It's a miracle!

Will wonders never cease! The EGR – the exhaust gas recirculation system which runs some of the exhaust gas back through the engine as part of emission reduction was stuck open. That results in complete loss of power and will eventually damage the engine (actually, a sticky EGR could have been part of the problems we were having with power as we were headed back from the Finger Lakes last fall). Silver State had them on hand and was able to get them installed by about 2 PM. That gave us barely enough time to pick her up, take her back to the house and get her packed up to leave. And if we left the next morning and drove pretty much straight through, I could make my flight. Of course that is with very little shake-down on all the repairs that have occurred in the last month, which we tried to fit in as we packed.

We hit the road bright and early next morning, a bit concerned about whether the engine bugs would prove to be all worked out, and with me still a bit gun-shy from the recent blowout. But, Colectiva performed admirably and the weather did us good. We were able to plow through to Fruita Colorado before it got too dark to be on the road. Being mid-May, we assumed we would have no problems getting into a nice Good Sam park right off the I-70, but our hopes were dashed when the Woman called and they were completely full! Luckily we got into another park up the road a piece in Grand Junction, and the weather continued to hold as we eyed weather.com to make sure the road ahead would treat us well.

The next day we were determined to reach Denver to visit Jerry. We had learned that Brenda would be there and was heading back to their home in Sunrise AZ on Sunday, so we figured that we had some leeway if needed. But the weather held generally (actually hit a blizzard in Cedar City Utah which we didn't expect) and it was actually sunny almost all the way to the Eisenhower Tunnel – it actually didn’t cloud up until right before we got to it. At the tunnel it was a little dicey, some wet but no snow or ice, so we plowed ahead, got to Denver early, and then learned it was lucky we did.

Brenda was leaving on Sunday, but her flight out was at 8 AM. So we hustled over to Jerry’s new apartment in Westminster, and upscale suburb north of Denver not far from DIA. We were able to check his place out, grab some dinner with both of them, and then unwind and get everyone up to date on news over a few adult beverages. It was a really nice evening, and we were so lucky everything worked out as it did (even though all the white knuckling) since we got to spend some time with Brenda that we didn’t expect. So, I guess I can’t complain – I can whine and snivel a bit, but can’t complain.

Talk to you soon!