We did another full day (for us) drive today and got to Fredericksburg, Texas where we will spend two nights. We plan to get a little rest, eat some fresh peaches – this is a big peach growing area, and see some tourist things – this was the home of Admiral Chester Nimitz and his grandfather’s hotel has been converted into the Pacific War Museum. We visited the museum today – I forgot my camera but we are going back tomorrow – and spent almost 2 hours there. This museum traces the origins of the Pacific War – Japan’s role in World War II – from the early history of China, Japan, Korea, etc. – things I never knew.

GMC content: This morning’s fillup was with the usual crap gas but the coach ran well on the highway but did have a couple of periods of a sort of surging after stopping and idling for potty breaks. It was really strange, no stumbling, just acted like I was giving it gas and then taking it away with the accelerator pedal – Carol asked if I was doing it because it seemed like it. It went away pretty quickly both times it happened but still strange.

The fillup tonight again seemed not too bad mileage wise (7mpg) so maybe I have fixed something with the vacuum. I don’t have a dash gauge for vacuum and, it turns out, I have been removing the HVAC hose (the bad one) to install the temporary vacuum gauge so never saw the problem with it. I will be adding a vacuum gauge when I rework the dash – for now, I am thinking of getting some hose and hooking up my toolbox version of a vacuum gauge and just putting it where I can see it.

I don’t think I have mentioned any data from the transmission temperature gauge? I never had one before so I am just keeping an eye on it and learning. When starting out in the morning or after a stop the temperature in the transmission pan can run at about 160 or so for quite a while. It gradually creeps up to about 180 and stays there until we climb a hill and then it will get up to 190 to 200. On long hills I have seen it get to 220. Once it gets hot it takes quite a while to come back down to the 190 – 200 range but once there it stays pretty steady. I do see it get down to 180 sometimes but mostly runs about 190 or so. If we stop – like for a potty break for me – the temperature climbs to about 220 until we take off when it will pretty quickly drop to 200 and then gradually get a little cooler until we climb again. Strangely, when we are driving in the rain the temperature can drop down to 160 or less – I am wondering if the water splashing on the transmission pan is cooling it enough to do that. The owner’s manual, by the way, says that the normal operating temperature of the transmission is 190-200.