2011 North West Adventure, Day 1

Day 1 July 4th, 2011:


HAPPY 4th to all….

We are in Ohio…Not where we wanted to be but let me back up. The song rolling through my head is “Oh What A Night…Late September back in 59…” I think you all know the song. Sorry this is such a LONG blog, but it is worth the read trust me!

The day started out well, we were almost on-time, and as we decided to pull out it started to rain as you can see in the back ground of the family shot…normally as you know I don’t mention the weather, but there is a reason… we got around the block and one of my tire alarms went off, and it was reading 7lbs, not the 90lbs it had 2 days ago when I checked. Turns out the valve tip I had on that lets me check the pressure without removing the cap got stuck after I checked it and deflated the tire. So back home we went, out comes the compressor in a torrential downpour and I spent the next 45 min pumping the tire to the 90 lbs…I WAS SOAKED! For those that are reading from work and remember when we moved in and the pipe burst…that kind of soaked. After a quick change of clothes, we were off. Rain was behind us literally and from West NJ to Ohio we had sun.

We were all in the front gabbing for hours, and my fuel level was getting very low about 10 miles left in PA. Not dangerously low, but low. Michael wanted to go play PS3 and it was warm so we turned the generator on….as we drove and the hills were getting more undulating I was watching the gauge go up and down, and literally as I told Patty to turn the air off and shut the generator…and when I say literally she had her finger on the shut off for the generator…silence….we starved the generator of fuel while going up a hill – the generator shuts off with 20 gallons of fuel. This was around5:00pm, which up until then we were flying and making great time.

Filled the tank at the next stop…but the damage was done. Diesel is not like a car, when it goes dry…you have a BIG problem…and we did….went to a T/A 24hr shop and after HOURS of trying to get the generator primed and removed of air we still had an air pocket in the fuel line….it was decided to blow compressed air to relieve the pocket….good move because it worked…bad move because what happened next was something out of a movie. The gas started flowing as expected, but was flowing way to fast. The tech and I had our hands full trying to catch the fuel, and we now had too much pressure. I yelled to Patty to open up the gas cap to relieve the pressure, and thank GOD she had a “moment” where she didn’t know where it was. Another tech relieved me of what I was doing and I ran to open the cap…and then it happened! Old Faithful erupted all over me in a stream of fuel that looked like it came out of a water cannon! My 3rd shower of the day, but this was no joke, I had diesel fuel in my eye – turned just in time – and my cloths once again were soaked…after discarding the cloths and a shower at the T/A…we were back on the road, but it was now 1:00am and we needed to layover. So here we are, ironically in a campground Nicholas and I stayed last year…and he HATES because there a life size mannequin of a cowboy in the office that is a tad freaky.

We were supposed to be in Chicago visiting my friend Deb – sorry Deb – but we are still some 450 miles away, and I need to inspect the damage from last night. I believe we will stay here for a good portion of the day and get to Indiana tonight, then off to Iowa for our scheduled appointment 7:00am Wednesday.

In closing, thank GOD things weren’t worse, and the only real damage was and is stinky body, destroyed cloths and loss of 10 gallons of fuel. We will all look back on that and laugh.

As you have all heard me say…the Dirla’s don’t vacation…we ADVENTURE!

Until tomorrow, please have a Blessed day!

Before my "Rain" Shower

Sunset at T/A...a few hours before my Diesel Shower...