The thing about trip “planning” when you’re towing 14,000ish pounds is that, although the gps/map app tells you that Vancouver, WA to Palm Springs, CA is (roughly) 15 hours… it really, really isn’t.  Towing can add as much as a factor of two to time estimates of car travel.  My recent trip south was 5 days from Vancouver, Washington to Palm Springs, California in 3 hops. (2 night layover near Bakersfield)  For instance, Google maps shows Vancouver to Weed, CA as 359 miles and 5 hours 46 minutes, and my time was closer to 8 hours.  And that was a good day of smooth travel, with no unusual or lengthy stops, extra doggy breaks, extended lunch or bathroom breaks and catching no traffic slowdowns.

On normal traveling I try to keep hops to 3-4 hours, so things are relaxed and stress free, but prevailing weather conditions being what they were, I was very interested in being much further south much faster than normal.  The first hop was basically solid rain (and cold) from Vancouver to Weed.  The second hop — Weed to Bakersfield — started through the Mount Shasta Wildness area and the Shasta-Trinity National Forest… meaning more uphill climbs, grades, elevation, snow, rain and, of course, more coldcoldcold.  (see top photo)   It wasn’t until almost Redding that I finally saw the last of the rain, and finally… glorious sun all the way down to Bakersfield where I hung out for a couple days to relax and dry out before the last leg to Palm Springs.  That hop was the shortest, and should have been the easiest, but that’s where the fun started…

The Grapevine is what the 5-7 mile, 6% grade from Grapevine, Ca up to the Tejon Pass on I-5 is commonly called, and it can be a bit of a stress point when towing.  A long haul up a steep grade, necessitating a slow climb, low gears, and watching the temps like a hawk. (engine, turbo and transmission)  So it was… disconcerting that at about a third of the way up, billowing white “smoke” started pouring out from under my hood, when my temps hadn’t climbed anywhere near where that should be possible.  I pull over, emergency flashers on, hood up, and the engine compartment is bathed in green coolant.  So, tracking down the leak, and seems the top (luckily) radiator hose was just popped off the radiator, clamp still on and all.  That is not good.  Did I mention it’s 40 degrees and there’s a freezing wind blowing?  No?  Of course it is.  The hose clamp is the stupid kind that needs a special tool that I don’t have.  I do have a big hose clamp, but it’s not quite big enough to fit this damn hose when it’s back on the radiator.  I can call AAA, which seems like a lot of trouble, or I can get the hose back on without a clamp, refill the radiator, (I have backup coolant) and limp up the grade until I hit someplace for a fix.  And this works for quite a ways, but not far enough.  Again, with the smoke and radiator hose is off.  Trying it again still seems like the best option, (in for a penny, in for a pound) so hose back on, refilled radiator again and more limping.  Finally hit the tiny “town” of Lebec and there’s what looks like a repair place right off the freeway.  The fairly surly dude there can’t help, but tells me there’s an auto parts store about a mile further up the road near a Texaco station.  It’s much more than a mile, and it’s an Arco, but there is an auto parts store there.  Yay!  A new BIG hose clamp (I picked up 4) and a coolant resupply has me on my way with no additional problems, but the whole thing took hours and now I’m in full Southern California traffic from Pasadena to well past Redlands.  Ugh.

Looking at the math, that’s 8 hours for the first hop, (359 miles) 11 hours for the second, (513 miles at an estimated 8 hours 22 minutes.  I made great time.) and 9 hours for the last hop that GPS shows as 3 and a half.  (217 miles) That’s 28 total hours for what google maps says is 15 hours of drive time.  (almost double)  Sometimes that’s the way it goes, and I wouldn’t swap it for much of anything.  (Well… I’d consider a straight up trade with Ryan Reynolds, but c’mon… who wouldn’t?)