Sunday, December 29, 2013

Christmas in Des Moines, Day Deca

We managed a nice early start, getting on the road by 7 AM and all looked well.

Susan drove the first five hours and got us beyond Sioux Falls. I noticed on our first stop for gas that we were getting terrible mileage. I can usually get 300 miles out of a tank and we barely covered 200 and needed gas.

I took over and had been driving for an hour of so when the car suddenly shuddered and began to run really rough. We exited at Murdo, SD and were able to call a mechanic to look at the car. 

The "Check Engine" light had not come on and there was really nothing he could do. We had gotten him off his couch to come out in the 20 degree temps to look us over. There were no parts available and so nothing he could do until the next day.

He thought we were okay to keep going and make it to Rapid City,  about 90 miles away.

We made it okay and rolled in to Rapid City about 3:30.

That's the bugger of this whole thing. We were making great time and looking to make it past our goal of Gillette...maybe all the way to Billings. That would have made for an easy second days' drive.

We've located a Firestone place and they open at 7 in the morning. 

So, we had a nice dinner at the Firehouse Brewery and watched TV in our spacious Super 8 Motel room.

Hopefully, I'll be writing next from Spokane but I suspect it will be from Butte or Missoula, even if all goes well with the repair.

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