VACATION – Leaving the Grand Canyon and heading to Flagstaff

(this post is about Tuesday, March 29, 2011)

Well, after taking two bazillion more shots of the Grand Canyon, it was getting time to leave.  So instead of showing you even ONE MORE PICTURE of the Grand Canyon, instead I will show us saying “Goodbye” …

At our boondocking spot, the folks who snuck in a rig between us and the other gal also were pulling out.  I can’t believe they were able to sneak in between us, through the mud and ruts, to park for the night.

            Our rig                                                    the new rig                      Laurel who was here first

  

We started up the rig to leave, and noticed the check engine light come on, and rough idling… oh no!   After about a minute it stopped doing that and ran smooth.  This happened the day we came to the Grand Canyon too.  So we hit the highway and headed south towards Flagstaff.  The mountain called Humphrey’s Peak at 12,600 ft loomed ahead.  Wow.. what a sight!!!  They don’t grow em like that in Wisconsin!

 

As we drove closer to Flagstalff, we called Northern Arizona Diesel repair to ask for a diagnostic test.   We found our way there, and a great guy named Scott came out to check our rig as it sat in the parkinglot, so we didn’t even have to unhook the Tracker and pull into a working bay!  

Scott ran it through the diagnostic codes, of which we had NO BAD CODES…. yeeehawwww!  He showed us how to run the codes ourselves from the dash, something we had never known about before. So he suggested changing both of the fuel filters and then perhaps it was the higher altitude causing the problem.  See, on electronic diesel engine, it needs to adjust the settings in the computer of the saved driving circumstances. The engines adjust themselves to altitudes and driving habits after being shut down and restarted a few times to be saved and set the conditions in the computer.    Some engines take five times, some engines take ten times, etc to save the correct settings.

And WHAT was his charge for spending the time with us???   NOTHING!!!!    I did give his old garage doggie a biscuit----   http://www.northernarizonadieselllc.com/   So I added them to the http://rvservicereviews.com/Index.asp website where you can list good places to go!

We decided to stay close to Flagstaff, in case we had more trouble in the next morning, then we could go back  to the same repair shop.  We found some campgrounds listed at the Flagstaff fairgrounds, just south of town, so we headed there.   Oh oh…. they were closed yet for the season.   Shhhhhhh but we were in a nice level parking lot in front of their locked gate, far from the road noise, and by a big grove of pines. 

So we made ourselves at home, figuring if a cop stopped by in the middle of the night, we would explain we were having diesel trouble and needed to go back to the repair garage in the morning.    But nobody came around….   we set up the grill and did some steaks for supper!  

 

We hung our big dark blue bath towels along the windows that faced the entrance to the parking area, so after dark, nobody could see our lights or the tv through the windows.  Stealth Camping!   hahahahaha

We settled in for a quiet night, and slept soundly after our busy busy day….. and the next morning, guess what?  The rig started up GREAT and no bad codes, engine check lights, or rough idling.  I think we are going to be just fine….. it ran like a top to the next destination. 

Read my next blog to find out where we went and how far!  LOL

 

95 miles travelled today

3,048 miles travelled so far