Thursday, June 17, 2010

Dang it Toto, we're back in Kansas!


Yesterday was nice and uneventful.  Right before Ft. Collins a trooper pulled up behind me and tailed me for about 1.5-2 miles.  It's funny because people are passing us doing the speed limit of 75mph while we're puttering along between 60-65mph.

At Ft. Collins we hit road construction that makes traffic become stop-n-go and that doesn't make us happy at all.  Bri takes a right and we hit a rest stop for a quick break.  When we leave the rest stop the construction area ends and we're quickly off again.

We fill up in Aurora and drive into Kansas.  Well, it's not really Kansas but geographically speaking it is.  The wind picks up and we have a continuous wind we're driving against, coming at us from the 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock direction.  Our cars were weaving and darting against the wind and the buffeting from passing 18-wheelers.  The temperature is rising.
Leaving Aurora and entering the plains...yuck.

At our stop in Colby I discover that I'm sunburned on the left side of my neck and a tad on my left arm.  We're very tired and decide to take a long break from the cars and also have dinner.  We arrived at 4:39pm CT and left at 6:05pm.

We hit a rest stop at 7:25pm and discover the restrooms are air-conditioned!  Very nice as it's been a much warmer drive.

In Hays we fuel up and the humidity kicks in...I really, really don't like Kansas.  By this point Brian has his fuel pressure set to 1/2psi and still having over-rich issues.  Not nearly as bad as before but they're still present.  Yesterday (or maybe it was the day before) we determine the carbs are the issue and not the fuel pump.  Brian figures he'll try to reset the float levels once we get to our hotel in Carthage.  For the time being he's been turning off the pump when going up hills, waiting a few seconds, then turning it back on.  The car will then have no fuel dumping down it and it will drive much better, accelerating up the hill.  As soon as the car starts to lose power he turns the pump back on to fill the carbs.

The one issue Brian is having with Kansas are the poor junctions where the road meets a bridge or over-pass.  He has to dodge the pot holes and pavement heaves where they meet because if he doesn't his very lower nose will smack the pavement.

We arrive in Salina, KS, at 10:07pm, and unload the cars.  The hot tub is open so we take a nice soak to unravel our muscles.  Then we take a shower and hit Wendy's for a snack. After that we sit outside with cigars in hand and I get to finally open my bottle of Port...mmmm.

2 comments:

  1. Do you think that the Cop Bait sticker had anything to do with the policeman following you?? LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. Naw, they just like the color ;-) LOL!

    ReplyDelete

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