On Wednesday, January 02, we packed the truck and headed south on I-39 leaving Deforest at 6:20 AM on a cold winter morning. We set the cruise control and made it through light traffic around Madison early enough to avoid the morning rush. We passed slower vehicles including several slow moving trucks on the way toward the Illinois line. We were in good spirits and made plans to eat breakfast at a small restaurant in Rochelle, Illinois, which we had come across on the way north prior to the holidays.
Just past Janesville, I noticed that the vehicles we passed earlier were now passing us. Even the slow trucks passed us by. I checked the speedometer and it was still registered at 70 where I had set it. Donna asked why I had slowed. I told her we had not as I had the cruise control set. It did seem, however, that we were going slower than normal and realized that the speedometer was not working correctly. So we left the highway at Illinois exit 1 (South Beloit) and stopped the vehicle. Sure enough, the speedometer read 20 MPH even though we sat at a dead stop. Now what?
We decided to leave the highway, have breakfast at the Denny's in the Flying J truck stop at the exit and to assess our options. I parked the truck in the lot and it still read 20 when stopped. At about 7:30 I knew the Chevy dealer in Leeds (where we have had the truck serviced in the past) would be open. I called John, the service writer, and explained the issue. He stated that yes the instrument cluster needed to be changed as the speedometer was not serviceable as a single unit. For several years I have had a related problem with the shift indicator. It would normally be unreadable and one would need to count through the positions to get to the right gear. I learned that when the vehicle moved backward instead of forward, I usually had it in the wrong gear. I had taken it to a dealer then for what I though was an indicator light problem. I was told at that time that the entire cluster would need to be replaced at a cost of $800. I decided then that I could live with not being able to read the gear selector indicator. But it is a little more difficult to judge one's speed especially when travelling through many small towns on the way to southern Texas with local police using radar to add to their town coffers.
A U-turn was in order. We headed back north and to Johnson Sales in Leeds (just north of Deforest), John got the info off the truck and said a part could be had overnight. We made arrangements to return on Thursday for the install. Come Thursday, we had planned to leave directly after the part was replaced. After about 45 minutes in the shop, we were told that the part was mis-programmed at Chicago and read kilometers instead of miles. We were told another part was ordered and would be ready on Friday morning. As the delivery from Chicago was usually in by 10:30, I made arrangements to be there by that time so that we could high-tail it south immediately thereafter. Friday came and we were ready to hit the road. But the part was not on the delivery truck! We were broke down until Monday at the earliest.
In the meantime, we found an application for our android phone to read our speed. It seemed correct when compared with other traffic. Our speedometer would be on the mark at times. At other times. it was off anywhere between 5 and 25 miles per hour. We considered leaving without having the part installed. But we knew, however, it needed to be done sometime and we would rather have it done by somebody we knew instead of out on the road someplace. So Monday came with great expectations. I arrived at 10:30 and the part was waiting for me. Thirty minutes and $380 later, I was on the road. And I knew which gear I was in. I picked up Donna, and we were on the road and headed south by 11:30.
I put the truck in cruise control mode and headed once again south down I39. Instead of breakfast plans in Rochell, Illinois, we decided to have lunch there. We passed slow moving vehicles and neared the Illinois state line. The vehicles we passed stayed behind us and the gear selector said we were in drive mode. All looked good.
Unfortunately, our late start put us in St. Louis during rush hour. Having barely surviving that in the past, we got off the highway and checked into a motel in Staunton, Illinois, which is just north-east of the city. On Tuesday morning, we entered Missouri and travelled I-44 to Springfield and then went a half-hour south at Springfield to Hollister, Missouri. Our travel trailer was waiting where we had parked it.
Because of significant storms predicted in Texas and Oklahoma for several days, we set up camp at Turkey Creek in Hollister and waited for better driving weather. Winter mode had set in at the park--it was 95% empty. And we were 100% sure we wanted to go further south. On Friday, January 11, we plan to head farther south to San Antonio, Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment