Monday morning Deb & I had breakfast with Dave & Nancy at a small diner in Lake Placid. We then drove home and finished packing up everything we needed for our trip. Our goal was to leave the house by 2 p.m. but we didn't get on the road until almost 5:30.After only driving 30 miles Deb noticed that people kept beeping and waving at us. She thought they were being friendly or were other triathletes on their way home from lake placid. I had her pull over in cicero and saw that the muffler had broken off from the main exhaust pipe and was dragging on the ground. I bandaged it together and tried to limp a few miles down the road to home depot. On the way we spotted a Monroe muffler shop & decided to see if they could help us. One of the 2 guys that were still there gave me a large hammer to try to pound the two pipes back together. I worked on it for 15 minutes but couldn't get enough metal for a clamp to hold. I asked if they could weld it and the other worker stayed after 7 pm and put a nice tack weld all around the 2 pipes. We also wired the muffler to one of the hangers and we were good to go! We made it just South of Buffalo (fredonia) and spent the night there.
Tuesday morning I suggested that Deb go for a run at the SUNY Fredonia campus. We drove over and I played catch with Melody while Deb ran. I talked to some maintenance workers and they told me that they locker rooms were open at one of the Rec buildings. We both showered there and were the road by 9. We ended up driving just past Chicago and spent the night at a Walmart parking lot.. WOO HOO! (Actually, it's not that bad)
Wednesday was a long long drive. Nothing eventful happened except for a photo op with the Jolly green giant and a tour of the corn palace in SD
Thursday we visited some great places in South Dakota; The Badlands, Wall Drug, and Mt. Rushmore. We took a route through the big horn mountains in WY and saw a badger and a moose. We spent the night in Greybull, WY
Friday was another long and hot day. We drove through Yellowstone and saw some bison and elk. I also took a swim in Yellowstone lake. Ok, it was more like a quick dip. The water was maybe in the 50's. We spent the night in Elko, NV where apparently all they do all night is slam railroad cars together as loudly as they can. I must say they were quite proficient at it!
Saturday was supposed to be just a quick 500 mile drive to San Francisco. My ear, which had been bleeding since Tuesday, was starting to bother me so I made an appointment at an urgent care center in Reno. The doctor said I had an outer ear infection that I probably got from swimming. I walked to the CVS to pick up my scripts while Deb & Kayla ordered lunch from a local deli. After lunch we hit the road again. The drive into California was tough; Very narrow lanes, lots of traffic, heat, and hills. I was taking a nap when Deb exclaimed, "Oh no! The temperature gauge is very high". She pulled over to the side of the road but it was too late. The RV blew a coolant hose on Donner Pass. We called AAA and waited for the tow truck. We waited and waited some more. It began to dawn on me that this is what must have happened to the original Donner party. I'm sure they broke down and AAA never showed up! After an hour I noticed that Deb looked like she was getting hungry and we were pretty much out of food. Since I didn't want to end up like an appetizer I decided to try to fix the RV myself. I was able to find the leak in one of the high pressure lines. There was enough slack that I could cut the hose after the break and re attach it to the coupler. Of course, I dropped the HP clamp into the engine compartment. Finding it took over 30 minutes. If you've ever seen the inside of a van compartment of a 460 V-8 you'll know that there isn't much room to work. After filling the radiator with 4 gallons of water we were on our way again. We made it to SF around 9:30 pm... 5 hours after our projected arrival time
Total miles = 3406
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