Thursday, August 19, 2010

Road Trip 2010: Day 73: Columbia, MO to Terre Haute, IN

A "short day" of just around 300 miles today. We left Cottonwoods RV Park in Columbia, MO at around 7 AM Central Time and made our way east across the balance of Missouri, the Mississippi River, all of Illinois and into Indiana and the Eastern Time Zone stopping at the Terre Haute by 2:30 (EDT) in the afternoon.

The blankety-blank slide out would not work when I attempted to extent the room. It took me two hours of taking the "brain" apart, putting it back together, taking the motor off the drive shaft, cutting the motors wires, checking it on the 12-volt (it worked!), reattaching the wires (it didn't work!), reattaching the motor to the chassis, and trying the bloody thing one last time (it WORKED!). The room is currently extended. Whether it retracts in the morning is another thing, although it did retract this evening when I tested it.

I guess there's a lesson to be learned here: Anything can be repaired using a combination of the right swear words and hammers. Sometimes, however, a great deal of both are needed to achieve the proper combination. This afternoon, while dripping sweat from forgotten pores, I nearly used my entire lexicon and tool chest. (There are a few I held in reserve for those truly final moments. And the 5-pound sledge was left at home.)

Then it was time for Terry and I to share a soak in the pool followed by a steak dinner and a bottle of wine.

******

Gas prices:

The price of regular in Missouri was as low as $2.35 a gallon. In Illinois it jumped to $2.75 per. When I asked a Conoco inspector who happened to be at the pumps if this was due to the taxes, she confirmed that Illinois had 24-cents more tax per gallon than Missouri.

Indiana price is back down to $2.50 a gallon. Not great but not bad either.

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