Yes! Good News!
Funny, the things that please some people. The bracing sidewind while heading south on I-65 turned to a glorious tailwind on eastbound I-70, and I was able to urge The Enterprise’s Power Module (the Ford turbodiesel) up to 65 MPH and still get an indicated 14 MPG. For a stone-stock 4×4 in that weight class, that’s happiness. When I head back in the other direction against the wind, well, maybe not so much.
Some tens of miles short of Dayton Ohio were three of Dayton’s finest on motorcycles on an exit ramp, with lights on. Just after I passed them, they swung out and blocked all three lanes behind me, then slowly got up to speed. As I went on, I noticed that police cars were blocking the various entrance ramps I passed, and the flashing light parade continued behind me. It turned out that the President of the United States was making the rounds in Ohio, and as much as I respect the personage holding that office, I was thankful that I wasn’t having to follow his motorcade. I was trying to make time, and they appeared to be doing about 55 MPH or so. Great fuel mileage and just missing a roadblock – does it get any better?
In Columbus, the traffic got pretty tight, and GPS instructed me to exit left, and that exit turned out to be closed. Just as I came alongside the barricades, the GPS calmly announced that another exit, the one on the right, was what I wanted. This was four lanes of heavy, slow traffic, mind you. For some unexplainable reason, the needed lanes stopped for me as I crossed completely over within 50 yards. That exit got me into rush hour surface traffic that turned out to be a multi-block U-turn to get back on I-70 in the opposite direction. It was only too bad that the exit it wanted me to take was closed there, too. I went on for a bit, thinking that if I got off onto surface streets in basically the right area, the GPS would steer me around on them. Unfortunately, I had no clue as to where I was and wound up crossing a river and going right into downtown Columbus street traffic.
Again with the U-turns, only this time I was turning an 8.5-foot wide vintage camper around city block turns and inching forward beside another 4 lanes of stalled traffic. Being in the leftmost lane, I did my best to keep the front corner of the box from sweeping pedestrians off the curb. The GPS merely steered me back onto I-70 eastbound again, only this time, it advised me to get off at a different exit than before. I was now running about a half-hour behind schedule. Helpless, I did as the GPS bade me, and lucked out. Within a mile of comparatively easy driving, I was backing into my brother’s driveway. Yea! West and wewaxation at wast!
Turns out that the onboard water leak was a slightly loose plastic elbow fitting at the water pump that needed only to be teflon taped and reassembled. I had to move things and remove the lower bunk platform to get at it, but access was luxurious compared to a lot of other RVs that place the pump in relatively inaccessible areas – areas that can’t be opened up.
The time spent with my brother and some of his friends has been great and would make more interesting reading, but that description isn’t for this blog or anyone else. You know – that privacy thing!
Strolling Amok 