18-22AUG13 - Various (missoula, mt; kennebec, sd; salina, ks; & canton, tx)

Sunday morning, 18AUG, bright & early we finished securing & locking up property & with some reluctance hit the road to Houma, LA. If you have followed our BLOG over the years, you know this an early departure from the Pacific Northwest for us; but we are happily doing so because our daughter Rebecca & husband Raymond are expecting their second child (aka our second grandchild) in mid September! Because of this event we will abandon our normal leisurely pace of driving on back roads & will drive long distances every day all freeways. For the first day we drove on I-90E Missoula, MT, & check into a Jellystone Park in time for an ice cream social. But before Missoula we had to honor a Ryan family tradition & stop at $50,000 Silver Dollars in Haugan, MT, where we had excellent sandwiches & coleslaw made with horseradish. 493 miles driven.


http://www.50000silverdollar.com/

Monday was another hard drive to Sheridan, WY. During the later part of the drive Dan noted the RV engine temp acting up between Billings, Mt, & Sheridan, WY??? Since Dan had long ago installed a computer monitoring system on the engine he could tell the engine would run 10 to 15 degrees hotter than normal & then cool off to 5 degrees cooler than normal. This “cycle” would repeat itself during different parts of the drive sometimes on hills, but sometimes on flat stretches. As soon as we set up camp Dan washed the radiators using garden hose nozzle. 488 miles driven.

Tuesday morning back on the road, but we changed our planned route to go to the closest Cummins facility in Gillette, WY. Unfortunately they can’t get to us for over a week & the best they can do for us was pressure wash radiators. After that it was back on the road but engine temp still was not constant. Since the engine & transmission were not overheating, we continued on with one eye glued to the computer screen. By the end of the day we made it to Kennebec, SD. 426 miles driven.

Wednesday we spent much of the drive heading due south to spend the night in Salina, KS. 468 miles driven.

Early Thursday morning, 21AUG, we continued heading south. Unfortunately we hit Dallas at the height of rush hour & spent one & quarter hours going 30 miles, before stopping in Canton, TX! 551 miles driven, part of which was a twenty mile mistake by Dan. Tomorrow, hopefully with no mistakes, we should have an uneventful drive into Houma, LA. About 440 miles to go.