Aug 17th
Took the grandkids to the park for a little play time and then to Zelda’s, a coffee shop next to the park, for a snack. For lunch, just a short time after the snack, we took them to “the Fence” for lunch. Lots of fish sandwiches for everyone except Kendall who had a hot ham and cheese. In the evening we went to watch Kendall’s soccer practice and then to Hunter’s football practice. They are very active kids.
Here are some photos.
Aug 16th
We left Wormleysburg after a restless – lots of train noises and no earplugs – night and drove the 80 miles to Lewisburg, Carol’s home town and the home of her daughter and her 4 beautiful kids. We will be spending the next few days visiting them. We have parked the GMC in Carol’s son Rick’s yard and are staying in his guest room while waiting for him to return from Ocean City.
Carol with her youngest granddaughter, Gracie.
We went to see the grandkids and watched them demonstrate various jumping and diving in the pool – in general, just getting reacquainted after not seeing them for a year.
When it was time to go we had to make our first visit to “the Fence”, the seasonal restaurant that serves the famous fish sandwich – a tradition in Lewisburg. We each had two fish sandwiches. I had the fries and Carol had the cole slaw.
Aug 15th
We drove up through the middle of Delaware and into Pennsylvania. Shortly after entering PA the rain started. We were traveling numbered but narrow Pennsylvania roads. The rain and the hills and turns made the driving a little scary but nothing compared to when we added Amish buggies to the mix. Then it got really interesting. We must have passed at least 20 buggies going in our direction and more than that going the other way. Sunday afternoon is their social time and, rain or shine, they are socializing.
Pretty hard to pass in a situation like this.
When we arrived at Carol’s cousin’s house in Wormleysburg, PA – a very small town just across the river from Harrisburg, PA, her aunt and uncle, Dave and Charlotte had joined cousin Jan and her husband George to welcome us. We had a nice visit and lots of good food.
Here is a slide show.
Aug 11th
The plan for today is to pick up Carol’s grandson Logan and his girlfriend at the Baltimore airport and then to the GMC for the ride down to the shore. We have another storage place in Salisbury, Maryland – free this time (intoductory offer).
Carol’s son Rick will meet us there. Arrived at Ocean City and love the seaside condo and boat. We went out to dinner on Rick and Kelly’s boat.
Aug 12th
The day started and ended with rain but nice weather in the middle. We (Rick and Logan) did a little fishing and we then had pizza for dinner. Not much else to report.
Aug 13th
More rain was predicted but did not materialize. Went for a long walk on the boardwalk and had some really good french fries and ate some chocolate. Going out for crab dinner tonight.
Aug 14th
The crab dinner was really good. We watched Avatar on blue-ray DVD – really amazing, almost as good as the 3D in the theater. We went for a boat ride and did some fishing.
Here’s the slideshow.
August 9th
The Brake Buddy worked great so the battery was the culprit – along with me for not charging it at least once during the week. We drove through some Baltimore-Washington traffic and got the coach to the storage lot on time and in good
condition. Here’s hoping that nothing bad happens there.
We visited with our friend Barb and she took us out for a crab feast – the restaurant is right on the water and has a beautiful views of the bay. Tomorrow we will go to Annapolis and do a little lunch and sightseeing.
Aug 10th
Not much happening today – hung around most of the day and at about 3:00 we went to Annapolis for lunch and a little sightseeing. We came into the city/town over the Naval Academy Bridge and right
into the middle of the town center. It is really pretty and, for some reason, not very crowded.
Here is a slide show of the photos we took at Annapolis.
Aug 8th
Just a long day of driving across Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. We crossed the Apalachian Mountains and there we lots of long hills but, other than the noise of the driver’s side exhause manifold leak, the coach did really well. The ambient temps went from under 70 to low 90s and the engine stayed relatively cool throughout the trip – never got above 215 and it only got there once on a really long hill in the low 90s. It seems as though the thermostat is broken though – the engine was regularly able to get well below the thermostat temp of 195 – even when the ambient temp was in the mid 80s. Steve Ferguson has suggested taking the thermostat out and just using a flow restrictor like, I guess, they do in race cars. Well, a broken thermostat is basically a flow restrictor – as long as it fails open.
Another problem developed during the day… The Brake Buddy started activating itself. When we unhooked the Tracker we found that the battery was almost totally dead. Since we were parked in a WalMart parking lot we pulled the battery out and replaced it with a new one – I am hoping that the lack of power was a possible reason for the Brake Buddy’s antics. We’ll hook it back up tomorrow and give it another try.
Aug 7th
Spent the night in Vandalia, IL at a really nice campground. They told us they didn’t have internet access but someone nearby did and, using our external antenna/amplifier we were both able to get good internet access.
When I started the coach in the morning it was running a little rough but nothing obvious. We stopped for gas right away and then couldn’t start it. Sat there for about 40 minutes, even unhooked the Tracker because it was in the way. It seemed like a fuel problem and, at first, I thought it might be flooded so we just waited and tried over and over. Finally, I decided I had better figure out what it was so I pulled a plug wire and veified spark. I wanted to see if the fuel pump was working so I had Carol try to start while I held onto the fuel pump – it is mounted on the outside of the frame just in front of the tank selector valve so easy to access. As soon as I held the pump and Carol tried starting it started right up. We stopped a little later for something and, again, it wouldn’t start so I went out and wiggled the connectors on the fuel pump it started. Later, I pinched the connector a little to make it fit tighter and it has worked since.
Other than that issue we had an uneventful day. I think that the fan clutch is still a little suspect – runs a lot when I don’t know if it should – but we stayed cool and mostly quiet. Staying in a Happy Corners, Ohio WalMart parking lot tonight – no internet.
Aug 6th
Wow, what a difference! Steve had suggested that I change both the thermostat – to a 180 degree one – and the fan clutch. I don’t really have the time or place to change the thermostat since campgrounds don’t want you doing that and, while we could do it in a parking lot I figured why not just change one thing at a time anyway and change the clutch. The Hayden fan clutch was so quiet that Carol didn’t think it was on. When I say “quiet” I mean when compared to the Delco. The trip can continue in peace – it was so bad that it it was making the trip less than enjoyable.
My observations are that the Hayden seems to come on at a lower temperature but turn at a much reduced rate from the engine RPM. I would have to guess, based on the noise and the engine temperature readings (more on that later) that the Hayden’s rate of rotation percentage goes up with the temperature. The Delco on the other hand seems to be either on or off – a close match to the engine RPM even at 60mph. The result is noise – lots of noise with the Delco – and relative quiet; you can hear it but it is hard to distinguish from the engine noise.
The engine temperatures were much better and steadier with the Hayden. With the Delco, the engine temperature would oscillate between about 190 to 210 and, occasionally, it would get to 215 if it was really hot and we were climbing even an average hill in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. With the Delco the temperature virtually never stayed the same for any time at all – it was always moving either up or down. With the Hayden the engine temperature was very steady – at just under 200 – and would only move a little if I was climbing a hill. It never got above 205.
The difference in the weather was pretty notable. With the Delco we drove through ambient air temperatures from low 70’s to 105. When the temperature would get to 80 the cycling would begin and the only thing that changed was the rate of temperature climb – when it was hotter the engine got hotter quicker. Today, we left Kansas City with the temperature at about 80 and spent most of the day with it at around 85 and it got to 91 for a little while. The engine temperature would stayed steady throughout the day.
Aug 5th
Took the Tracker to a local garage to find out what is going on with the excessive tire wear on the rear tires. He put it on the lift and says that something is bent but cannot figure out what it could be – he said the misalignment is obvious when it is up in the air. Suggested we take it to a body shop with a frame straightener. They should be able to figure out what is bent and straighten it or replace it.
Swapped out the AC Delco 15-4644 fan clutch and reinstalled the Hayden 2797 to see if we can make some of the noise go away. We’ll see tomorrow.
We spent the day with our friends Tom and Lynn from Milwaukee and visited the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City, MO. Very lively place and lots of people, mostly young, walking around and having a good time. We were too late for the shopping though – oh darn.
Here’s a slideshow.
Aug 3rd, Carol’s birthday, we drove to Pratt, Kansas to a pretty nice motel, restaurant, RV park – small but OK. The dinner at the restaurant was not good and the 30 amp service was pretty weak – it would only run one AC unit. It was record-breaking hot out – got to 105 degrees – and the fan was on virtually 100 percent of the time in the afternoon. At 90 degrees it was on about 70 percent of the time.
Aug 4th
Arrived in Kansas City, KS area with no issues other than the fan noise.
Here’s the slideshow of our visit.
![IMG_2507](http://minniebiz.com/gmcmotorhome/wp-content/uploads/prattkansas/IMG_2507.JPG "Carol\'s driver and \\"cabana-boy\\"")
