22 hours after topping it off with 3 gallons of fuel at New Haven Citgo, I am home. First test was the mountain after crossing into new York. I decided to see how high the egt's climb, so I proceeded to ease on the throttle in a 5th gear climb. As I reached about 65 it touched 1400 and I eased off, went up it in 5th at 57mph and 1275 degrees with ease. Never went over 1200 again.
So I followed the planned route, Sticks and Stones was closed and I over shot 365, probably because I quit paying attention to the plan and the gps. I was near Benson when I realized I was not on the right road, think I went down 30. I had heard upstate New York is beautiful, that was understated. The smell of Cedar was strong, the river filled with massive boulders awesome. Anyway, stopped at a bar near 10 on 29 for directions, got lots of them. So onward on 29a through Dodgeville and to Herkimer I went, finding neither a flat nor straight road anywhere.
So after eating at Denny's I got on 90 and headed west. I burned a lot of timing farting around in the mountains so I felt like I should at least make it past Buffalo. Setting the cruise at 70 or so, away I went. I ended up stopping at the service center just before it and crashing in the bed of the truck somewhere around midnight. I left the back window open, so of course it starts pouring. About 2;30 or 3 it wakes me up, fortunately the water running toward the front of the bed hadn't made it to the top of the moving blankets I was laying on yet. Time to go and test the windshield wipers. Good thing I stopped before Buffalo, the others were PACKED!
The radio kept shutting off. I thought maybe it was a leak, but then I noticed "usb" on the readout. Unplugged my fully charged phone and all was well. Learn something new every day.
And Dana, thanks for paying attention to little details such as cruise, wipers, and gauge lights!
So anyway, she purred like a baby tiger all the way home cruising between 65 and 75 with the top speed of 78. It was pretty solid and could have easily done more. Traffic was smooth until I got on 23 in Michigan, standing still. The only issue with the truck I had was a flapping noise in Ohio that turned out to be the LR plastic inner fender had come loose. I found a burnt wire on the ground (someone wasn't so lucky), and I applied a Municipal grade repair that made it all the way home.
I topped it off when I got off the Interstate about 38 miles from home, took the miles traveled from the gps and calculated fuel economy. 32.1 with no drivability issues.
GOOD WORK DANA!
