Yes we can ... Yes we can

We left Adairsville heading for Berea and even fairly early for us. About 9:30 we left camp only to be reminded that I needed to fuel up before going too far. We knew there was a Flying J stop several miles north and their fueling setup is familiar so we decided to stop there. Making these stops, though necessary, are a little painful. At nearly $4.00/gal you quickly become an expert in controlling fuel consumption. Burning about a gallon every 8 miles forces you to think about your driving techniques. Steady and slow seems to work best for us.

Speaking of slow... since my cracked charged air cooler is only allowing the engine to produce about 50% of its rated horsepower, tackling the hills of Tennessee and Kentucky was not so fun. Conceptually, if you speed up going down the hill you will build up enough momentum to carry you to the top of the next. In practice getting the coach up to 15omph so as I can get up the other side of the long, steep moutain isn't working out. First they say the coaches top end is capped by the factory at 99mph. Second, with weak output, doing 75 is a chore on level land and Third, it's a little too scary for me. So when we started into the mountainous areas we pulled into the far right lane and chanted like the little red engine 'yes we can...yes we can'.

As it turned out a few "yes we can's" was almost not enough. Truck traffic was heavy and three lanes of 18 wheelers late for their next stop made for interesting driving. I kind of got in a groove and was rolling along pretty good but got behind a truck with, I guess, the same turbo problem I was having. As we were both in the right lane and facing a 4 mile uphill grade, we soon began to go slower and slower and slower. Trucks were stacking up behind me as far as I could see. 55 then 45 then 35. How slow can we go I wondered. Can we even make it? Can I start up the tow car and push with it? This hill went on and on but we leveled out at 35mph and I sat back and enjoyed the scenery. Finally reaching the top some minutes later, we now faced the high-speed thrill ride down. Not succumbing to that nonsense, We settled in to enjoy the many flowering plum and dogwood that were laced amongst the woods alongside the freeway and let the blood pressure subside.

We arrived at our camp in Berea Kentucky and found a camp that needed a little sprucing up but the new owners were working on it. Big pull-thru sites which is exactly what we like for these over-night stops. We have another 200 or so mile trip in the morning but heavy rain and thunderstoms are in the forecast so we'll surely be extra careful. We're headed for Delaware Ohio and getting a little closer to home.