This post is brought to you by C&M Auto in Yuba City, CA

Everything was running like clockwork. Until it wasn’t.

We left Mike’s parents’ house in Napa at 8:15—as scheduled. We got to the trailer rental place in Placerville at 10:15—as scheduled. And we pulled out for points northward before noon—as scheduled. And then the unscheduled started to happen.

We tested the anti-sway hitch and trailer brakes on steep, winding Highway 49 through Auburn, then vectored northwest into Marysville. We decided to embrace our new RV lifestyle with a stop at WalMart for groceries. And then (cue dramatic music) it happened.

The “check engine” light icon is small and easy to overlook—kind of cute, even. But few things have as much power to fill a man’s soul with dread, especially on day one of a planned three-week camping trip. I briefly considered ignoring it and hoping it would eventually go away, but Maureen was having none of that. We pulled over and she got on the phone to AAA, who steered us to a shop across the river in Yuba City called C and M Automotive (cue choir of angels singing “Hallelujah”).

It was 4 pm on a Saturday when we limped into their parking lot. The manager on duty got his code reader out and diagnosed the issue as “P128A” which, if you’re keeping score at home, means “cylinder head temperature circuit intermittent/erratic.” In layman’s terms, that means “bad things will happen if you keep driving—especially in this 98-degree heat.” Then he told us that they were about to close, and wouldn’t open again until Monday morning.

Yuba City was not exactly on our bucket list, something Maureen’s crestfallen expression made clear. The manager held firm that there was nothing he could do, but the owner—heroic Juan Pablo—took pity on us and agreed to try the one thing he could do that afternoon: replacing the thermostat. So we sat inside their air conditioned waiting room while he ordered the part from a nearby store, installed it, and ran some checks. He was cautiously optimistic, but everything depended on the final trial by fire: a test drive to see if the check engine light would come back on.

Maureen and Zora volunteered to take on this dangerous mission, while Mike stayed with the trailer. The instructions were incredibly specific: keep it between 55 and 60 for exactly five minutes, and then let the truck coast to a stop. I tracked her the entire way using “Find My Friends” on my iPhone, waiting for the little blue dot representing Maureen to prematurely U-turn back toward the garage.

20 minutes later, the drive crew returned with big smiles and thumbs (or paws) up. We gave Juan Pablo our profusive thanks, hitched the trailer back up, and were on the road again.

I hadn’t exactly planned for our first time setting up camp to happen after dark, but that’s how it went down. We arrived at Antlers RV Park at 8:45 pm, and backed into our spot in the day’s last gloaming. Instead of enjoying happy hour in our camp chairs at the site, we fumbled inside the dark truck bed to find our essential gear. Instead of our planned taco dinner, we ate cold cuts and fresh-pack salad at midnight.

But none of us had any complaints, since the alternative was boondocking in an auto repair shop’s parking lot in Yuba City.