A Different Season

This post may be a bit lengthy, but what a start to our new trip it has been. 

Day 1: We left home 2/21/2018 and had an uneventful drive to Atlanta. We stayed with our good friends, Mike and Gloria, for 2 nights. This enabled us to see Carl, Kim, Kaleb and Cherice and the construction project in the upstairs of their house. 

Day 2: We went to visit with mom, Gerrie, and later ate dinner out with Mike and Gloria. This is taken at Mom's.

Day 3: Friday the 23rd we drove to St. Louis and found a Drury Inn and Suites for the night. All went as it should. Love those hotels!

Day 4: Saturday the 24th we drove west for one hour and the truck started acting up. It wouldn't shift gears, and was making some ugly noises. All this as we are driving on the interstate. Hmmm. We found a nearby Chevy dealer in Troy Missouri and they said we were low on transmission fluid. They filled it up, no charge and said all error messages were cleared up and we were good to go. We were very happy and got back on the interstate. That fix lasted for about 5 minutes when it all started again. We got off and found a GMC dealer in Troy MO that diagnosed the problem and had to send for the part. We could drive the truck, but barely. They sent us to a restaurant close by so we ate lunch. When we went to back up the truck wouldn't go into reverse...once, twice and finally it connected. We found a Super 8 motel a mile away from GMC, parked in a pull through spot and settled in for the rest of the weekend. I got a nice workout in the gym downstairs.

Day 5: We hung around the Super 8 passing Sunday by watching our church (Meadowbrook) live service and I got another workout in the gym (treadmill). We walked to a Pizza Hut for lunch and snacked on food we brought with us for dinner. 

Day 6: Monday morning we limped back to the dealer. We watched people come and go in the waiting room and they finally had it fixed around 1:30, tested it and declared it good to go. We drove to Mound MO for the night. 
The best fun is ahead but I had to split this up. Here is a picture that represents the truck sizes we see as we get further north and west. This was at a rest stop in SD. I couldn't get the whole truck in the picture without turning the camera part ways. It was 2 complete large trucks with one cab. You couldn't pay me enough to drive something that big!





We are starting to see significant snow on the ground now. This is from the system we avoided going through due to truck problems. This is at a typical South Dakota rest area.



















Mountains and snow, now the weather is getting real for us Florida people!

The rest of the story is for tomorrow.