Driving from Morro Bay to Dana Point today (one of my favorite drives ever, along Highway 101), the Pepper started to shake a little on the highway. I was driving and thought it might be the road at first so I kept on for a mile or so, but then it started to feel like a flat tire and so we pulled off and into a nice, large, Ratheon parking lot just outside of Santa Barbara.
The tires checked out ok, but Alan noticed that the weight distribution hitch was loose on one side. We hoisted Salt off of Pepper, and Alan went to work tightening the hitch while I walked the Noses. All tightened up, we jumped back in (spent a good 15 minutes trying to get out of the parking lot where I had tried to take too sharp a turn and Salt's wheels kept hitting the curb but really that turned out to be the least of our issues) and re-hit the highway.
We were back on the Highway for about a mile when the feeling came back. It's like the Pepper can't breathe, maybe a fuel pump issue? Anyway, we take another exit and find ourselves on a tiny road in Santa Barbara on which I am determined to spend as little time as possible: I have driven through Santa Barbara and as beautiful and quaint as it is in a small car, pulling a trailer would be very daunting on most of it's tiny streets.
So we do a quick u-turn (this time in less than 15 minutes) and park off to the side. I then asked my phone to "Navigate to Porsche" and heaven appeared! A Porsche dealership only about two miles away. Trouble was, Pepper was getting worse by the second. On the highway, it was only having trouble at higher speeds and while accelerating, now it was having trouble just starting out at all. So flashers on, we crept, and I mean crept, to the Porsche dealership.
We are two of the luckiest people for sure (more of the luck was used in Morro Bay--the posting still to come) and there was a nice long parking spot available next to the dealership. Being Sunday, the service department was closed, but David in Sales graciously allowed us to pull Salt into the Service area and leave both there overnight. (David in Sales also graciously supplied us with water, coffee, soft drinks, drinks for the dogs, and a washroom. There is something to buying expensive cars!)
Of course, Alan is thinking we are going to "finally" get the new Cayenne he has wanted since we first starting thinking about this trip. Is that part of the New Austerity I wonder? I think it will have a lot to do with what is wrong with Pepper . . .
In the meantime, we are at the dodgy Hacienda Motel (walking distance from Porsche) in Santa Barbara. We can each stand in front of our own bed (2!), spread our arms out and not touch anything at all. Unless we want to.
-K
PS: And the CFO ruled that this hotel charge isn't going to be charged to our regular hotel budget, but to Pepper maintenance. I wonder how he will feel about the wine at dinner . . .
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