Update from Illinois!

Finally, internet connection. The campground we stayed at last night was supposed to have it, but the storms that have been running through here with all the lightning knocked out their internet. So a day later, I am 2 states farther, and updating now.

But back to the beginning,

We left my house around 11:15 Thursday morning, and went to Mallory Kotzen, and blah blah ran errands. We got on the highway towards New York at 12:20pm. We were doing well, everything was going fine, until we hit some crap traffic and the car overheated. We pulled over into the shade and let the car cool a bit. 10 min later it was super hot again. We pulled over again and let it cool. One more try, it overheated in 15 seconds this time...Dave says the trip is over and apologizes to me. I tell him it doesn't have to be over, we will find a garage and get it fixed. Okay, so we go to a truck stop...and I ask a mobile mechanic guy what it could be, and where we could find a garage...he said call Kisenweather, it could be the thermostat or it could be the head gasket. I tell Dave, and we call Kisenweather...they're dicks, so I ask the girl in the store where another mechanic is...she says there is one right around the corner, she calls and they are waiting for us. During this time, Dave has been outside with the trucker whose shade we borrowed to park in. (We didn't get his name, so we are calling him the Black Trucker from Texas...) He gave us lots of water for our radiator, and told us we should flush it out. This guy was so happy and smiley. And the first of our helpers along the way... He gave us 3 jugs for water, which we have used many many times...
Anyways, by now the jeep seems to be doing better, so we plan to drive around and see how things go. We end up over heating again, and park at the Stage Coach restaurant for Dave to wire an Aux fan to help with cooling. We go to the garage that is waiting for us, and the guy says he doesn't think it is the head gasket and tells us that an Autozone is 30 miles away...

Off we go, slowly, with a lot of water, and a lot of stopping...

We make it to the Autozone, which is now in the middle of farm country PA...and while we are working on the Jeep...this freak rain and thunder storm rolls in...pouring huge drops of rain on us. We take a break from working to hop in the car to stay dry, and finally it ends. Dave finishes work on the Jeep and back on the road we go.

We are still overheating, and the last time we pull over...around 1130...we hear a weird thumping/griding noise ... sounds like the driveshaft. Dave hops under the car, says everything looks okay, we let the car cool a bit, add some water...and go to leave. HORRIBLE GRIDING NOISES COME FROM THE CAR...and it doesn't move. Okay, not good. Try again, same thing. Dave hops back under, sees nothing...utoh. We worry that the gears have blown, but that wouldn't make sense, because we didn't hear a big noise that it would make...
So we put it in front wheel drive, and limp off the highway to a truck stop.
Kylertown Truck Stop is our first nights sleep. We sleep in the car...because when we arrive...5 minutes later another freak storm shows up, pouring rain and huge thunder and lightning (this is the storm that blew out the internet at the campground...) Im in the back seat, but with the leather I'm all stuck to it and miserable...Dave is in the driver seat trying to get comfortable...we finally fall asleep...
In the middle of the night...Dave says okay, lets switch, so we do...he is in the back and I'm in the driver seat. Fall back to sleep uncomfortably...I wake up at 5:50 am, and it's beautiful out, but Dave doesn't want to wake up, so I go back to sleep, and I wake up around 8...he still doesn't want to get up. It is so humid, I am sweating, and Dave is cold and under a blanket. Ridiculous!
Finally around 9 we get up, maybe 9:30...and open up the rear differential...well Dave opens it while I try to organize the car/camper. Ends up that 3 bolts from the ring gear sheared off and the rest backed themselves out of their holes. Okay, not horrible...definitely fixable...
Dave goes off to get water for the radiator...and I'm still organizing and cleaning and situating...when this guy from the motel comes over and asks if everything is okay. He tells me he saw us parked out here last night and he was going to ask if we wanted to sleep in his room cause he had an extra bed, but thought we would think it was weird. (Dave and I both agreed it would have been.) I told him what was wrong with the Jeep, and that Dave is probably off finding out where parts stores are...
I guess he figured out I was nervous, because he was like...okay I don't want to make you nervous and he went back to his room...I went back to cleaning...
He came over again a bit later and told me that if we wanted to use his shower before he checked out so we didn't have to pay 10 bucks to use the truck stop one we could. I thanked him and told him I'd ask Dave what he wanted to do...
Finally Dave walked back, and he told me later that he was like, oh crap creeper when he saw the guy talking to me. They started talking and it ends up that this guy wasn't really creepy at all. He ended up getting us ice from the motel ice machine for our cooler, and let us use his shower...
We exchanged emails, and we gave him the URL to this blog so he can see if we ever made it farther than that truck stop in Kylertown. So...hey to Sid from Mississippi if he's reading this!!! He left, and we walked over to get breakfast and then to the hardware store to get the bolts we needed. Thank god for there being a hardware store in the same plaza...
We got what we needed after 2 trips to the hardware store, Dave ended up drilling out the 3 broken bolts...
and we were on our way. We were headed to NAPA to get a radiator hose. We finally got it at Advanced Auto Parts...then ate lunch at Sheetz. Really by this time it was 430pm so that was dinner.
We decide we need to skip rollercoasters this time around, considering we are still hours from Ohio...and we would maybe hit them on the way back. No big deal.
So we start heading south towards St. Louis. We hit Ohio finally, and stop at the visitor center at the first exit. We grab a campground book, and I start flipping through it when we get back on the road.

I can't even concentrate right now to finish this...maybe tomorrow...there's a big storm coming through, and the camper is swayyyyyyying hardcore in the wind. There aren't any tornado warnings...but they've been wrong before...

I hate wind.