Clean Bill Of Health

Took Lil Pumpkin to the doctor this last Friday.  The closest Mercedes service centers are Fayetteville, AR and Creve Coeur, MO up very near Dusty's.  Even though Fayetteville is closer than Creve Coeur, we chose Creve Coeur so we could visit the grandkids and have a place to stay.  I paid for the room and board by upgrading three computers to Windows 10.

I drove over to the Mercedes dealer and was told it wouldn't take long.  So, I opted to wait.  But, they found Pumpkin had a recall for the on-board computer software and that would take longer than originally thought.  So, I called Traci for a ride back to her house.  I, then, settled in to upgrading computers.  The dealer called about 2 hours later and Pumpkin was ready.  Traci ran me back to the dealer and $432 later I drove Pumpkin back to Dusty's.  The bill wasn't all that bad, actually.  Besides a 30,000 mile checkup, they changed the oil (13.5 qts of synthetic oil) and filter, flushed the brake fluid, topped off the DEF and updated the computer (that part was no cost, however).  All that AND it is a Mercedes, so $432 was expected.

So, I got the generator problem (LP regulator) fixed earlier last week and a 30,000 mile checkup on Friday and Pumpkin is ready for another trip...so are we!  And what a trip we have planned!  We plan of leaving this Sunday, heading east.  Our destination is Tom, Jr's in upstate New York.  We want to get there before the Labor Day weekend rush begins - target date Thursday, Sept. 3rd.  Well, we're slow.  Five days is about right for 1100 miles.

We plan to stay at Tom's for about a week.  Whitney is there with Pepper, Kade and her new girl, Emree.  We haven't met Emree yet.

Once we get our visit out, we're heading west toward Skyler's in Idaho.  But, we're taking the scenic route from the lower end of Lake Erie up through the "thumb" of Michigan.  We'll probably take a jog over to Lake Huron.  We haven't visited it yet, so it's pretty much a "have to".  We'll cross the Mackinac Bridge over to the Upper Peninsula.  We've been to the UP before and wasn't particularly impressed.  We'll give it another chance then slide on down to mid Wisconsin and all points west...well, sort of.  We plan to cross about mid Minnesota and North Dakota.  I want to visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and while we're in the area, maybe pass through Stanley in the middle of the Balkin Shale oil boom area.  Have to hit it at the right time of day, though, because campsites are few and far between and very expensive.

Eventually, we'll get to Skyler's in Ashton, ID.  There's another new great granddaughter there we haven't met.  Penelope Joyce, most call her Pennie, I like PJ, however.  And then there is Rosie.

From Skyler's, we'll continue west.  Joyce wants to see eastern Oregon and, if the forest fires aren't smoking up everything, I guess she will...see eastern Oregon, that is.

Right now, the plan is to drop down to Nevada then across Utah to northern Colorado.  By then it will be deep into October and no telling what kind of weather we might encounter.  But, if we're not snowed in, we'll cut across the top of Colorado and across the middle of Nebraska.  Luckily, by the time we hit Nebraska, Joyce will have smelled the barn and we'll scoot right on across.

Overall, we will have put another 7,000 miles plus on Lil Pumpkin.  But, that's what we bought it for.