I would recommend that you not use the slideshow – just click on the first photo and then navigate with the arrows at the bottom

We decided to make a DUCK tour our first order of business – the theory being that we learn some about the place and how it is laid out, history, attractions, etc. so we decided on a DUCK tour. DUCK is actually supposed to be DUKW and is a GMC manufacturing designation where:

• “D” indicated a vehicle designed in 1942,
• “U” meant “utility”,
• “K” indicated driven front wheels,
• “W” indicated two powered rear axles.

but everyone says DUCK. As in many other places the vechicles are used as tour vehicles and the tours go on land and water. Our tour took us up on the hill where the rock quarry that supplied materials for the Table Rock Dam is and then down on the water of the lake formed by the dam called Table Rock Lake. The tour was fun and informative.

After the DUCK tour we went to The College of the Ozarks for lunch. The tour driver told us about it and reviews confirmed that it was good food at reasonable prices made and served by student labor as payment for their tuition. Virtually all of the labor needed to operate and maintain the school and its grounds are provided by students and they graduate without debt. It has been around for a long time and is known as “Hard Work U”. The lunch was very good.

Coming out of Hard Work U we somehow took a wrong (unplanned) turn and ended up at the old part of Branson and its new waterfront development. We will probably go back there for another look in the next couple of days.

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OMG! I am saying that because Carol is the organizer for this visit and she wants to take a zip line ride. I told her I already did that in survival training in the Air Force but it was just a shorter ride. She says I don’t have to go “if I don’t want to” so I’ll be shamed into it. Oh well, it will be fun. We drove an extra hour today over our standard 9-to-3-with-breaks day. We were on the road at 7:45 which is early for us – no stress is the goal – and we drove steadily until around 3 with only a break for a Peet’s french press and a home-made scone (I made them and Carol prepared them) in a WalMart parking lot.

We had to drive from south central Oklahoma almost to its northeastern corner where we crossed into Arkansas and then into Missouri. I hate to have no photos for a day but, since that is our only photo today that is all I can show you. It was another hot day. It was about 86 when we left the camp site, it was 90 by 9:00am, and it was over 100 at 10:00am but the dash A/C with the help of some fans keeps the flight deck cool. When we stopped we fired up the generator and ran both A/C’s. That cooled us down in minutes. We almost never run the generator while we are driving – if we do I will want to add another automatic fire extinguisher for the generator compartment.

We are camped at Table Rock Lake State Park just outside of Branson. Senior price for an electric-only site is $19 per night.  We were looking for a full hookup site but they have a very confusing system for picking sites, marking sites, etc. – we finally gave up and took the electric only, non-reserveable site – tank emptying duty is not bad on this coach. That is the price of spontaneity, we hate to plan very far ahead.

GMC content: I am really pleased that the coach is running as well as it is running these days. With one exception – the Fina station in Las Cruces – all of our gas has been crapohol (as one GMC’er calls it) and we have not had any major vapor lock issues at all. Oh, I feel a little hesitation once in a while shortly after a fillup but it could be my imagination. I wonder if the fuel formulation is different here because of the heat.The single most significant improvement in the vapor lock battle has to be blocking the intake manifold crossover ports – thank you Steve Ferguson!

One item of concern today, and yesterday, was the transmission pan temperature. I think I have a bad temperature sender – not necessarily defective, just bad. Chuck Garton is Mr. Instrumentation in the GMC community and I asked him why I should buy ‘good’ vs ‘cheap’ gauges. He told me that one difference was that the cheap ones are not accurate (I think he said erratic?) at higher temperatures. From my engine cooling trials I had an electric water temperature gauge made by Equus. Equus is not regarded as a quality product for some reason but I had it so it was free. I think that I will be looking for a new sender and gauge – I will be checking my remote temp gun but I doubt that it has a problem like that.

The transmission temperatures were getting as high as 240 on the gauge yet the engine, at the same time was cooling off because we were going downhill. The kicker came when I used my infrared remote temperature gun to check the outside temperature of the pan. The gauge was reading just under 240 degrees and the outside temperature of the pan was about 212 degrees. I am inclined to believe the temp gun – a gift from a friend. I will be ordering a new, better quality temp gauge from the likes of VDO or Autometer.

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It got to about 106 today going through Dallas and our outdoor digital thermometer which is in the shade away from the sun says 113.8 degrees right now at 3:00pm local time. We are in an Oklahoma state park about 130 yards from Texoma Lake sitting in the full sun because there are not a lot of trees here and we had no reservation. The good thing is that we have two roof air conditioning units but the bad thing is that we have both of them running and it is still hot in here. The site has both 30 and 50 amp services and I tried running both units on the 30 but it did not last real long – maybe 10 minutes. I am now experimenting with a new 50->30amp adapter plug that I bought for the rare occasion the camp has only 50amp available which has happened to us at least twice. Right now both AC units are running from the 50amp service, through a 30amp cord and so far they are doing fine. I used to think that we would eventually remove the rear unit and replace it with a Fantastic Fan but now I am thinking that might not be a good idea.

We ended up going through Dallas on I-35E. Usually we like to avoid the interstates but with the weather not cooperating we will pretty much be stuck inside the coach or in a building if we stop so we are just trying to make some time while we can so we can spend more time with family and friends instead of stopping to see things. We did pass the Texas Rangers Museum today and I would like to have stopped but the heat did not make it attractive. I am not a baseball fan, the museum is about the Texas Rangers law enforcement people – boyhood heros for many of us. It is a good thing that it is Sunday – Dallas is a huge place and the drivers are generally pretty good but they have their share of oblivious and aggressive drivers. We drove defensively and even took a wrong turn and recovered nicely – Carol is a good navigator and travel agent.

We are in East Burns Run Campground in Cartwright, OK. It is a very nice place: concrete pads, covered patios, picnic tables and 30 and 50 amp service. Our cell phones work great here too. The only thing was the gate attendant seemed upset that we had not made reservations and directed us to a site without shade when we think we saw plenty of them with shade on the way here. I suppose it is possible that all those people will show up later tonight but I doubt it.

GMC stuff: I feel like a dummy but I figured out during the night – in my sleep? – that the oil on the top of the intake must have dripped from the crankcase vent pipe that goes into the valve cover – oil is expected in there. So now back to the puzzle – the shaky needle on my vacuum gauge was gone this morning but was there tonight. When the engine is cold it is fine, after it warmed up it was still OK, but when we got here this afternoon it was down to 15-16 inches and a little shaky. Problem is, it is too hot to work on a hot engine today. Maybe if our campsite was in the shade I’d feel more like it but right now the hot engine, the windows and the metal are making a lot of heat and opening that hatch is not going to happen unless it is an emergency. In spite of the heat we ran great all day. The engine temp got to 205 in the heat which is nothing. The tranny temp was a little concerning though – early in the day it ran at 180-200 but later, when the outside air temp got to 100 and up, it ran at 220 degrees. I will be considering an external transmission oil cooler in the future.

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We got up this morning and hung around trying to get a plan together – did a little GMC-work too, see below – lots of photos there too. At about 10am we made our way outside – it was only about 81 degrees – and walked over to the hike and bike trail around Lady Bird Johnson Lake. Austin is a very progressive city, second only to Silicon Valley in high tech activities and they like their outdoor life and the environment so lots of people walk and bike around the lake. Although it was very hot and relatively humid – a lot like Arizona’s summer heat in monsoon season – the trail was very shady and we didn’t have to walk in the hot sun until we got to the bridge over the lake.

About the lake, it is actually a dammed up river. They call it the Colorado River and don’t distinguish it from the other Colorado River that carved the Grand Canyon in Arizona. This Texas-Colorado River is dammed up to create a series of lakes, Lady Bird Johnson Lake (formerly Town Lake) is the last one in the series. The lake is long and narrow and great for human-powered watercraft. We didn’t see anyone swimming but I am sure some were. On both sides of the lake is the hike and bike trail and, even on a hot Saturday morning, it was very busy.

After we crossed the very nice and dedicated  hike and bike bridge over the river it was a short walk to the largest Whole Foods grocery store anywhere. The bottom 2 floors of the Whole Foods chain’s headquarters office building have the grocery store attached to one side of them and, if you have ever been in a large Whole Foods, Wegman’s, or AJ’s you know there are good things to eat there. We had a small breakfast so we could have something there. We had a coffee and a pastry and then headed for the bus stop.

Our plan was now to take the bus – a 24-hour pass costs $2 and it is much easier and cheaper than parking a car – to the Texas Capitol Building and do the free tour. The Capitol is very beautiful and well worth visiting. We did not take the free tour, we took the self-guided tour using material they provide. We saw both congressional chambers and the supreme court chambers – very impressive.

Once we were through we took more buses to a museum sculpture garden that was just down the street from the camp ground. The sculptor was a world renowned artist named Charles Umlauf who spent many years teaching at the University of Texas at Austin. He lived and worked at his house which is now part of the museum – not yet open to the public but his gardens are.

GMC content: well, it was cool this morning and I decided to try to find the vacuum leak on the engine. I got my flashlight and my can of WD40 – I think the idea is that if you find a suspected leak point you spray some WD40 on it and, if it is leaking the engine will ingest the WD40 and you’ll hear it – and opened the engine hatch. Other than removing the air cleaner so I could see the vacuum connections I really didn’t touch very much except I noticed a small puddle of engine oil on top of the intake manifold right next to a spot that could be called suspicious. I mopped that oil up, could not find a source but it looks like it might be coming from the seam with the head. Other than that there we no suspicious connections so I started the engine and took a look at the vacuum gauge – now semi-permanently attached to the manifold – and it was now nice and steady and reading almost 20 inches of vacuum. Looks like it has to be hot to fail – more evidence that it might be the intake gasket.

I could not run the engine long enough to warm it up because we are all too close together here and we also make a fair amount of noise with those flow-through mufflers. I will wait and observe – when it fails I will look again. Stay tuned.

Here are the photos. I would suggest that you do not use the slideshow – it makes it hard to see the captions I wrote and you’ll want to see those I am sure ;-). Instead of the slideshow just click on the first image and use the arrows on your keyboard or click on the arrows at the bottom of each photo next to the captions.

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It was a pretty short drive – about 50 miles – from Fredericksburg to Austin and a lot of it was through ‘hill country’. The area west of Austin is known as hill country and they mean it. The area is composed of limestone hills and many of the old buildings around here are built with limestone blocks – a very distinctive and attractive look. Austin the capital of Texas and, probably because the University of Texas main campus is here, is very liberal politically. The motto of the city is ‘keep Austin weird’ and they seem to love to point out all of the ways that it is weird.

We have found that a good way to get acquainted with a city is to take a tour bus ride as soon as we get there. This orients us to what is in the area and where to go on our own afterward. This time we took a 90 minute tour that took us to the western part of the city and into the hills – still inside city limits – overlooking the city. It was very informative and enjoyable.  After the tour, we walked a few blocks to the O.Henry museum and learned quite a bit about the author.  We had intended to do some more walking around the downtown music and nightlife areas to hear some music – this city is know for its music – but it was too hot and humid to do very much so we just went ‘home’ to cool off.

We are staying at the Pecan Grove RV Park which is very close to the downtown and is right on a bus line that goes there. We took the bus in and out of downtown – the bus stops are right next to the park and it is only $1 each way or $2 for a 24-hour pass. It was not bad and, as city bus rides are, pretty interesting. Austin is pretty weird, and we’re glad.

Here are our photos so far – we plan to see more today so stay tuned:

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Today was a rest day so we hung around for a while and then went into town to finish our tour of the National Museum of the Pacific War – the Nimitz Museum – and to have some peach-related goodies. We spent another couple of hours in the museum and then went for a cup of coffee and some peach ice cream. Then we jumped in the car and headed east to Stonewall, TX and the Gold Orchard where they grow lots of different varieties of peaches. We tasted two varieties that are still in season – an Oh Henry and Flame cross, and a Flame. The cross-bred variety is a freestone type so we chose to buy them although both were really good. They have a kitchen there and were baking pies and other goodies so we took a couple of pieces of pie home for tonight’s desert. I remembered my camera today so we have some pictures below.

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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.

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We arrived at our planned stopping point of Ft. Stockton, Texas at about 4pm Central time – the second day in a row that we lost an hour. We started the day filling our gas tanks at a Fina station in Las Cruces – a pretty good-sized sign on the pump said no methanol added. After the fill-up the coach was running a little rough for the first minute or so – I think the choke was still active and the engine was warmed up enough to not need it – fallout from the blocked crossover on the intake (GMC tech jargon – sorry).

The weather was wonderful for traveling – cloudy and a little rain. The day went by without incident and the coach ran well. We made it all day without needing more fuel – first time that has happened in a while. The daily fuel consumption numbers show we did better than 8 mpg – we barely beat 6 for the past two tanks. Improved fuel mileage could be because of the non-ethanol fuel (who are we trying to fool with this ethanol stuff?) and/or because of the improved engine vacuum (see yesterday’s post). Our fill-up in Ft. Stockton was with the normal crappy gas so we’ll be able to tell at the end of the day tomorrow if anything is still better.

Our windshield wipers – original GMC wipers leave a lot to be desired – are not working very well and, between yesterday and today, we have gone through several heavy rain storms and needed them. I don’t know what is up with them and I should convert to modern electric wipers but that is another $300 that I didn’t feel like spending – not a lot of driving in the rain in Arizona. We stopped at a WalMart for groceries and I bought some Rain-X and treated the windshield – now it probably won’t rain again on the trip.

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The coach ran great today. We managed to get on the road by about 9:30am and drove until about 4:00pm our time (5:00 pm in New Mexico). We drove through a couple of rain storms where the temperatures dove from the mid-90’s to low 70’s in a few minutes. The rain was great except for our less-than-ideal wipers which I have not paid attention to because we hardly ever need them.

We stopped for gas in Lordsburg, NM (gas was $3.19) and, again, there was lots of vapor pressure in the fuel tanks – it took at least 2 minutes to bleed it off and the vapor is hot. It was difficult to get gas into the tank at first but eventually, I managed to fill them again. The coach was stumbling a little as I drove out but, having experienced this before, it got lots better as soon as the pressure built up in the tanks again – my theory is that this keeps the gas from boiling.

We ran well until we got off the highway at Las Cruces and as I stopped at the end of the off-ramp I heard the aux. vacuum pump turn on indicating that we have less than perfect vacuum – maybe that hose is leaking again? Since we don’t use the dash A/C and we don’t need a heater or defroster right now I just unhooked the hose and blocked the manifold port. Can’t make the aux. vacuum pump come on any more – maybe our gas mileage will get better? I must get a vacuum gauge for the dash – next interior project will be the cockpit and dash.

We are staying at a little RV park that we have stayed at several times before. It has a nice view of the Organ Mountains just north of town. Carol lived her from the age of 7 until 14 when she moved back to Pennsylvania – she has fond memories of it and it is the reason we like living in the desert. Some photos of the mountains below.

We are staying in the Siesta RV Park in Old Mesilla, NM. In 1850 some people who lived in Las Cruces and were mad at the U.S. for taking it in the Spanish-American War moved across the Rio Grande River, then still part of Mexico, to avoid living in the U.S. but we fooled them and bought Old Mesilla as part of the Gadsden Purchase.

See you tomorrow.

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