Craig's blog

Well, we made home today, but not quite as easily as planned. Things started off well. We got up and the girls were really excited to be going to Grandma Carol's house. We were off by 8:30 and at their house in Reno by 10:30. We transferred all their stuff for the week to the house and tried to be sure Carol knew what she was getting herself into. She (re)assured us that she did, and we eventually headed out around 11:30.

Earlier in the trip we found that the rear A/C no longer cooled, but the front still worked fine. This wasn't ideal, but now that it was just Patty and me, it was no longer an issue. We drove to Truckee for lunch. There was a bunch of road construction on I-80, so we were stop and go much of the way. Interestingly, the A/C really couldn't cool at all while we were idling. At the time it was about 85 outside. When we got to Truckee I heard a bad sounding tapping coming from the engine compartment. After a little experimenting I realized (with some relief) that it was "just" the A/C compressor. While this wasn't great news, it made me think we wouldn't get stranded on this last stretch of the trip because of engine problems.

We drove up over Donner Summit and then started our decent. About 30 miles down (a little before Colfax), there was sort of a band and then a loud pssshhh from the engine compartment. I stopped as soon as I could to get out and survey the damage. The good news was that the engine coolant looked fine. I believe the compressor blew and the freon went all over the place. I turned off the A/C and we drove on. The good news is that, sure enough, the engine was fine. The bad news is that it was 106 degrees outside when this happened.

We drove to Colfax where we stopped at a gas station where I rechecked everything and determined it was ok to drive, we filled up with gas and bought a bunch of water and ice to try to keep ourselves cool. We then proceeded to drive the rest of the way with the windows open. Until we got to San Francisco a couple of hours later, the temperature ranged from 106 to 111. It was HOT! Patty never does well when it gets hot, but she was a trooper today. We were glad we didn't have kids with us - that would have been really rough.

I was basically impressed (and I guess I still am) with the engine rebuild that Pearson did. The engine ran great and pulled hard the entire trip. Unfortunately, it consumed 2 1/2 quarts of oil during the trip as well as blowing up the A/C compressor (I think).

As promised, here are a couple of stats from the trip:

Total miles driven: 4669
Total miles with trailer: 3971
Longest driving day: 519 miles from Custer State Park, SD to Bozeman, MT
Total nights camping: 21
Number of states visited: 10 (California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon)
Hottest daytime temperature while camping: 95 in Glacier National Park, MT
Coolest nighttime temperature while camping: 33 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Hottest temp while driving: 111 in California (with no A/C)
Highest elevation while driving: 9400' over Continental Divide in Colorado
Highest elevation while camping: 6600' in Steamboat Springs, CO
Total gas consumed: 470 gallons
Avg fuel economy: 9.9 mpg
Total cost of fuel: $1969
Avg cost of fuel: $4.19 / gal
Max cost of fuel: $4.58 in St. Mary, MT
Min cost of fuel: $3.98 in Gillette, WY