I know what’s wrong with the motorhome. First the engine blew up. Then it got fixed. But on our first test drive, the rig seemed a little bumpy. It felt like it was running rough at 65mph. I took it back to Josh at MHC Kenworth. Josh checked it out and everything seemed fine while it was idling. He plugged a computer in behind the dash and monitored all the engine and transmission functions while we went on a test drive together. There were no error messages, no readings out of range, but still it ran rough at 65mph under load. He reset the transmission. We drove the motorhome away to see if resetting the transmission helped. It didn’t. The motorhome ran terrible at 65mph in 6th gear, there was a shudder, but if I downshifted, it got better. It hates 1,500rpm. It hates 60% to 80% load. It’s fine with 1,800rpm. We took it back. Josh plugged a computer into the outside cabinet under the driver’s window and ran a program to reset the timing. He plugged the computer into a fitting at the right rear of the coach and updated the engine software. He checked the exhaust brake to make sure it wasn’t sticking. Nothing helped. We drove away. Josh is stumped. Everyone at MHC Kenworth is stumped. Caterpillar Tech Support is stumped. Allison Transmission is stumped. We’ve driven a thousand miles down the road in 5th gear because it’s too rough in 6th gear. When it gets too rough in 5th gear on an incline, I downshift to 4th. Suddenly it comes to me. I know what the problem is! I’ve listed every clue. I’ll leave this as today’s puzzler. I’ll send the answer tomorrow.
Darn it!
The biopsies came back on our basal cell carcinomas. We each need to go back to have more tissue removed to make sure we got it all. John is gone fishing in Montana and Alaska for a couple weeks, so it will be a month or so before he can do the surgery and we’re not supposed to travel for 2 or 3 weeks after. We mean to be in South Texas now, so we’ve made appointments with a dermatologist in Corpus Christi to see if she can do the follow-up surgery instead. Meanwhile, we crossed back into Texas on Highway 281 at Wichita Falls. Highway 281. That’s our highway in Edinburg. All we have to do is follow it 565 miles south and we’ll be at Sandpipers! Stopped for the night at Fort Richardson State Park south of Jacksboro.
Wednesday
Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma. Tomorrow, Texas.
How hard could it be?
We had to decide which road to take south. We could pop over to Interstate 29 or we could take Highway 75. Interstate 29 would take us right through Kansas City, Missouri. Big freeways and interchanges. Highway 75 goes through Topeka. We chose Topeka. Bad choice. Highway 75 through Eastern Nebraska is rough. It didn’t take much bouncing along on that before we decided to abandon the original plan and jump over to Interstate 29 in Iowa. Interstate 29 is on the other side of the Missouri River. We had to keep driving and wait for a bridge to come along. Our first opportunity was at Plattsmouth. There was a sign there that said the road was closed at the state line. Bridge work we guess. Next opportunity was at Nebraska City. That road was closed too. Must have had some high water that damaged the bridges. The road got worse. Old concrete now. I wish concrete highways had never been invented. At their absolute best, they’re okay. When they’re bad though, they’re horrendous. We ended up driving on the shoulder at 25mph with the blinkers on in an attempt to keep from getting beaten to death by the road. At Auburn the way east was closed too. We had to have a break from the pounding so we pulled over at a Pamida. We found a delivery truck driver and a store owner to talk to about the roads. They told us the problem is not with the bridges across the Missouri to get to the Interstate. The problem is with the Interstate. It’s closed. It got washed out by high water in the spring and it might be a couple more years before they finish the repairs. Who knew? Well, I guess a lot of people knew, but if it was on the news in our neighborhood, it didn’t make our radar. There wasn’t a better option than the current road. We puttered on. The road did get progressively better. By the time we crossed over into Kansas we were back up to 65mph. We stopped for the night south of Topeka at Pomona Lake. Another state park essentially empty except for us. How hard could it be? We just wanted to drive south. If you don’t like the road you’re on you can always just choose another one; right? If you’re tired of highways you can always take the Interstate; right? Sometimes you just have to suck it up and take what you get. Life on the road.
Can’t remember a damn thing
We have to write reminder notes. If we’re going to look something up on the computer, first we have to write down what we’re looking for in case we get distracted in the process and forget what it was we were going to do in the first place. Last week we needed to remember to take something out of the refrigerator when we went to Becky’s, so we put a yellow sticky above the door. That worked great. There didn’t need to be anything written on the sticky; just being there was reminder enough. On the way out the door, with the sack of cold food in hand, we thought of something else we needed to remember, so we just left the sticky where it was. The next morning we got up and rediscovered the yellow sticky over the door. We still can’t remember what it was for…