4/12/2014

Yesterday was our last full day at the New Horizons facility. We did some testing in the afternoon to determine the error in the readout for the grey tank. Even though they use one of the best systems available, that goes on the outside of the tank, there was some significant error. It is supposed to be a 70 gallon tank. The readout shows 100% full at a little less than 45 gallons. We start getting water backing up into the kitchen sink after we put approximately 60 gallons in. At least it doesn't say we still have more room when the tank is full. That would be bad. This just means we will be dumping the grey tank more often than is absolutely necessary. Didn't have an easy way to check the black tank. We also received our South Dakota license plates, so now the truck and trailer are registered in South Dakota.

We left the New Horizons facility at 8:30 this morning and drove the 150 or so miles, west, to Russell Kansas. Going up some of the hills (if that's what you can call them compared to what we had in Washington) we got 3 miles per gallon. Overall, we got about 9 miles per gallon for the trip. The truck pulled the trailer just fine. It hits max torque at 56 miles per hour in fifth gear going up hills. I set the cruise control for 60 and it would slow down to 56 going up the steeper hills but never got below that.

We are going to stay the night at the Triple J RV park here. It's right off I-70 but we can't hear any road noise. It has gravel pads with grass in between, 30 and 50 amp, mostly pull through sites with some trees. It's reasonably close to one of Don's aunts, whom he hadn't seen in over 40 years and it is a Passport America campground, so we got it for half price. Nice proprietor and some nice guests. Our neighbor guests were kind enough to come out and greet us.

Once we got unhooked we filled up with diesel and drove out to my aunt's house. It was about a 50 mile drive. We had a nice visit, then took her out to lunch (another 50 mile drive). She was getting tired by the end of lunch, so we took her back home and then came back to the trailer. We all enjoyed the all-too-short visit.

The temperature is up to 90 degrees this afternoon and the mosquitoes are out in force and we are tired from the long day of driving, so we are going to stay inside and rest the remainder of the day. Assuming the weather is good for driving tomorrow, our plan is to drive to Ogallala, Nebraska and stay the night. There's supposed to be snow in Wyoming Sunday, but Monday is supposed to be nice. If all works out well, we will miss the snow and get to Gardiner, Montana on Wednesday. That will give us a chance to get to the store before we have to check into our jobs at Yellowstone.

The only picture worth sharing from this little trip was a picture Penny took at a rest stop, of our trailer hooked to our truck. The trailer sure makes the truck look puny.