9 March 2021
What’s the old saying? Best laid plans…. I got a great night’s sleep – beginning at 7:30 pm. I was awake and raring to go at 5 am but waited until 5:30 to get out of the cozy sleeping bag (morning temp was 41F) and make coffee and oatmeal.
After breakfast I broke camp and packed everything up in the jeep except for a change of clothes and soap and towel for a shower and razor for a shave. I was ready to leave camp at 7:15. I got in the jeep and hit start. It almost did but then changed its mind. I had a dead battery.
I called AAA. I’ve been a preferred member for years and have only used them once. It didn’t work out. I was in the middle of nowhere in Nevada and their tow truck only wanted to do semis. I called today and they said they were having trouble finding someone. I then got a text saying someone was on the way and from the map, it looked like they were only 10 minutes away. The expected arrival time for me was 3 hours.
On an off chance I would not see them until much later, I decided to charge up a storage battery system that Michel and Nancy gave me one Christmas for my travels. In reality, it works great for charging a computer or cell phone but I’ve never tried to jump a vehicle with it. However, the literature swears it will provide at least three charge attempts when the system itself is fully charged. My problem was it was not fully charged. I had used it the night before to charge some electronics.
It took until 10 am to get fully charged. Fingers crossed, I attached the jumper cables to the battery and voila, the jeep started on the first try! I canceled AAA. Now I needed to drive back to Gainesville to the jeep dealer and get a new battery. I had called at 9 am when they opened and they said no problem. Famous last words. I arrived at the jeep dealership around 11:30. I was immediately checked in.
Jeep doesn’t make your life easy. The battery is located under the passenger’s seat. I assume they had to remove the seat to get to the battery.
One thing I noticed on the way to the dealership was the cruise control didn’t work. I assumed it needed to be reset because of the dead battery. I asked about it and the service guy looked and said it was more serious. My engine check light was on – I hadn’t seen it before he pointed it out – and when he ran the diagnostics he said there were several long time outstanding “ADS” issues. He could make an appointment. When I told him I was on my way to north Georgia and that I only wanted the battery, he started telling me about his year in Georgia. He was interested in where I was going, what I was doing, etc. He never said it was dangerous to drive without clearing the issues and said he made notations for the jeep dealership back home.
He came out about 10 minutes later and informed me the dealership didn’t have the battery in stock but they were going to check with an auto parts store. Around noon he came back and told me that store didn’t have the battery either but there was another store that may.
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I’m tired but happy. I had rather get the battery changed out now instead of worrying about it the rest of the trip. The lodge and room is beautiful. I go zip lining tomorrow for four hours. Life is good.
After heading to New River Gorge from Amicalola, I may take my jeep in to a dealership in Greensboro and have them check out the service engine light. I’m not too fond of the jeep dealerships in Broward.
Oh yeah, the cruise control started working so I can only hope the service engine light is a function of the battery dying and only needs to have the computer reset. Keep your fingers crossed.
Stay tuned!
