Broken Down Again!!! Or Not???

Sunday, while driving from Duluth to Chippewa Falls, I noticed some hesitation, bucking and loss of power while accelerating. The coach seemed to have difficulty getting up to highway speed, particularly working its way up through 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears. Once in top gear, it appeared to be OK. This problem seemed somewhat similar to the problem my friend George had with his identical Allure. It took George most of a year and many trips to the Allison and Cummins service centers before the cause was discovered. Ultimately it was determined that an incorrect engine algorithm had been installed in George's coach. I was afraid we may have the same problem. We arrived safely at O'Neil Creek Campground and slept on it. After our brewery tour on Monday, we departed Chippewa Falls about 2:00 PM and continued south towards Illinois. Immediately the problem reappeared and began to grow worse the further we went. Soon I began having trouble keeping the engine in 6th gear. Normally the tranny attains 6th gear at about 55 mph and 1500 rpm. Now it was downshifting into 5th gear, even as I ran at over 65 mph. Not good. By now we were starting to see engine fault codes appear on the Silverleaf VMS, our on-board engine monitoring system. Dorcas got onto the web and located a Cummins service center in Normal IL, about two hours away, but directly on our route. As we limped on, we talked to Cummins service advisor Chris and read him the list of fault codes displayed on the Silverleaf. The codes all related to fuel delivery pressures at various points in the system. Chris checked his database for troubleshooting steps for these codes. Causes ranged from clogged fuel filters, blocked fuel line, excessive fuel tank vacuum, fuel pump failure, fuel injector failure and worse. A best-case scenario was fuel filter clogging. There are two separate fuel filters on the coach, and I had both spare filters on board. I considered pulling over and changing the filters on the side of the road, but decided it was better to keep going as long as we could. If we stopped and changed the filters, there was a risk that we could not get the new filters primed and could not re-start the coach. We really didn't want to spend the night on the side of the road again and really, really didn't want to get towed again. We limped on to Normal and arrived at the Cummins service center about 9:00 PM, three hours before they closed at midnight. Rather than put the coach in a bay and let the mechanics go at it, we parked in one of their overnight RV spaces and hooked up to the power. I replaced the two fuel filters myself using my own parts. After about an hour the job was finished, and we took her out to see if the problem was solved. AMAZING! The coach ran like a top, and all the fault codes had cleared. Apparently clogged fuel filters was the cause of the problem. We may have dodged the bullet again. By now it was almost midnight, and we spent the night at the Cummins facility.

On Tuesday morning I bought replacement spare fuel filters from Cummins, just in case there was still some gunk in the tank and the problem reoccurred. We left the Cummins service center and Normal IL headed towards Thousand Trail Indian Lakes, Batesville IN, about 250 miles east. The coach ran great, and we arrived at the Thousand Trails without further incident. We have never been to this park before and no one else we have talked to at other Thousand Trails parks had ever been here, so we didn't know quite what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised to find a very nice park. It is very large, encompassing 544 acres. The camping is clustered in four areas, one area with full hook-ups, two with water and electric only and one for seasonal renters. There are vast open areas for Matilda to run, and it all surrounds a central lake. It looks as though it could have been a county or regional park at some point in the past. We scored a nice full hook-up site (water, sewer and 50A electric). We are about 40 miles from Cincinnati and can receive over 20 digital TV stations. Sweet. We plan to stay here about 5-6 days.

Can You Say Leinenkugel's???

Question: What is your favorite Leinenkugel's beer?
Answer: Any one that's cold and free

After a quick family meeting during lunch on Sunday, we decided to head on down through Wisconsin instead of going through Minneapolis. Neither of us was particularly excited about seeing a Twins game, and we didn't want to fight the traffic in the Twin Cities. The one thing we did want to do was to tour the Leinenkugel's brewery in Chippewa Falls WI. We have passed it every year coming and going to the BWCAW, but have never stopped. It was on our way, so my navigator plotted a course to Chippewa Falls, about three hours due south. We have a coupon for one night free camping at any Good Sam park, so Dorcas went onto the web and found O'Neil Creek Campground, just outside Chippewa Falls. A quick call revealed they had plenty of room for us. O'Neil Creek turned out to be a very nice park. It is very large, with over 400 sites. Most are seasonal sites, with semi-permanent structures, but they are tasteful, modern, clean and well-decorated. O'Neil Creek meanders through the park and provides water access to the Chippewa River and Lake Wissota. If we had stayed longer, we might have launched the canoe. We were assigned a pull-though site with water and 50A electric. The staff was very friendly, and the park was very quiet on this Sunday evening.

On Monday we checked out at O'Neil Creek and drove into Chippewa Falls and parked at Leine Lodge, the visitor and reception center for Leinenkugel's brewery. I confess that I was not very familiar with the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company or their products prior to our visit. What I did know is that the brewery tour was free, and they offered free beer samples. Nuff said? We learned that Leinenkugel's is an award winning "craft" brewery. A craft brewery is larger than a microbrewery, and smaller than a major conventional brewery, but still uses some manual processes. Almost all of their ingredients are produced in eastern Wisconsin. The brewery was founded in 1867 by Jacob Leinenkugel, a German immigrant whose father was a brewmiester. The company was family owned and operated until 1988, when it was acquired by Miller Brewing Company (now MillerCoors). At that time there was concern that that Miller would insert their own company people into the business and ruin it. That never happened, and today the company is still run by Leinenkugel family members and enjoys a great deal of independence from MillerCoors. The company especially benefits from the MillerCoors' distribution system and, consequently, is available in at least part of most of the 50 states. The tour was very enjoyable, although photos were not allowed inside the brewery. One of Leinenkugels trademark symbols is the canoe, which, of course, appealed to me. After the tour we went to town and bought two 12-pack Explorers (a sampler pack that includes four different beers.) With the two Explorers, our two growlers, a 24-pack Michelob craft pack and our back-up emergency Budweiser supply on board, I hope we don't get busted for bootlegging!

Back to Duluth

On Saturday we departed Ely and drove about two hours south back to Duluth. We are camped again at the Lakehead Boat Basin, where we stayed a couple of nights about three weeks ago, except this time Wayne and Lynda are there with us in their travel trailer. We walked from our camp along the Canal Park waterfront to Fitger's Brewhouse for dinner and suds, yet another Whitley/Charles BWCAW tradition. From Fitger's I returned with two growlers, one Brewhouse Pale Ale and the other a pilsner. Wayne left his empty growler containers in NC, but couldn't resist buying one more. We staggered back to camp and watched the Great Lakes freighters negotiate the Duluth ship canal and the famous aerial lift bridge.

On Sunday morning after a leisurely breakfast and an extended coffee hour on the docks, Wayne and Lynda departed about 10:00, headed for NC. Dorcas and I dragged our feet until about noon, mainly because we didn't know which way we would go from here. One plan is to head directly south towards Minneapolis and catch a Twins game. Plan B is to head southeast through Wisconsin, a slightly more direct route home. Where will your hardy Adventurers go next? Stay tuned for our next exciting episode!

Back Into Civilization

On Thursday Wayne, Lynda, Dorcas and I completed another delightful wilderness canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). This trip has become an annual tradition for us. Dorcas and I have gone to the BWCAW every year with Wayne and Lynda since Dorcas and I met in 1997 (save one year when we went to the Allagash River in Maine instead.) This year we put in on Moose Lake with high winds and cold rainy weather. The weather soon warmed and was clear and mild for the remainder of the trip. We took out on Snowbank Lake 14 days later. The trip was characterized by excellent weather, fewer and shorter portages than usual, better campsites than usual and slower fishing than usual. In spite of the poor fishing, we did manage to catch enough fish for one big fish fry buffet. There were no really outstanding events to note; it was just a very relaxing and enjoyable trip. We saw a moose, although it was on the car shuttle just before putting in. We saw bald eagles, loons, ospreys, weasels and beavers. Loons are normally solitary birds, but on our last camp, where we stayed three nights, about eight loons gathered each morning and each evening. We suspect they may have been convening in preparation to migrate south for the winter.

We drove the Honda from Snowbank Lake to pick up Wayne's truck at Moose Lake. There the truck wouldn't start, a recent continuing problem with that vehicle. However, we jiggled and tightened the battery cables, and it appears to run fine now. After loading all our boats and gear we drove back to Fall Lake CG to secure a campsite for the next two nights. There we found our respective RVs to be unharmed and well. Then Wayne and I drove into Ely to drop our boats at the Spirit of the Wilderness outfitters for more hull repairs; we're pretty hard on our boats. We picked up some milk shakes at Dairy Queen (another tradition) and, amazingly, we still had some milk shake left for Lynda and Dorcas when we returned to the campground. That night we all went back into Ely for dinner at the Chocolate Moose (yet another tradition!), where we ate on the patio and watched all the voyageurs come and go.

On Friday we all went back to town and attended Ely's Harvest Moon festival. There we strolled though the vendors' tents and ate "barbeque" sandwiches or whatever it is that passes for barbeque in northern Minnesota. We also watched a professional lumberjack show, featuring two world champion lumberjacks competing in traditional lumberjack events, such as axe throwing, the boom run, the hot saw and single bucking. The boom running was particularly fun as the contestants ran along a line of logs cabled together in a pool and back again. Each contestant got three tries and each one got wet at least once. The hot saw event was also fun, in a redneck sort of way. A hot saw is a highly modified chain saw that is loud and dangerous. Like a go-kart with teeth. Very cool, but does it come with Bud Light? For the axe throwing event, Ely's main street and a sidewalk were just beyond the oak slab target. It looked like a disaster in the making, but no one got hurt.


We had planned to buy walleye fillets at Zups Foods in Ely and fry them over a wood fire back at camp, just as we do in the BWCAW. However, we found that walleye fillets were selling for $13.99/lb. We figured that it would cost us over $65 to replicate the fish fry we normally do in the wilderness. We settled for rib eyes and saved about $50. I guess we should appreciate our Boundary Waters catch a little more.


We checked out of Fall Lake CG on Saturday morning and went to town and retrieved our boats. As usual, the Spirit of the Wilderness did an excellent job on the boats. If you are ever there drop in and tell Ginny, Steve and Luke hey for us. We had planned to head on over to Vertin's Cafe for their breakfast of skillets and caramel rolls, the last of our grand traditions, but were devastated to learn Vertin's had closed. We were directed to Britton's instead, "where the locals eat" but it was not nearly as good as Vertin's. Britton's may not rise to "tradition" status.

We have turned the corner for this long summer trip and will be headed south from here on. Next stop: Duluth.