Day 6 - Hoping for a fix to the truck

Travel   From: Valley City, North Dakota   To: Bismarck, North Dakota   Distance: 136 mi (219 km)   Travel time w/brks: 2 hr 40   Distance since start: 2,034 mi (3,271 km)

Monday 6/26/2006

I got up at 3:30am to remain on my early schedule. It was not hard. The kids had asked to not be woken up until 7am. Erik had prepared the coffee brewer last night so all I had to do was to hit the button. The temperature outside had dropped to 55F (13C) and it wasn't that warm inside given that many of the windows were open. I decided to experiment with the new catalytic heater. I closed most, but not all, of the windows and fired up the heater. I put it on its lowest setting and let it work a bit. It seemed to heat up the trailer nicely and only a faint hissing sound was all that was heard from it. After running for a while, the heater brought the inside temperature to a cozy 70F (21C), at least near the rear. The fire extinguisher seemed unharmed by the heat, for the floor below was nice and cool.

I planned to take the truck over to the local GM dealer (Perkins) and to be there at the door when they open at 8am, hoping that they could take care of it first thing in the morning. What they might find is unknown, although fuel problems seems likely. If that turns out to be the case then it'll at least be a fuel filter replacement and, possibly, a complete drain of the fuel tank. It might even involve dropping the tank to clean it out, which could take both percious time and money. I crossed my fingers, hoping that they could pull out of the tiny town of Valley City, ND and head on to what he really had planned.

A view from across the street where we camped. Is this the guy (ACTIONTEC) who's WiFi we're squatting?

Even though everyone that I had spoken to said the dealership would open at 8am, his experience with McMulkin back in Nashua opening service at 7am. So I decided to get down there in time for 7am. Sure enough, they were open, but the service department was not yet open. At least it gave me a chance to be first in line. As the service manager arrived, another pickup showed up and its owner got in line just behind me. Turns out he had a 2005 Chevy with a DMAX just like us and he also had what might be a clogged fuel filter. Even more co-incidental, he was heading to Alaska with his mom who was camping next to us down in town. After some work on out truck they found it had a clogged filter. They replaced it, took it for a road test and confirmed that it worked ok. I asked that they draw a fuel sample just to confirm that it did not have any sludge in the tank. It looked fine. I bought two extra fuel filters and got some training on how to install one in case of an emergency.

Getting serviced at Perkins in downtown Valley City by "Bill"

With that, I returned back to the camper around 9:30 in the morning. By 10am we were on the road again, heading west on I-94. Everyone we met in Valley City were pleasant. What a nice silver lining to the dark cloud!

Riding down the Prairie in North Dakota

One of many strange farm machines being towed along the roads of North Dakota

The big question now was: where do we go? Should we try to make a dash for Glacier National Park in northern Montana or should we resume our original plan. After a bit of driving we decided to resume our original plan which meant going to Bismarck, then to Bozeman and finally drop one day from Glacier. I was rather tired. Too bad. It took us less than 3 hours to get to Bismarck from Valley City. We registered and parked at the KOA. We unhitched and took a ride into town, to get some things from Wal-Mart. We also visited the local Chevy dealer to get an air filter, in case that gets clogged. We then got back to the campground and relaxed a bit. The kids visited the swimming pool at the campground. For dinner we had steak and salad. Tasted very good. I did not stay up too late.

Erik and Karl takes a dip in the KOA pool in Bismarck, North Dakota

Campground   Name: KOA Bismarck, North Dakota   Our hookups: 30 Amp, Water and Sewer   WiFi: Yes but weak at our site   GSM service: Yes   TV Channels: Quite a bunch (air)   Cost: $36/night   Reservation mode: KOA's website

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