Crystal Lake State
Recreation Area, Ayr, Nebraska, site 10
417 miles today
417 miles today
This is the view I woke up to this morning on Crystal Lake.
We got up at 05:00 and were on the road by 07:30. We didn’t make any breakfast. We decided to wait until we got some milk so
we could have some cereal. A banana held
us over until then. But we ALWAYS have
coffee.
When we are somewhere when we plan on just one night, we usually
don’t unhitch the trailer. But we do if
it is necessary to lower or raise the trailer tongue to level it front to back, which we
had to do at Lake Darling. But I tried something
new this time. I raised up the trailer with
the jack until it uncouples from the hitch ball, then remove the ball mount
from the truck receiver, then lower the trailer until level. Why I didn’t do this before was because the
Reese hitch I had on the Casita could not be removed unless I moved the truck
forward. Oliver uses an Anderson hitch
which is somewhat different, and I can remove it without the need to pull the
truck forward. Why should I care? The next morning when we leave, I raise the
trailer, insert the hitch into the receiver, and lower it back onto the hitch
ball. I do not have to mess around
trying to realign the ball mount to the trailer. It doesn’t sound like much, but I like
eliminating the hassel of lining up the trailer with the truck.
After leaving Darling State Rec. Area, we ended up at a deserted Walmart in Ottumwa, Iowa by 09:00. Ottumwa was where Radar in M*A*S*H came from
(the TV Radar, not the real person). After buying some ice and milk, we ate
breakfast in the parking lot and posted yesterday’s blog because we had no
signal in the campground. Took us about
an hour to do all this.
We stopped for gas at the Walmart, too. When I started the truck after refueling, it
would not start. It cranked and cranked
for about 5 seconds each time and wouldn’t start.
It finally did, but ran rough. I
revved the engine to keep it from quitting and it finally ran OK. But my Check Engine light was on. It ran fine after that. This had happened to me a few times on my
trip last year, but not as bad.
After hours of driving, we were looking for a place to stop
and rest, but the back roads we like to take don’t have rest areas. There are hardly any towns, and they are so
small that they don’t have business the have big parking lots like Walmart parking lots. We drove on US-34 all the way across the
bottom of Iowa, then connected with I-29 south to S.R.-2. On this highway we saw a sign for an Iowa
Information Center and decided to pull in there, to park and make lunch. Off the exit we saw a Pilot Truck Stop and
decided to fuel up first.
The same restart problem occurred again, but it took longer
to get it going. I was afraid the
battery would run down before I got it started.
This really bothered me now. We
never saw the Information Center so we continued west on route 2, crossed the
Missouri River and into Nebraska. We saw
a Lewis and Clark Information Center and parked there. We made lunch and tried to figure out what to
do about the truck. After lunch I went
out and it started right up as it always does.
I saw that we were going to be near the somewhat larger town of Hastings, Nebraska
after we got to our destination. So I
got on the internet to see if I could find a Ford dealer who could look at my
truck and figure out what’s wrong. I
ended up leaving a message with the service department, which never called
back. While continuing on, Marsha researched
the issue and found others who had the same problem. It affects certain Fords, particularly 2009
and 2010 F-150 with the 5.4 3-valve engines.
The problem is with the canister purge valve. I even have the part number. I was going to see if I could find a U-tube
video to see how to replace it, but don’t have a signal here either. It affects the venting of the gas tank. I only get this problem after hours of
driving in very hot weather, and it’s only after refueling, and not every time,
either. So I think, at some point, I may
be able to do this myself.
It sure put a scare in us, though, when it happened twice in
the same day. It’s been over a year
since it did this, and was much harder to start this time.
The rest of today was uneventful, just seemed like a long
dragged out day. Took us 10.5 hours to
go the same distance we went yesterday in 8 hours. The ride was all back roads through corn,
soybeans, corn, corn, and some more soybeans, and corn, and some more corn. Straight, straight, straight with gently rolling
hills. We enjoyed it though, better than
taking the interstate (I-80) which is
also straight, with more traffic. There
was very little traffic on the back roads.
At times we were the only car we could see either behind or ahead, and
you can see for miles both ways.
We are in an OK campground.
It’s pretty open with large trees for shade. We have electric so we can run the A.C. It was 86o when we got here. Made some salmon and grilled medley of yellow
squash, onion, and zucchini in butter.
Last night’s campground was nicer.
Saw lots of trains today.
They look like the long coal trains, but they are enclosed and are
carrying grain or beans to the rest of the country because they have too much
here. Had to wait for one at one point. We passed a lot of ethanol distilleries also, with tanker cars on the siding.
Site 10 at Crystal Lake State Recreation Area
Tomorrow we will end up in Colorado, not quite sure where, but we’re thinking North Sterling Lake State Park, near Sterling, CO. We are working towards Rocky Mountain National Park.
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