Social Distancing - Summer in the Arctic: Stranded in Oulu

Less than a week into our planned five week journey, and still short of the Arctic Circle, our expedition came to a grinding halt. After an incredible evening of marveling at the midnight sun over the Gulf of Bothnia and just the first night of sleeping in our camper (okay, our car), we had car trouble. The next morning, the car wouldn't start. After walking a few kilometers, then trying to flag down some help along the side of the highway, in the rain, Rai and I were able to get a ride into the nearby town and return with a mechanic to get our car boosted. That was just the beginning, though. A handful of lights lit up our display and the car maxed out at a gruelingly slow 35 km/h.  We spent that day at the mechanic with the final word being that our car's computer system was failing and that, likely, a new processor would be necessary. This order could take several weeks. The next day, we drove more than 130 kilometers to the biggest nearby city, Oulu. At 35 km/h, this took us 4 hours instead of the 1.5 hours that it would otherwise have. We were not popular on the highway and even less popular in Oulu, when we finally arrived as, on the city's many hills, it took a long, long, long time to accelerate to this new top speed of ours. Luck was on our side, however, as the Honda repair shop in Oulu was able to reset our processor. All the lights went out and we were back on the road, having lost three days but happy to have our trip continue. Thankfully, Oulu was a lovely place in which to spend a few days. In fact, it turned out to be one of our favorite "big" cities on the trip!