So far, I have told you about the week or so leading up to our departure for Yellowstone. I have left out quite a few things that happened along the way. So what I have described so far are just the highlights of preparing to leave.
I will pick up the story on Saturday morning, the day we were supposed to leave. My wife and I had already decided that we would try to make the trip happen, but that we could only do what was physically possible. We were not going to stress out over having to postpone or cancel the trip. But, we were not going to give up unless and until it was obviously impossible to depart on Saturday. That was easier said than done, but that was how we both approached the situation.
So, we got up late Saturday morning. We were both tired and really needed the rest. Then, we packed the motorhome in record time. My wife did an amazing job. Due to my health issues, I require a special diet, meaning that we must take all the food I need. We had prepared the food ahead of time, but we had to fit a month's worth of food into the relatively small refrigerator/freezer in the motorhome.
We also had to pack our two adorable cats. We did all that and were ready to depart by 1:30pm. We considered delaying until the next day, but I reasoned that even if we could only make it a few hours, we would be that much closer to Yellowstone. So, we started what would turn out to be a very eventful drive. I was driving the motorhome and my wife was following in the wheelchair van.
We had reservations at an RV park just south of Boulder, Wyoming. We have driven the route many times, so I was very familiar with the roads. I knew that most of the route was on narrow, winding two-lane mountain roads, with only about 100 miles of the entire journey on interstate highways.
Everything was fine for the first 40 miles of the trip, and then we encountered the first sustained uphill stretch. Kevin gets full credit for predicting what would happen. The engine started to hesitate and cut out. I suspected it was a fuel starvation issue, but I did not have anyway to seriously diagnose it at the time.
As we continued the drive, the engine would start missing anytime it was under a load. There were many uphill stretches. I had to downshift and go up some of those sections at very slow speeds (15 miles per hour). After hours of this, we finally made it to the first significant city, Craig, Colorado, which was about 120 miles from home.
Craig is not a major city. There is no place to have a diesel engine looked at there, especially on a Saturday. At this point, I was debating what we should do. Should we return home and arrange to have the engine looked at the following week? Should we drive to a town that had a diesel shop, spend Sunday resting and then have them look at it on Monday (or whenever they could get to it)? What to do.
I finally decided that we should keep pressing on. We would be passing through a town large enough to have several diesel shops and if things went really badly, we could just wait there until they were open and could fit us in.
Selfishly, I had not confessed to my wife that the motorhome was having engine problems. Later, she admitted to wondering why I was going up the hills so slowly
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After having a very late lunch (dinner) at Craig, we headed out toward Creston Junction, Wyoming. This route takes us through over 90 miles of very desolate country. There is one small town (Baggs, Wyoming) about halfway there.
Unfortunately, there was significant road construction on this route! After travelling about 30 miles, we came to a complete stop. The road surface had been removed and the road had been replaced with a temporary, one-lane dirt road. This had significant sections of uphill grades, of course.
As we were stopped waiting for our turn to go, I finally radioed my wife and confessed that the motorhome had been having engine problems. The engine problems had only gotten worse. I could only use about 1/8 to 1/4 throttle before the engine would start to cut out.
As we made our way through the 10 mile temporary road, my wife was amazed that the motorhome made it. Many sections were soft sand and the wheels would sink in significantly. I tried to keep momentum going and was able to make it through.
We continued on our journey and reached Creston Junction, Wyoming just before dusk. Creston Junction is not a town. It is just a junction. The only thing there is a small store that sells fireworks. This is where our route joined up with an interstate highway, I 80.
So far, we had been on back country roads that had very little traffic. In contrast, I 80 is a major east west corridor and is crowded with trucks. We would need to go 85 miles on I 80 to reach Rock Springs, Wyoming, the largest town we go through on our way to Yellowstone. I was not at all comfortable trying to drive with a lot of high speed traffic in a motorhome that was having the problems ours was having.
I pulled the motorhome over on the shoulder at Creston Junction and my wife and I discussed what we should do. This was the first time we had cell phone coverage since we left Craig, Colorado.
Finally, we decided it was time to call roadside assistance (provided through our insurance policy). They were very kind and patient. Based on where we were and the situation they described, they told us the only thing they could offer was to have us towed the 85 miles to the Cummins dealership in Rock Springs (coincidentally, our motorhome has a Cummins engine).
That dealership would open on Monday and we would have to wait there until they could fit us into their schedule.
Our motorhome id 38 feet long and has a Gross Vehicle Weight Restriction of over 44,000 pounds (20,000 kilograms). Towing such a large motorhome is not a trivial undertaking. Towing it 85 miles seemed a bit over the top.
So, I said I would try to make it to Rock Springs without the tow, and if things got worse I would call back and request the tow.
Fortunately, most of the route from Creston Junction to Rock Springs is downhill. I made it onto the interstate and very, very slowly built my speed up to about 55 miles per hour. The speed limit was 80.
We made our way to Rock Springs, encountering about 10 miles of construction that reduced westbound traffic (us!) to one lane. Unfortunately, I did not have much of a choice but to hold everyone up as I poked along. Fortunately, the speed limit in the construction zone was quite low and I was driving the speed limit. No one else wanted to drive that slow, though.
It was dark by the time we arrived in Rock Springs. Thinking that perhaps we were dealing some bad gas, I had intentionally avoided filling up before then and the tank was now less than 1/4 full by.
Since owning our motorhome, I have learned that diesel fuel can grow organic things. This can be controlled by using a biocide, which I regularly add to the fuel tank. Unfortunately, as Kevin surmised, we had not driven the motorhome much during Covid (just that necessary to get it worked on). And, I had not added biocide to the fuel when we topped off the tank a week earlier.
When I stopped to get gas, I added the "shock" quantity of biocide. Interestingly, as I pulled out of the gas station, I did not notice the engine missing. Wow, what a relief.
We had seriously considered stopping short of our planned destination and finding a place to stay in Rock Springs. After that fuel stop, the engine would only miss under a very, very heavy load. It was a significant improvement.
With the engine seeming to run OK, we decided to keep going the next 90 miles to our planned destination at an RV park near Boulder, Wyoming.
One of my wife's former co workers had coincidentally planned to visit Yellowstone during the first week of our trip. They were also staying at the RV park near Boulder, Wyoming that night and we wanted to join up with them if we could.
So, we drove after dark over a two-lane road that has lots and lots of wildlife crossing it (mostly deer, moose, and antelope). We drove carefully and finally approached our destination.
We missed the turn and my wife unwisely followed google map instructions on how to recover from the missed turn. Even more unwisely, I followed my wife. I probably should have stopped at the first turn it had us make. I definitely should have stopped at the second turn it had us make.
That second turn led us onto a dirt road that eventually was a dead end. I had to turn the motorhome around in the dark on an unlit dirt road in the middle of nowhere. By this time, I was pretty darned tired. I did get the motorhome turned around without incident (more by luck that skill) and we went back to the main road. We then took the correct way to the RV park and checked in at 11:00 PM.
Lori's coworker greeted us there. We parked the motorhome, ate a light dinner, and I went to bed, totally exhausted.
That is it for now. I will pick up the story in the next installment.