Black Smoke is not a good sight!

Today we hit the road again on our migration south.  We left Kevin and Ronda's about 10 am and headed south.

Up the road a piece we passed by the "farm" where we were the other day with Kevin.

This was our route today and I will tell you why we only went 178 miles later in the post.  We wanted to follow the Mississippi River as much as possible today. I always think of Tom Sawyer when I hear about the Mississippi.

The country side is so pretty down this way and although it looks like snow on the highway it is not.  Just white streaks.

They have some awesome churches.   This one was built in 1895 and is in immaculate condition.

Soon we were at the river and we followed it for a long time.  There were a few spots where the Corps of Engineers have built locks and dams on the river.  They also have campgrounds nearby.  We will not be staying in one today thought.

Everyone thinks of river boats when we talk about the Mississippi and we were not disappointed today.  There were a few of them floating along the lazy ole ribber.

About the time we were enjoying the scenery, the Ponderosa took a fit of bucking and surging and belching black smoke.  It was losing some power but the oil pressure and temp were normal.  We stopped at a roadside turnout to inspect it and I shut it off to see if it was computer related.  It started right up again and idled nice but if you revved it up it blew great clouds of black smoke.  Sue found a truck mechanic in the next town and called him and he said bring it down.  We were confident that it was nothing that would cause damage to the engine or transmission, so we headed for Prairie de Chien WI and the mechanic with smoke belching out the chimney.


When we got there he thought maybe it was the turbo and sent us to a truck repair shop further down the road.  Now I didn't think it was turbo because it was surging and the second service man agreed.  He asked when fuel filters were change last and I remembered that last fall when we had them changed, our mechanic said he didn't change one and said maybe I should change it on the road somewhere.  Well I didn't change it, so it could be 3 years old at least.  Hopefully that is the problem, but that shop didn't have time to look at it until Wednesday.  He recommended a shop another 30 miles down the road so I called Pinks Automotive in Lancaster WI and they will look at it at 10:30 tomorrow morning.

So we hunkered down in the Walmart here and will head off to Lancaster WI in the morning to find out what our problem is.  Hopefully it is simple, but simple things NEVER happen to me.  Here is our view out the window tonight.