickle you get in the back of your throat. No matter how you attempt to clear it away, it just keeps coming back. Finally I pulled over to the side of road to check my hitch setup. After studying the connections, I confirmed everything appeared to be connected properly. Just to be on the safe side, I raised the hitch and reset everything. Satisfied that all was good, I hopped back in the truck and we were off once again. I still noticed The Den rocking. I then thought that possibly the road was just uneven. Ya that was it! The road was uneven. I envisioned how I would tell the Director of the Oregon DOT that they really needed to maintain their roads better. Somehow in the last hour I had become an expert on building roads despite the fact I have never worked on one.

As was our routine, we stopped about 30 minutes short of our destination so I could help Colleen to the bathroom and let the dogs out. We were in Depoe Bay; “The Whale Watching Capital of The Oregon Coast”. As I took the dogs for a walk I stopped and admired someone’s hydrangea bush. This particular bush had blue blooms. When we had a garden I recall reading how you could create this effect by turning the soil slightly acidic. I tried but could never get it to work with our bushes (clearly operator error). It struck me how long it has been since I saw Hydrangeas. They don’t very well in the desert. After putting the dogs back in the truck I thought I would give the hitch one more look. As soon as I saw it, I regretted my decision. I noticed that my hitch had 3 broken welds. The hitch system was now being held together by the 2 bolts that run through the hitch to hold the weight distribution bars. Instantly panic set in! What was I to do? Call roadside assistance to tow our rig the rest of the way to the park? Continue on and pray the hitch did not bust off completely? Should I just sit on the side of the road and weep? After pondering my choices, I decided to continue on to the park. My rationale was that we have driven 85 miles on busted welds we “should be ok” to make it the last 15 miles. I really cannot remember the last time I had prayed so hard. I was wheeling and dealing with God during this stretch. My memory is fuzzy now, but I am pretty sure I promised to live a life so pure that The Dalai Lama would take notes. By Gods grace we did arrive at the park safe and sound. Check that! We were safe, but our hitch was certainly not sound.

When we arrived Friday night there was a brilliant sunset. This was to be the last we would see during our 12 day stay in Newport. Forest fires were making their way toward the coast. When we woke up the next morning it appeared to be cloudy. This however was a different kind of haze. The sun was trying to pierce through which turned out to be ash from the fires. It was an ominous sight. It was like something you would see in a “B” science fiction movie. There was a dank smell in the air like that of coals from a fire that had just been doused with water. The air quality was so bad that you had to limit your time outside before a headache set in.

My mission today was to figure out how we were to fix this hitch. Since it was a Saturday I could not call the shop where I bought it. After asking around, I learned there were a couple of places in town that might be able to help. All of my leads turned out to be dead ends. During my search I had learned that Lincoln City (25 miles to our north) was evacuating due to the fires moving in. Once again my anxiety rose. What were we to do if Newport was to evacuate as well? We certainly were not road worthy. Now I was on a mission to see if I could find a hitch at least to get us down the road. As I drove on Hwy 101 heading north through town, I saw a line at least a mile long heading south. All of the cars were in the right lane. They were all in line for the gas station. I thought this was kind of interesting. Was it because people had to leave in a hurry and didn’t have enough time to fill up? Did they anticipate they were going to have to head quite a ways down the coast to get away from the fire? I wasn’t sure, but it prompted me to ask more questions. As I ran my errands that day, I inquired about evacuations in Newport. Each time I asked, people did not know or seem to be concerned. One woman at the hardware store said she had lived in Newport for 30 plus years and had never witnessed anything like this. She too was not really concerned. I was able to find a hitch that I could use in a pinch but I was hoping it didn’t come down to that.

Monday was September 7 which was Labor Day. I had to wait until Tuesday to get someone on the phone. First thing on Tuesday morning I called Chris at Hubert Trailer Sales in Oregon, WI. I bought the hitch from Chris the previous summer when we traveling through our native state. Chris has always been extremely helpful with questions that I’ve had. He helped me get in touch with the right people at Equalizer. After connecting with them, arranging a replacement head was not a problem. What was a problem was getting it to us. Shipping to the coast was delayed because of the fires. Many roads were closed down. I inquired about extending our stay, however the park was booked for the next 6 weeks. We could dry camp in one of their lots if need be. I decided to order a new hitch on Amazon hoping it would arrive sooner, and it did. At least if we had to evacuate we would be road worthy.

In the end, we did receive the new head from Equalizer the last day we were there. I made the repair and we rolled down the road “safe and sound”. While we were in Newport we did have a nice time. I will tell you about the fun stuff in next weeks post.