Trouble in Paradise

Well we were up in good time and enjoyed happy hour on the patio again.  P & H came over and we sat and listened to "nothing".   We were the only ones here and there was nothing but the sounds of nature.  Harold and busied ourselves with filling with water from the spigot and getting Miss Daisy and the Ponderosa ready to travel today. We headed down the road about 10:00 with the intention of getting to Perry FL to Wallydock for the night.  This would be about half way to Panama City Beach which is our destination for a few days to visit family.

Now the Story begins.   If you remember back in the fall on our trip down we had fuel problems back in Lancaster Wisconsin.  When we left there we knew it would take a while to get all the alga out of the tank and system so we have had to change fuel filters 3 times since then on the road.  The Ponderosa has been laggy and lacking the get up and go it once had but I blamed it on the crud maybe still in the system.  Well we have over 2000 miles on it and it just seems to be getting worse so I said to Sue today that we need to call the shop that replaced it to see what we should do.  Well around noon we stopped for lunch and I got the bright idea to loosen the fuel cap just to see what might happen.

Well the Ponderosa seemed to come to life except that it had more black smoke than usual when you gunned it.  I tightened the cap again with hopes that we might notice a difference for a while which might indicate some vent problem with the tank.  Well we took off out of there like a bat out of heck, just like the old Ponderosa I remember before all this started.  That only lasted a few miles and it kinda went back to the old laggy thing it was.  I said to Sue that we will find a spot to pull over up ahead so I can shut it off and reset the computer.  Well before we found a spot to pull over we began to die just as we started up a long bridge and then it quit.  Right there on the bridge.  The worst possible place for miles.

And it would not start.  What to do.  Well we do have Coachnet but I wanted something a little quicker so I put Sue in the Jeep and she just pushed me up the bridge and then down the other side to where the road was wider without the barricade.  I then found a mobile diesel mechanic that just happened to be available in 30 minutes to come see what he could do.  We even got our lawn chairs out while he worked on it.

So he played around for about an hour and a half and finally came up with a diagnosis of injector pump problems.  The pump is only pumping fuel out to #5 cylinder.  I'm not sure I agree that the pump is bad, but rather something is telling the pump to do the wrong thing.  Oh well, who am I to figure those things out.  So he doesn't have the time to take the pump off in the next few days so he recommended that we just push it another 3/4 mile down the road to Beasleys Repair shop.  I went down there in the Jeep and talked to him and he said "sure come on over son!"  So back we went and hooked up the Jeep and Sue pushed me that 3/4 mile to Beasleys lot and thats where we will sit until morning when they will have a look at it and make there own diagnosis.   Maybe they will find something simple, but I doubt it.  Sue has been in contact with Pinks back in Lancaster and they are helping us all they can with the diagnosis and going to bat the see about warranty for the pump.  Nothing is ever simple or cheap for us but we can always hope and here we are for the night, all safe and sound and sulking.  What do I have to do to start a go fund me page?  lol

And Pat and Harold are all comfy in the lot next to us over by the Dollar General.  We will discuss their plan in the morning.  At least it is not as cold as when we did this last fall in Wisconsin.

So here is where we drove today.  About half as far as we had planned.

We went for a little drive and we saw Gilligan's Island.  Isn't that The Skipper and Ginger in the window?  The Gulf of Mexico is about 3 miles west of us.

Nothing much to do tonight except watch some TV.  Tomorrow will be another day

Here's the view out our window tonight: