Day Eighty Three- Eighty Six

Nebraska City, NE to Sioux Falls, SD
Hugs for Brendan and Stephanie as we headed out the next morning. So beyond thankful for the amazing week spent playing in St Louis. We drove across the state of Missouri to Nebraska City, stopping to fuel up once along the way, we noticed a strange hesitation in trying to start Robin. Eventually her engine turned over. After eating at a delicious local Mexican restaurant, we rolled into a Walmart parking lot late. Next morning she refused to start. So Mitch began to research, read the service guides and the manual. He quickly narrowed it down to a defect in the fuel system, perhaps the fuel filter, which paging through the previous owner’s repair notes, hasn’t been changed in almost ten years! Yikes! We called up the auto parts shop in town, O’Riley’s and excitedly walked two miles in the blazing Nebraska sun, they had a fuel filter that would fit!! At the shop we quickly realized it was not the one that fits our model. Disappointed we walked back after they informed us Omaha O’Reily’s had the exact one, if we could make the drive 70 miles north. Back at Robin, Mitch decided if we could blow out the old filter perhaps it could get us to the new one. Using our handy portable air compressor (thanks dad and mom Z) we tried to clean it out best we could, put it back on, and with a little fuss Robin reared to life. Fingers and toes crossed, we drove to Omaha, and bought two new filters, just in case. After installing it, Robin rolled over every time! Problem solved. We slept soundly that night after watching Mulan on the iPad.

This morning we loaded up and hit the road for South Dakota. Barely across the state line, the van starts to hesitate and sputter. We glance at each other, oh-no in our eyes. Within 30 miles there is no more fuel running to her engine. We slowly glide to a stop on the side of the highway just north of Sioux City, SD. Immediately, we call our friend, Patsy, at state farm who readily assures us that getting a tow to the nearest repair that can fix our van is covered by insurance. While waiting for our tow truck to take us 75 miles north to Sioux Falls, and a well reviewed VW mechanic, we were convinced it had to be the fuel system, maybe the pump. The incredibly kind owner of The Monkey Wrench, Keith, let the truck unload us after hours in his parking lot, our campsite for the night, until we could be diagnosed in the morning.

Woke up to meet Keith in person, what an awesome guy. He was completely swamped but refused to turn us away, he had a few projects this morning before he could check out Robin. While waiting Mitch poked and tested a few more things to help narrow down the diagnosis. He declared it was the fuel relay acting out. Keith agreed and just so happened to have an old spare on hand for us to try out. After replacing the relay, Robin rumbled with happiness. Immediately Keith order a new part to arrive first thing in the morning, along with an electric point system to boot. Another night to spend at the shop, Keith kindly let us roll around the largest town in South Dakota on his old relay. A sweet date to beat the heat we got ice cream, sat in an air conditioned theater to watch a movie, and stuffed ourselves silly at Olive Garden for dinner.

Early the next morning the Ups truck rolled up outside the shop, Keith hadn’t arrived quite yet so Mitch signed for the package knowing it was our parts! When he arrived he handed Mitch the instructions and parts to install, Keith peeked over his shoulder and chipped in a few mini lessons on VW engines. He was awesome, soon we were back on the road! Hugged Keith farewell with immense thanks! We decided to take the slower highways to Mitchell, SD. When exiting I-90 we see a VW camper with its flashers on just off the exit. We pulled up beside to make sure everything was ok. The sweetest worried face of Kathy peered out, “friends!” She said. As we got to talking about her situation it turns out she and her daughter, Kyla with her four young boys were taking a cross country trip home from New Jersey to Oregon, when all of a sudden their van began to hesitate and sputter on the freeway till no gas was going to the engine, they rolled to a stop where they sat now… sounded a bit too familiar!! A tow truck came and dropped the van off at the nearest gas station, Kathy just wanted to get it to a safe place for the kids before making any big decisions, since we were in the middle of no where. We followed behind to the lot. Mitch fiddled around, with Keith on the phone, tried to figure out if their issue was the same as ours, it seemed similar but different, five hours later it was decided to get the kiddos, who were troopers and didn’t complain once, to a hotel to go swimming to cool off, a decision could be made in the morning, either tow it back to Keith or find a different repair place near by or to the west. Either way we were taking them all with us to Mitchell for the evening. Everyone pilled in Robin looked like a clown car for the few miles it took to get to Mitchell, SD. Dropped them off with an exchange of cell phone numbers and headed to our own campground for the night. Watched the sun set over the farm fields bordering our site after an evening game of mini golf. With the misquote netting up to cool the van down we slept deeply, after an exciting day of Robin to the rescue!