The Rest of the Story

With big questions about our unsolved coolant level issue, and the forecast of big bad winds along most of our route, we were committed to get out of Grand Junction early this morning. We were up and moving around by 6 a.m. In the 7 o'clock hour we were hitched up and ready to roll. Our early morning timeline went something like this.

7:30:00 a.m.

We fired up the moose.

7:30:30 a.m.

We got the dreaded amber "check engine" light and the "low coolant" warning.

7:31:00 a.m.

The amber warning light changed to red and "check engine" changed to "stop engine".

7:31:30 a.m.

Bullwinkle's big ol' Cummins engine shut itself down.

7:31:34 a.m.

Paul placed a call to Freightliner Custom Chassis.

Were we miffed? Sure. But, most of all, we were glad that this mysterious problem revealed itself the morning after a day in service, within the safety of an RV park, just 1.5 miles away from a Freightliner service facility. There certainly could have been worse places. Much worse.

Let's go back to our timeline.

7:40:00 a.m.

Paul receives a call back from Freightliner Custom Chassis. The local dealer will put a tech in a truck and be at our site within the hour.

7:40:30 a.m.

Paul and Mary are thankful that we don't have to have the moose towed and Freightliner is coming to us, for a change.

8:50:00 a.m.

Joe. a tech from the local Freightliner service center, shows up.

8:50:30 a.m.

Paul and Mary decide Joe is the man. We offer our ticket to freedom coffee, a chair, whatever he needs.

8:55:00 a.m.

Joe plugs his computer into the moose's back end and sees the essential and previously elusive "code".

8:55:10 a.m.

Paul and Mary shout "Halleluiah"! With a code Joe has something to fix!!!

8:57:00 a.m.

Joe goes back to the shop to get more tools.

9:15:00 a.m.

Joe comes back with more tools. We offer him coffee, water, whatever.

9:25:00 a.m.

From deep inside our rear clothes closet, Joe pulls out the suspected faulty low coolant control module. It's a credit card size part that retails for about $30.

9:25:45 a.m.

Joe plugs in the new module.

9:26:00 a.m.

Mary fires up the moose. All is well. No lights. No chimes. No warnings.

9:36:00 a.m.

After hanging around listening to the moose warm up with no problems, Joe bids us adieu. We shake his hand, offer our humble thanks and practically kiss his feet.

9:40:00 a.m

The much-anticipated wind starts to blow in Grand Junction.

9:45:00 a.m.

Paul and Mary have the moose and squirrel in travel mode.

9:45:30 a.m.

We got the heck out of town!

For the next four-plus hours Paul fought the wind. Honestly, if our rational minds had been in charge today we would have stayed put in Grand Junction. After all, we knew this wind was coming. But, a mix of frustration, fatigue and happy delirium sent us west on I-70 anyway. We sailed past the nearly-out-of-its-banks Colorado River and back into Utah. Along I-70 the wind was difficult, but not really that bad. Then we headed south, directly into the wind, toward Hanksville and Torrey.

On a normal day, this would be an amazing scenic drive. Today, it was a two lane horror. I didn't appreciate any of the scenery we passed by. And, Paul saw nothing of it. At two or three points we hit crosswinds that were at least 50 mph. Maybe 60. Our driver's side slide topper howled. Paul wrestled the moose down the curvy, hilly, narrow road at a crawl. It took us an hour to travel 30 miles.

But, at the end of the road we made it to our scenic site just outside Capitol Reef National Park. Even in a gale force wind, the place is scenic and peaceful. It's the perfect place for us to recharge our batteries for the next five days.

And, that's exactly what we'll do. Already, the winds have calmed. Tomorrow we have absolutely nothing on our agenda. We're just gonna chill.

Tonight, we're tired. We're thankful. We're hopeful that our problems have been solved.

For now, anyway.