Our 506 Mile Journey

When we last left you we were “Feeling Minnesota” depressed and frustrated with ongoing issues with the emissions system on our 2013 GMC diesel dually. Our truck is in the shop for the 7^th time in less than 2,500 miles and it seemed like the service dealers were throwing fixes at it to see if something would stick. Don’t get me wrong, they are all very nice and were working with GMC engineers directly to try and fix it. This round the truck had been in shop 5 days and we were anxious to hit the road. We were already 5 days late on our journey to North Dakota to help some good friends of ours with farm work along with some duck and deer hunting. Barb tenaciously called GMC Customer Service and worked with local dealer to find us a new truck if it came to that. We did not expect great or immediate results from GMC but we at least wanted to get ball rolling.

On the up side this delay afforded us the time to see more of our family. We were going to miss seeing my sister Judy as she was out of town but she returned last weekend and we were able to watch the Vikings game with her on Sunday. Go Vikes, they won! Then on Tuesday we were able to get together with two more of my sisters Carol and Becky for lunch. So in some ways this delay was a blessing in disguise.

Determined not to let this delay get us down Barb and I spent one afternoon doing some adventuring around the area. Taylor’s Falls is the home of Interstate Park, a beautiful park along the bluffs of the St. Croix River. The park boasts glacial pot holes. These potholes were formed as the glaciers receded and a truly magnificent wonders of nature with holes up to 60 feet deep.

This is the 60' hole

You can see the water at the bottom of this one

A shot of the river, the leaves are just starting to change

We also went to Dancing Dragonfly one of the local wineries with Bob and Greta for Greta's birthday! We had never been there before and we did a tasting of 5 of their wines. I tried several of the reds while Barb opted for the sweeter whites. We ended up buying two of the whites, one of which was a dessert wine that tastes like chocolate covered cherries.

Happy Birthday Greta!

Shot of one of the vineyard areas

On Tuesday afternoon we received a call from the dealer saying that the truck was ready. This time they replaced the negative battery cable connected to the diesel exhaust fluid system. Who knew one even existed! With high hopes we hooked up at 5:00pm and drove 70 miles to the Cabela’s in Rogers Minnesota. We at least wanted to be on the outskirts of the Twin Cities and avoid the rush hour traffic the next morning. We made that 76 mile trip without warning lights coming on, further than we made it in our last couple attempts!

The next morning we continued our journey to the Douglas ND area. Let me tell you, there is a lot of anxiety driving a truck that you have lost confidence in. Barb was tense and almost sick to her stomach as she drove the truck just waiting for the inevitable….the dreaded warning light. Mile after mile we drove northwest on I-94. 100 miles, 200 miles, 300 miles, we just might make it! We typically try to keep our travel days to 4-5 hours max but we just wanted to get there so we decided to drive the entire 8 hours if it would let us....400 miles, finally.... 506 miles!. Physically and emotionally exhausted we pulled into our friends farm about 5:00pm, we made it! No one was home when we got arrived, they were all at work or out in the fields. They slowly arrived throughout the evening, it was great seeing everyone again and we are looking forward to the next few weeks with them.......I don’t think we have ever been happier to arrive at a location!