Truck repairs

Our stereo conked out, out of the blue, so when we got to Sacramento we went to Harbour Freight (Luke's favourite store) so he could fix the problem. It turns out there are three fuses that effect the stereo, only one of them being obvious. We ended up being in the parking lot for a while while Luke was doing the repair and we were approached by a shocking (to me) amount of people asking for money.

We then headed for the mountains. We drove and drove and found a lovely secluded camping site at the top. The next morning our battery was dead, and the truck was pointed so that it would go over a cliff if we tried to push start it. Luckily we heard people shooting guns (how often does that seem lucky?) so we knew we weren't completely alone. Luke hopped on his bike to go find them, and soon after he showed up with a fellow and his truck. He had a charger but it wasn't enough to get the battery going, so he towed us to a spot where we could jump start the truck. The even crazier thing is that it took about 300 metres going down the mountain road before the battery started again.
We ended up at the little camping area where the guy and his family and friends were spending the weekend. They were incredibly nice and generous and we were so grateful for their help--we really were in the middle of nowhere. They mentioned that they've needed similar help before so they are happy when they can help someone who needs it. Yay for humanity! They told us about the powerful gun they had that could shoot 400 yards away and each shot cost $5. Even though shooting in that area isn't allowed, it was a good spot because it was in a little canyon where shots would just hit the rocks and not go anywhere dangerous. I don't understand the appeal of it, but a whole lot of people in the US seem to enjoy it.
After we left them we went straight to Clear Lake to buy a new battery.

We continued on to Eureka CA and after exploring for the day started heading out of the town at dusk...only to be stopped by a police officer because one of our headlights had burnt out. It just burnt out (Luke is excellent at staying on top of such things) and luckily the police officer told us that he doesn't give fines for such things. He was really nice but it was still scary to be pulled over and it still felt weird to be asked a bunch of questions as to what we were doing. We promptly turned around and bought a new bulb.

Luckily that was the end of the streak of truck repairs (although previous to this we had to fix a leaking tire and get a new air intake).