Miles was suitably impressed.

We passed through the shoshone national forest, a place Tom has bad memories of. If this weren't a G-rated blog, you could see just exactly what Tom did with that sign.

(For those not in the fire service, earlier this year the Shoshone NF tried to kill several firefighters, and Tom's team was called in to clean up the mess. He's not happy.)

Now we are in Cody, Wyoming. Tried contacting the Cody Dodge dealer yesterday to order a replacement turbo resonator. Seems they won't order one, they are "restricted". So up yours, Cody Dodge! We'll continue on without one.

Tomorrow, the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum... or is is Musuem?

Finally, the good stuff.

Left Fillmore, Utah this morning heading for Bear Lake. The Idaho side, not the Utah side. Sara kept up her perfect record of driving through all interstate construction up to Logan.

And then the crushing disappointment.

Glauser's Restaurant, the Whole Reason for stopping in Logan. In business over 30 years, rated in the top 5 for Logan.

Yup, it's closed. Gone. No longer there. Now a wheat-germ and calico grass yuppie food lovers mart. They closed last year. Time travels slower in Logan. The phone book was up to date, but the Internet business directory still listed it as open.

We did find an incredibly good bakery down the street that made sandwiches. Very good. But not Glauser's Restaurant.

The ride through Logan Canyon to Bear Lake was fun and entertaining. Except for Miles, who slept through the whole thing. We finally saw our first View/Navion, headed in the opposite direction. Tom made up for all Sara's construction driving - part of the downhill highway 89 was gravel and slalom-course construction cones. Kept us on our toes.

The campground in Idaho is further back on the far side of Bear Lake than we thought. Turned around once because we thought we were lost. But it's a great spot - one tent and one van camper share the whole facility with us. Looking at the reservation tickets, Labor Day weekend will be packed here.

Tomorrow- we tackle the Grand Tetons! With zero spare turbo resonators! Are we brave adventurers, or what?

Oh, did I forget to mention? 16.1 miles per gallon, so far. Nyah, nyah.

Enter villian, stage left...

Here is the evil turbo resonator. Notice the one on the bottom has a small crack in the seam, the one on top has not yet been installed. Doesn't look like much, but it's enough to cause the computer to shut down the turbo. I guess if I had 30 pounds of super-heated air pushing on the seam I'd blow too.

The other adventures today:

• It's Sara's 33rd birthday, a fact she is trying to forget
• The Angel's lost today. Sara's favorite team lost to her sister's favorite team. Gotta hate sibling rivalry.
• Did spend time today with 2 more RV'rs interested in the View. Winnebago should pay us.
• A constipated 3.5 year old is no fun. Really. Don't ask for details.
  

Tomorrow, we hit even more good stuff.

I'm smarter than the average computer...

High anxiety reigned today, as I realized I forgot the power brick to the CD-ROM drive. No CD means no drivers means no picture upload. No pictures means one lousy blog.

But thanks to the Internet (and companies that post their drivers), we have a multi-card reader installed. And another wireless adapter that reaches all the way from the back of the campground.

If this is Sunday, it must be Utah...

Here we are in Fillmore, Utah. Decided this morning to iron-butt it further, all the way to Provo. Decided later in the day not to be stupid and kept with the original plan. Did get to meet for lunch with co-worker and friend Danny Swenson and family. They're on the return leg of their vacation trip.

The best post ever...

Well, I'm sorry. You missed it. Quite possibly the best-written, cleverest, most insightful webblog posting in all of net history. It was beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes. Grown men wept when they read it.

Alas, it is lost to history.

Mozilla Firefox vs. blogger.com vs. slow campground wifi = lost post. It's gone.

So instead, read a bunch of posts about today.

P.S. It really was clever.

We made it

Well, we made it to our overnight stop in Littlefield, Arizona. Thought I heard another whistling sound near the end, we'll check in the morning. Here's hoping...

A delayed launch, and immediate problems.

Launch was delayed 30 minutes for last-minute preparations. When all was
in order, we launched. 3,153 miles on the odometer, a full tank of #2
diesel, and cold water bottles on the dash, off we went.

For a whopping 65 miles.

The dreaded Limp Home Mode (LHM) struck before we were even out of Los
Angeles County. After reading and reading about it, it happened to us.

What happened? On the long 14 climb out of Santa Clarita towards
Lancaster, we suddenly heard a a loud whooshing sound. It would come and
go, usually when I expected the turbo to be kicking in. Watching the
scangauge, I noticed the boost dropping. And then it just quit. Zero
boost. Zero warning lights on the panel. If it weren't for the
scangauge, I would only have noticed a big lack of power on the hills.

We limped in to a Lowes parking lot, where I realized I'd left the 6mm 12
point sockets at home. Lowe's had them. And screwdrivers. And sodas.
And the chekout girl who let me know she got off work at 7 after I went
through the aisle for the 3rd time.

The install went smooth, the turbo resonator had a visible separation at
the seam.

2 hours delayed, we continued on. We're passing through Vegas, hope to
still make the planned evening stop. It has been much mre nerve-wracking
for the rest of the trip today, watching inlet air temps as we climbed
the 15. But no more problems, yet.

Except I left my cell phone at home...

Want to comment?

It's T-2 and counting. Open comments are turned off to discourage spammers. Want to comment? Email us and we will add you. Only last-minute packing left...

whoops

Okay, first rule has been learned already. Never, ever, type anything like, "nothing can go wrong". Mere seconds after I typed that, blood-curdling screams erupted from the living room. I thought it might just be the Angels losing another game, but this time it was serious. Miles managed to stick a piece of wire from a hook completely through his finger. Blood, chaos, the works.

All is now calm with Miles. Sara still needs chocolate to calm down, and I think I'll have a double scotch.

T minus 3 and counting. Pray for no more fires before Saturday...

T minus 3 and counting

The launch window nears for the great travel odyssey. Thank God this blog has a spell-check. This will be a month of firsts for us

• First long cross-country trip as a family
• First time playing with a blog
• First time Sara's driven anything larger than a minivan

The technological wonders and gizmos backing up this daring endeavor are mind-boggling. No less than 3 laptops will be on board, more computing power than a space shuttle. GPS navigation, satellite radio, even Miles with his own set of binoculars to help with back-seat driving.

Nothing can go wrong now. Saturday, 0900 is liftoff. All systems are go, the final tank of propane was filled just this afternoon. Bags are packed, fish are fed, nothing can go wrong.