Sacramento,CA

It is a long way from Gary,IN where I last posted. I have just been so tired this trip and we had problems with the truck, but I will get into that here in a few.

First, I lucked out and didn't get to eat Arby's for our anniversary. Passing through Gary we saw a TA before the Pilot and decided to stop there because they have a restaurant. Not my favorite of restaurants, and honestly, I think Arby's would have been better. But it was nice to get out of the truck and grab a shower and have a sit down meal to celebrate as opposed to a fast food meal. But we finished up there and I took over driving and drove us to Omaha,NE. J then took over and drove to Laramie,WY I think and I took over again and got us to Wells,NV.

Here is where the truck problems come in. Just west of Ft. Bridger,WY I think it was, as I was coming to the bottom of one of the Sisters my Check Engine AND Stop Engine lights came on. Now the Check Engine isn't that big a deal, but when the Stop Engine comes on it is telling you that a major malfunction has been detected and that the engine will start the shut down sequence in about 30 seconds. So I hit my Shutdown Override button and get over to the side of the road. As soon as I get my brakes set, the truck dies. Freaking GREAT! So I wake J up and call Road Assist. This first guy didn't know what he was saying because he was telling me to hit the right arrow to find out what the fault was. Well, you don't hit the arrow. The Stop Enging and Check Engine will flash a number sequence and that tells you what the code is for the fault. Anyway, the light went off and the truck started again. I take off and it didn't come on again so we thought it was fine and a freak thing. He did say that it is usually the coolant level, but our coolant level was fine. It wasn't full, but it wasn't to the FILL line either. So I head on it to Salt Lake on I-80 and hyave to come down Parley's Summit. It does it again coming down FOUR times. Sheesh! But it is fine once I get off the mountain and into Salt Lake. Wierd. Keep going and get to Wells,NV where we are switching drivers. Get into a rest area about 20 miles before wells actually and that is where I stop. J gets up and takes off. Now the rest area is at the top of a little pass. As he is coming down it does the same thing to him. So we hit the Shutdown Override button again and he takes the exit to the Flying J where we were going to stop anyway to get something to drink. As he is on the exit ramp, the truck dies again. This time, we are on flat land. Pull into the fuel aisle and I call road assist. After being on hold for over 30 minutes they answer. This guy walks J through counting the flashes to find the code. Well, the code is showing low coolant. But we aren't low according to actually looking at it. At this point, the lights go off when we start the truck. But before J could make it to 4th gear, they come on again. OK, call Road assist back. The find us a Detroit shop in Elko,NV about 50 miles west. So we head out and about every 2 minutes have to hit the Shutdown Override button. Make it in to Elko and have to wait about 4 hours for the shop to open. Get the the shop, the do a DDEC on it and it is showing Low Coolant. Add coolant and it mysteriously fixed the problem. What has been determined is that the sensor is on the back of the Coolant reservoir so when you are going down hill, the fluid goes to the front and it tells the sensor that it is low, even though on flat land, it shows that it is above the fill line. We lucked out and the guy that checked it added coolant and didn't even charge us because it litterally took him less than 5 minutes. Didn't even charge us for the coolant. He was really cool and we really appreciated it.

Now that that is done, we can head out again. J starts driving around 1100 our time, since the moring was spent waiting for them to open and they are 2 hours behind us. He drives till about Sparks,NV where I take over. Once you head out of Sparks and into California you go through the mountains. Donner Pass. The east side isn't bad coming up. At the top there is a rest area so we stopped to let Smokey out. I get in the truck and get ready to pull out and I look up ahead and see one of those yellow caution signs across the road that said this. CAUTION. DOWNGRADE NEXT 40 MILES. Forty freaking miles?? Holy crap! We have only come across I-80 once and we were headed east so we didn't really pay attention to how long or far we were climbing. Boy did I pay attention to coming down though! Ikes! So I just put it in 9th gear, hit the engine brake, and down we came doing about 45-50. Other trucks were passing me that I am sure drive that all of the time, but I was quite happy with my little rear taking it's time. But it was a beautiful beautiful drive.

Ok, make it into Sacramento and we stop at the 49er Truck Stop for the night. We are 79 miles from destination and because of the truck problems yesterday they rescheduled us for 0800 this morning. So we stop, do laundry, take a shower, eat and head to bed. Get up this morning at 0430 local time. Go in and scan our paperwork so we can get paid, J gets his log done, and we are off. Right now we are cruising down this CRAPPY stretch of I-80 between Sacramento and San Francisco and are 45 miles from destination. Who knows where they will send us next!