Calgary, Saturday, 1 March 2014
Mar 9th, 2014 by rallyadmin
We’re all up and ready to go by 6. There’s an epidemic of “barn fever” running through the group. The adventure is over and everyone’s itching to get the drive home done.
We (Bryan and Bill and Colin and I; John and Paul are sleeping in) go outside to start the truck and it’s cold, very cold. Even with the heaters, the truck complains a bit about actually starting. The dash external temperature displays -40°F but we’re seriously questioning whether the display will actually display any temperature lower. It seems lower than -40°F.
Back to the lobby to checkout. The woman at the counter says that she’s heard on the TV that Regina, Saskatchewan, has a measured -55°F. Not a wind-chill, a measured temperature. It not likely that cold here (Regina is known for it’s extreme cold temperatures) but it’s not far from it. Definitely time to go.
We move across the street to get some breakfast and hot coffee for the trip down to Jasper. We’re headed for Jasper and then down the Icefields Parkway. It should be a beautiful day. The forecast is for clear skies.
But as we start down the road in the dark before dawn, it seems to be snowing. It’s not. It’s a phenomenon called ice fog. There’s a haze in the headlights that looks like fog or light snow. It’s really just ice crystals that form from the water vapor in vehicle exhaust and the still air, the crystals just hang in the air. It really must be very cold.
The sun won’t be up for another hour but the early dawn starts to light up the rioad as we climb out of Dawson Creek. The temperature seems to rise sa we crest some of the hills and the plunges right back to -40°F on the dash display. In one ½ km stretch, the temperature went from -32°F to -40°F.
The sun finally comes up and the sky is a beautiful as forecast. Of course, that means that we get to see the clear cut logging clearly. And the drilling rigs. And the oil collections depots. And ther natural gas flares. So much for a ride through the beautiful wilderness of northern Alberta. The last time I was through here in 2005, this was an unspoiled wilderness. Now, it’s just another resource to be exploited. So much for that Canadian “environmental awareness”.
We come down a hill and in the distance there’s a huge plume of smoke or steam. It totally encompasses the road in the distance. When we get to the source of the steam, it’s the cooling towers of the coal fired power plant that sits between the coal seam on the west side of the road and the river on the east side of the road. Post apocalyptic comes to mind. Don’t ever let a Canadian lecture you on carbon foot print or global warming. They may have a small population vs the US but they’re definitely making up for it with their extraction economy.
But even with all the resource development, it’s still a beautiful drive. We pass the power plant and in a few kms we head up a long hill to Grande Cache. A long grade under a clear sky. And then everything changes.
The truck is just pulling up the grade when a very loud bang reverberates followed by a hissing sound. I pull the truck to the side and all we can hear is a very ominous grinding sound, like bearing being ground to slivers. Definitely, not good.
I’m suspecting that the truck’s turbo has given up the ghost. I stop but leave the engine running. I look under the truck for fluids but there’s nothing dripping and the grinding noise sound seems to be coming fro m outside the engine. Definitely seems to be the turbo. We start back up the hill but the truck is obviously in limp mode and just creeps up the hill. It has no power but it does make it up the hill and we pull into a tire shop and park the truck.
We go into the tire shop and tell the owner what we thnk has happened to the truck. He doesn’t have a mechanic working today, but he does give us a number for a tow service. It looks like we’re going to have the truck towed back to Grande Prairie.
The only local tow service is already committed to going to Hinton and can’t help us. We call a tow service in Grande Prairie and the tell us that they can leave almost immediately. They’ll be here in a couple of hours.
Meanwhile, the manager gets us a number for a Ford dealer in Grande Prairie. I call them and talk to the service manager. I tell them that the truck is being towed back to Grande Priairie with what looks like a blown turbo. They’re open until 5 and they’ll wait for us.
The immediate problem is that Colin has a flight tomorrow morning from Calgary and he’s not going to make it. Bryan volunteers to take Colin back to Vancouver in his car and promptly starts rearranging the Subie to get Colin and his bag in. Once more, Bill is in the back seat. We say goodbye and they leave. I move into a next door pub to wait for the tow truck.
A couple of hours later, the tow truck arrives. It’s brand new and the driver is very friendly and down to earth. We load up the truck and head back to Grande Prairie. A couple of hours later, we arrive at Windsor Ford.
While I talk to the service department, the truck is unloaded in the back lot of the Ford dealer. The dealer can’t get to the truck until Wednesday. A few minutes later, I gather up my bags from the truck and load them into the dealer’s courtesy van. They bring me to a hotel for the night.
Tomorrow, I have a flight back to Charlotte. They’ll call early in the week when they have a look at the truck. That’ll be an interesting phone call.
Obi-wan