Wednesday, July 11, 2018

0825, Wed, 071118. Rocklin, CA.

We are back. I apologize for not keeping up with the blog while away, but the lack of security, as it is, I am not comfortable letting the world know I am not home. So for anyone that has an interest, I will catch up to the current date. Here goes.
We got a late start. Our schedule had been planned to start our travels on Tuesday, June 12. On our way home Monday after a little trip to Elk Grove to have lunch with Sue's sister and brother in law, we got the sputtering engine. We headed straight to the shop. Computer says new injector. While at it, the usual action is to replace all injectors at once. Ugh. The shop was able to get the five injectors but found it took a special tool to install. Amazon screwed up the "overnight" delivery and lost the tool. The shop was able to get one part of a two part tool and were able to trade out the sputtering injector, but not the other four without the special tool. We took the other four injectors with us, stashing them in a cabinet, and were off, now a full day and a half behind schedule. Many miles to catch up on. We traveled extra miles the first 2 days since we had to make it to Tennessee for Sue's family reunion. Again, more popping and sputtering, now somewhere in Nebraska. We pulled off the road and landed in the parking lot of the local O'Reilly's. They will check out the computer diagnosis and are able to read the code. The clerk said it was an injector wire, no ground or loose. As Sue stayed with the clerk while he called everyone within a hundred miles to find someone to work on a Sprinter, I went outside and wiggled wires. We started up the engine again and it ran just fine. Wow, I'm now a super mechanic. Another thousand miles or so and it was popping and sputtering once again. By now we remembered from our last cross country trip, if you simply pull over, shut off the motor for a few minutes, the computer resets and runs fine again. We did this several times, getting to our final location in Tennessee. While at the reunion, Sue and I took a ride to the next town over to a dealer that Sue had located. By then the engine light had gone off and all was running fine again, wouldn't you know it. Now, with all my genius mechanical ability, I was becoming convinced the computer was nuts, starting with the worst diagnosis (and most expensive), then listing the next best guess, the next time the light decides to come on and so on. After talking to the Sprinter expert at the dealership he said when changing injectors one needs to tell the computer that it has a new injector. Fussy computer. He mentioned the computer would probably solve its own problem, which it did, and all was fine the rest of the entire trip.
We managed to cover over 9,000 miles, 26 states, and 2 Canadian provinces, had a great visit with the Walsh clan and a special visit with Katy, Eddie, and their new little guy, Lucas. But now, back to the trip.
Without boring you with too much detail, we managed to see a lot. Stopping at the same rest stop we slept at on one of the other trips we got a chance to see the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah once again. The salt has an odor to it and seems to attract flies and is very flat and boring, fun to see once. This was about the time the window on my side managed to disappear into the slot down into the door. With temperatures close to stinking hot we spent the next day without AC, the window being wide open, until I could get it fixed. We landed at our campsite for the night. I, again amazing myself with such expertise as a mechanic, took the door apart while Sue gave me instruction she found on the internet. My highest hopes were to simply get the window to stay in the up position (closed, so we could use AC) but she managed to find a MacGyver who showed how to toss out the plastic holder that breaks all the time, bend the rod that raises the window, reinsert the rod into the slot, reassemble the door panel and voila, all was fixed like new, a working window once again. Thank you, You Tube. With still a little daylight left over we kicked back to celebrate and enjoy a glass of wine before calling it a night.
Nebraska is one windy state. In the office of the campground was a sign that read, "If the wind ever stopped in Nebraska, everything would fall over. Believe it.
We arrived at the reunion with only one other mishap behind us. Just as we made it to our campground entrance Sue realized she had left her purse back at the ice cream break spot that afternoon. Oh well, at least the van was running good. A U turn was made and we headed back to find the purse that Wendy's had placed, all money and cards in tact, in the lost and found.
After the mishaps and possible solutions, I had visions of sending Sue on to the reunion by air while I stayed with the van, but all worked out well. We made the reunion. The house was fantastic, big kitchen, huge gathering area with 20 foot ceilings and separate bedrooms complete with separate baths in each room. We ran around the area, wine and whiskey tasting.
It is worth mentioning that we had planned on staying at Cracker Barrel parking lots a few times along they way, but never we able to. Schedule changes and different night locations just made it impossible. We did enjoy the lots of Cabela's, various casinos, national and state parks as well as some KOA's along the way. Hats off to Cabela's. While we sat in the lot with record temperatures the staff came out to invite us inside to cool off, just checking to make sure we were ok.
We got the chance to visit Atlantic City Boardwalk, but missed the chance to visit the largest, personally owned model railroad in the world, closed for the week while upgrading the security system. We made it through Boston traffic during commute hour, then did some sightseeing up the coast with a visit to Kennebunkport.
Our next big snafu was at the border to Canada. The agent (Canadian) asked several questions. Any fruit, etc. Then came the big question, do you have any guns. I had done my homework before leaving home to make sure I could carry my pistol through all the states and how I was lawfully required to do just that. I failed to consider entering Canada. Apparently they don't allow their citizens to have pistols, so, they confiscated the weapon, locked it in a box. We were told to follow the two agents as they carried the box back to the US side and hand the weapon over to the US authority. At that point it was given back to us, but now we were faced with what to do with it. The US agents were very friendly and were able to refer us to a licensed dealer only about an hour down the road. Off on another adventure. Bob was able to fill out the paperwork, dealing with my local store in Rocklin by phone, and after several hours we were able to just make the local post office before they closed. The local postal person was a fill in so he had to check with his superior, by phone, which Bob had already done, so all went well with all the proper paperwork in order and the weapon stamped and sent. Then when we arrived back at the border we were asked what we had done with the weapon and to show proof of mailing the gun. All was in order and off we went, whew. Only problem now, my only protection in those lonely spots at night would be my two hands. Oh well.
After traveling through Canada, we did some sightseeing on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The falls are at an angle so the Canadian side is a much better viewing angle. Simply fantastic. We arrived right at the upper end of the falls where the river disappears over the edge into a cloudy mist. We later took a ride on a boat at night, covered with ponchos, right to the base of the falls, all lit up complete with fireworks in the sky.
Back in the US once again we visited the Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee. We were able to see lots of great finish work with all the walls covered in gorgeous wood. The restoration is under way with the first and second floors complete, with the third yet to be done. The wallpaper was once painted over with white paint. Since the wallpaper is no longer available they have had an artist hand paint the original design bringing back the original look. The colors were found by mistake since all photos were in black and white. They removed a mirror on the wall and found the white paint had been painted around the mirror. What a find.
Taliesin House was also on the bucket list. This was Frank Lloyd Wright's personal house. We learned a lot about Frank's life as well as getting to see some of his ideas, some excellent, some quirky. A pretty eccentric fellow.
Our travels were designed so I could complete a visit to all 50 states. We arrived at number 49, North Dakota with a surprise. We stopped at the local Welcome Center and were told there was a special group of people who, if they have left North Dakota as their 50th state to visit they get to join a special club, sign the official book, getting a certificate and a T-shirt. If only I had known. Maybe it will help you.
On to South Dakota, we visited a lot of history with a tour of Deadwood including Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane's gravesites. Then on to a visit at the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mt Rushmore. Great stories were learned at each location and we were amazed by the ability of being able to make a look alike sculpture on that scale.
On our way into Custer Park we manage to come around a turn that was etched into the side of the mountain only to find a huge buffalo lumbering along in the other lane. With the rock wall on one side and the never ending slope on the other, I pulled up alongside, next to him, close enough to reach out my window and pet him. We managed to get past without incident. Whew, these things are simply huge. We also managed to find lots of prairie dogs, pronghorns and some female moose. We finished up our long day with a great ride through the woods on an 1880s era steam engine driven train. It was hard to stay awake as the ride rolled along the rails, but well worth it to see the beautiful countryside.
Wall's Drug Store is a must see place in your travels. It is a big store, put together in a hodge podge fashion, with about everything a tourist could think they might want, from food to T-shirts to leathergoods and more. A sort of Nut Tree of the North.
Badlands National Park was next on our list looking like a miniature Grand Canyon with horizontal lines of color indicating different layers of dirt layed down millenia ago.
I must mention. All those times I have lost at cards claiming that luck is finite and not worth wasting on a card game we were able to have plenty to call upon. We just missed, by a day, a big hail storm that hit Deadwood and Sundance. Cars all over Deadwood had broken windows with lots of glass around the parking lots. They looked like someone took a baseball bat to them. Again in Sundance, the metal roofs and siding were all beat up with broken windows everywhere. Glad we missed that one.
We saw an old west shootout while in Cody and came across a real, old fashioned cattle drive, making its way up the road as we headed into Yellowstone.
Arriving in Yellowstone we made our way to Old Faithful. We were able to wait a short time and got a great view of the geyser. She used to be very faithful, erupting every sixty minutes on the dot, but with all the earthquakes that happen constantly throughout the area the plumbing has changed a bit and now she spouts anywhere from forty five minutes to two hours on a regular basis. Some geysers may go off once a year. We missed one, Steamboat, by two days but were able to watch the Beehive go off. Beehive has a huge vent, about a foot across and goes about 150 feet in the sky for a spectacular show. This can be seen only once a day. Then, a few minutes later and from the same viewpoint, we were able to see Old Faithful again. Lots of critters were sighted as we traveled around the park, moose, elk, deer, even a porcupine ran across the road in front of us. We also saw a couple of bears, marmot, osprey, and of course chipmunks. Oh, did I mention buffalo, lots of buffalo.
Following an evening of Thunder sans rain we woke the next day, leaving Yellowstone and touring the Grand Tetons. Then we were on the road for a long drive that ended in Reno, whew. A short night and we were off just before daylight, leaving Boomtown parking lot and getting home around 6:00 in the morning.