Winslow, Arizona!
Greetings from McHood Park! McHood Park is several miles south of town, and is quite picturesque. A stiff wind has suddenly come up since I arrived at about 2:30, but that doesn’t affect the view. I’ll be staying here overnight, but could theoretically stay for about a week and a half if I wanted to. At the moment, the thermometer reads 97 degrees, so I may not. The data signal is courtesy of a tall tower I passed on the way out here.
As far as I’m aware, FR573 is at about 5K feet, and on the way here I passed over the “Arizona Divide” at 7K feet. It’s been downhill from there, probably back to 5k. A modest tailwind netted me 12.5 MPG overall, which was a geeky delight.
The only difficulty was that the cruise control on the Mighty Furd flamed out 1/3 of the way here, making me actually have to use the gas pedal! Once again, the gradual slopes fooled me – I was sure I was going uphill, but the turbo’s boost gauge proved otherwise. Two of the trailer’s wheel bearings were notably warm to the touch, but not objectionably hot. The Ford’s rear wheels were warm, too. There’s at Ford Dealer in Winslow, and I went in to discuss, but they were so busy they could only diagnose it tomorrow for $200, though they would take three weeks to repair it! Seems they’re backed up with
6.0 diesel repairs, including some overflow from Flagstaff and another town east of here. My 6.4L is related, but not closely. Anyway, looks like I’ll be driving manually all the way back to Illinois. Depending on the repair cost, I may be doing without cruise entirely. I’ll just have to see.
They were nice enough to look up which fuse the speed control is supposed to work off of – the owner’s manual doesn’t list it among the 80+ terminals split between two fuse boxes – but the fuse number they gave me looks bogus, so the fix will have to wait (assuming that it’s just a blown fuse rather than the control board itself). Let’s hope!
Strolling Amok 