Adam and Sierra's Roadtrip

Forgot to post to the blog last night...I hope you all were able to sleep...we'll try not to let it happen again :p

Yesterday morning, I awoke to a frantic and wide-eyed Sierra. She let me know how happy she was that I was awake, as a half hour prior, somebody was apparently banging on the side of the van...

We arrived at Donna's yesterday morning around 10:30 and found a roomy, quiet and cool house all to our selves for the day. After we revitalized our bodies and spirits with a little hot water and soap we ventured out to Carquest about 20 minutes from Donna's abode. We stopped at Walmart to pick up some supplies, and McDonalds for coffee. Naturally the van stalled in the McDonalds drive-thru with a line of cars behind us. An embarrassing minute passed by before the van had had enough fun at our expense, and it started once again.

We picked up a part at Carquest and then headed back to Donna's. Soon Donna arrived, followed by her significant other, EHE (e-harmony Eric), and we chatted and watched TV for a while. After dark we had a fire out back for about 5 hours. Val and Rick arrived at 12 am and we sat by the fire for about another hour, and finally got to sleep around 1:50 am.

Today, Sierra and I awoke to the pleasant ritual of Donna and Val doing "steam roller!" on Sierra. After an appropriate amount of lazing around, we got up and went to work on the van while Rick and Val started remodeling the kitchen (their reason for coming). Sierra and I spent an ample amount of time scrubbing the van with soap and water, it now looks marginally better. While Sierra reorganized the entire van I changed the cap and rotor hoping to fix the stalling problem....no go. I then spent a very frustrating hour and a half changing the thermostat. At least now we feel a little more confident in the van. Still a few more quirks to work out...For instance, the heat is stuck on...something I thought I fixed with a shut off valve. However, it seems when we use the valve, the heat goes away as desired, but the van overheats. Hoping to fix that charming little addition to the van. If not, Nevada and California and such may be a bit warm....

Our plan is to stay here tonight and head out tomorrow for Niagara Falls. From Niagara, we are off to Illinois and than Minnesota. Then out west!

-Adam