When we got back to warmer climes, it seemed that things were getting better. She was holding her coolant longer it seemed. Then yesterday between Ft. Bridger and Evanston, Wyoming she blew a radiator hose. I don't know if this is related to her general coolant problems or if the failing integrity of that hose was just coincidence. Armed with some empty antifreeze jugs and a Wendy's cup, I managed to scoop enough clean water from a large pool of water to fill her back up. I wrapped the shit out of the hose with some electrical tape and made it the extra 10 miles to Evanston and parked near an Autozone.
They didn't carry any hose big enough for my purposes, but the dude behind the counter handed me a card of a local 24/7 repair and recovery service and suggest I try giving him a call. An hour and a half later he showed up with hose in hand and only charged me $35 for the part and his time to bring it to me. I quickly put the new hose on and filled her up again with coolant and we were on our way again. I'm now in Bliss, Idaho and she seems to be doing okay, well, at least no worse-off than she was.
I'm hoping to at least get her back eastward through Omaha and let the folks at McMullen check her out and see what they can do for her. This nagging problem with the coolant system has given me varying degrees of headache ever since the beginning. Right now, I need to roll, though. Finances are dire. Despite this problem, we've covered a lot of ground in the past 9 days; nearly 8,000 miles of it in fact. If her next stay in the shop doesn't resolve the problem, I guess I'll need to bite the bullet and get her into a Cummins shop and let them try to figure out what the problem is.
The new Deerhoof record kicks much ass.
