Heading south/Knoxville
After talking with the folks in Hanover who worked on the
Trek previously, we decided to try making a run for home instead of waiting 3 days for a
part that cost nearly $2000 and wasn’t guaranteed to fix the problem. Unfortunately, Kevin’s friend that we dealt
with earlier, was out of state with a medical emergency.
Greg and his Mom fed Dad breakfast, then we bade a sad farewell to Greg's Mom. We contacted Anita and Barb, both of whom we had hoped to
visit, and instead headed south via interstates. A long day and it was raining the whole way
across PA and through the snippets of Maryland and West Virginia into Virginia
and route 81. We stopped at a Walmart in Lenoir City, just past Knoxville. Still raining but warm – 60-ish.
Thursday, October 29
Knoxville and the Smokies
Headed back onto 81
but the Trek now was wheezing and really having difficulty on hills, of which
there are many in this part of the country! No way were we limping home. We
decided to once again try our luck with a Chevy Dealership, this time Beaker
Chevrolet in Knoxville. Arrived there
about 9:00AM and dealt with Eric, who was as nice as could be.
They assigned our problem, with associated history, to their
“most experienced” man and we waited. He
apparently tried replacing several items from a new 3500 van they had in stock
to test whether they were the problem.
Fortunately, about two hours into his investigation, he noticed that as
he worked on things the oxygen intake varied from rich to lean, and finally
tracked it down to a faulty connector to the throttle (?)which worked only
intermittently. He replaced the connector and yeah! – it seemed to work.
We decided to test the work – who can blame us for being a
bit skeptical – by driving over to the Smokies.
We called Cades Cove Campground and found out they had openings, so
headed that way, about an hour and a half ride. Beautiful countryside and the
sun made a welcome appearance.
We stopped at an IGA for a few provisions then claimed a campsite. We saw a couple of other Roadtreks in the campground. Drove around a bit and
took some photos. They had just finished
4 days of rain and wind, so the trees had taken a beating but were still colorful in some areas.
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| Cades Cove Campground |
Greg made a great campfire and we cooked
hamburgers on the grill for dinner. Two white-tailed bucks nonchalantly wondered through the few empty campsites around us.
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