June 5th: Not a fan of laundries but it’s better than nothin! Yesterday, 2 loadsFortunately we have an appointment to have our washer looked at, unfortunately it’s not till the end of July.
Next, our appointment to have Bailey’s 2 chips done.
June 6th: Take 2 for a Bailey & Bob wash. We’re hoping this one lasts longer than the last one, had the wash then drove through the worst rain storm!
Things seem good…Bob’s Blue Ox repair seems to work. Bailey’s new slide control worked, don’t want to jinx anything but so far so good!
As normal there was road construction galore and we had to use an alternate route but we made it! Being lead to our site at this massive track!
Our home for the next 4 days, we couldn’t be happier!! Pits are right in front of us 🙂
Thursday USF2000 Qualifying at Canada Corner
In the market for a Porsche, this one is a mere 1/4 US mil Friday at the races is get acquainted with the surroundings (normally Thursday is not go to the track day so we had a bonus day).
Only IndyCar action today is practice at 3pm. We’re watching events from different locations (yesterday Canada Corner today Turn 5) as there is no such thing as assigned seats. The grounds are yours for the taking. Where’s the best?? Plus have never seen so many golf carts! This is nothing, I should have taken a photo of the rental spot.
Wake up to a fog advisory. Our view, not very view-y, can’t see Canada anymore Since we’ve been here we see a dude sit in an office chair in the parking lot across from the hotel. Why? When we first noticed him he had several beer bottles on the ground. He sits, slumps, sits. Everyday we’ve been here. There he is in the second photo., I took this right before leaving.
We leave about 730a hoping the drive back will be better ie less construction.
Good bye Detroit, it’s been a blast! We are going a different route as we’re going through Mishawaka. We are picking up a slide control from Lippert. For quite a while now, Allan has had to move the controller from the kitchen side to the big slide to get them to open/close. A new controller has been hard to find, now getting it from the source 🙂
Love to know this story, the heavy tow is lifting this 5 ton between a truck weigh scale and the highway. How did he get there? Allan’s story on how… The driver had some wobbly pops, drove by the scale realized his error and turned – straight into the ditch!
What are we seeing? Pato’s, Allan’s driver, motorhome. We ended up passing him, yahoo Allan one Pato zero (not that Pato was in it)
Heading to Chicago’s O’Hare’s
Back with Bailey at 2.57 or 3.57 our time.
Yes the trip back was much better!
Put everything away. what time is it? Watch the race on TV of course 🙂
Wake up to dreaded rain!Rain, rain go away! This is our first, attending, race in what feels like forever. Please don’t be cancelled.
All radio-ed up. We normally put on our radios at our seats but because the radio equipment is not waterproof we thought it best to gear up here and put on our raining coats protecting us and the equipment.
The give aways at the concourse included Cadillac T-shirts, turns out they are good quality, hand sanitizer, magnets, a tote, small screwdriver set, and this is Allan playing Plinko winning a flashlight.
In honour of the decades we attended the Toronto Indy, we are sitting in corner 3️⃣
The fly over prior to the race
No rain yet, we’re racing!
This was one of the craziest races ever!! The first three-quarters of the race was pure chaos, with all eight caution periods and 47 caution laps in the first 73 laps. The longest stretch of green-flag racing during that span was 13 laps, making strategists’ heads spin on the pit wall as they mulled options on the fly while on the radio with drivers.
No the rain had nothing to do with the mayhem, it never did rain only sprinkle a few times.
It ended with Josef crashing, they did get him back out 6 laps down.
We went into this race with Josef 7 points behind Pato. Not bad considering he won the season opener but they stripped him of that win for some nonsense reason.
Results now: Pato 160 points, 4th place; Josef 128 10th place
Oh well, next week!
This building fascinates me; I’d love to see it when it was completed. Wonder what the top will be.
We love the Stadium Truck series but they won’t be here. They are such fun to watch (they look like this)As usual for us, Friday morning is get acquainted with the layout and check out the stores. We bought our driver’s cars (old ones were getting, well old and outdated) and Allan’s annual schedule t-shirt. This is our grand stand 3B; road courses are fun!Spot FireHawk??
The practice begins
Allan = 2nd Me = 6th BOO
Dinner tonight was Tex-Mex. Service not so good, food was deliciousThe track helicopter as seen from our hotel window
Today’s drive: 5h54mWe know it will take longer, we’ll stop for breakfast & fuel but weren’t prepared for how much long. Chicago was the worst even though we took the by-pass. I felt bad for the millions of truck drivers as many of the highway were reduced number and width of lanes.
Motor City Building We left at 735a, arrived at our hotel, The Atheneum at 409p.We are certainly happy to be here. A little ironic that we initially purchased Bailey to go to races but she’s not at this one! Can’t image maneuvering Detroit’s streets in her to say noting about parking.
We leave, in Bob, for the Detroit race on Thursday. That’s going to be a long drivee. We looked for a closer place to Detroit to store Bailey but couldn’t find one.
Bizarre! Fires in both directions at about the same location. Our way was a tire that blew, the smoke is not sure what is burning. The other way, the car is burnt to a crisp! The stopped line up on that side is at least 10 miles long.
It’s kind of fitting that at a State Park and race track we are parked in a parking lot 🙂 Not camping but RACINGwhich is what we really bought Bailey for. Those clouds!
The RV park is on the left of the photo, the race track is the oval 🙂 We’ll be back for the race/
We got to sleep in a bit and pulled out at 820a, today’s trip is short compared to yesterday’s. We traveled through 3 StatesDay begins as yesterday’s ended. Rain & high winds, with a douse of fog
This guy is not having a good day!1210p: as if by magic the sun came out. First real sun we’ve seen since last Monday432p: We made it!
The view from our captain chairs
And we’re back on schedule!May 25th: No driving today!! This is the perfect start to today!
Today’s problem! Clothes washer isn’t working. Wish us luck in getting it fixed.
We’re hoping to make up time so I’m up at 5; Allan at 6. We manage to get our stuff done, pack up for travel and are on the road at 720.
We have to be in Detroit on May 30th for the Indy race. Bailey can’t come to that race so we’re leaving her at an RV park in Milwaukee, sounds crazy but we have no interest in maneuvering Detroit with Bailey.
Back to today…it poured over night we hope that trend doesn’t continue.
809a Raynesford, MT dreary not raining
919a Lewiston
932a Then the rain started
1012a The fog
Got sick of taking rain photos
1144a Then we got stuck, for too long, behind this oversized load107p Couldn’t resist just one more rain photo213p Miles City a passing pick up threw a rock, Bailey’s windshield now has 3 cracks. Two together and another we don’t know when we got. When we’re somewhere for a few days we’ll try to get a mobile glass company,
We reached our destination at 922p. Walmart Jamestown! 13 hours 644miles/1036km. We are not fans of such big days, but hey we are adaptable!
Tonight, thanks for letting us stay Walmart Jamestown, ND! It’s pouring again and the winds are so bad we opted to only take out the bedroom slide. Bailey is rocking!
Tomorrow destination may prove scary or undoable
Didn’t want to jinx it but Bailey seems to be back to her old self! We do have a new rattle coming from the front passenger side, umm whatever can that be?
May 17th: Our mechanic, Jordan, told us this morning he thought it was either a loose wire or the ECM. “DEF Control Module – This module controls the operation of the emission system. The DEF Module and Engine Control Module (ECM) are in direct communication to make sure the system is operational. ECM – The DPF system and the regeneration process is controlled by the ECM on a Cummins truck.”
Nothing else happens Friday. We have to wait for a bay to become available. The motorhome in the bay is having generator issues that are stumping Jordan.
No ECM in stock and they don’t want to order one until Jordan determines we require it. Delivery would likely be the day after they order.
May 18th & 19th: Saturday & Sunday I-State Truck is closed. We are anxious for Monday to arrive.
Even though we are so cramped, Allan still managed to prepare us delicious meals. Saturday did a Walmart run and then just sat around playing games.
May 20th: Yahoo for MONDAY!! We’re up before 6 because we know Jordan starts at 7. We want to be ready for his arrival. 8am rolls around, then 9am with no contact. We don’t want to be pains but WTF!
Allan goes to the Service to ask our rep, Jason, when will we be up?
Turns out Jordan has Mondays off, once a mechanic is assigned to a job he sees it through. What bullshit!! After much discuss, Jason says he’ll order the ECM and if it is not required they’d send it back. A little good news.
So Monday’s outing was Ryan Dam. A much nicer weather day and the dam is pretty spectacular.
Our last meal in a squished Bailey, we hope
We also hope this is the last time we have this view out the window
May 21st: Again we are ready to be dragged to the bay. Again, 8am, 9am, 10am roll by and still nothing. We check out the bay and see the motorhome is still in the air, wait, wait, wait.
139p – they finally arrive!
They are trying to figure out how to “air up”. They need that in order to release Bailey’s brakes so they can drag her. They try from the front, it’s not working. They have to crawl under, which Jordan was trying hard to avoid. And the blocks are out
2.16p Here she goes!!!
Bailey is FINALLY in a bay! Let the repair begin!
With Bailey safely inside we head to the Crystal Inn which is a 2 minute drive from I-State, we can see I-State from the hotel.
3.38p Snuggled in and hoping for the best
Weird! The hotel elevator has a swing door on it. Never saw that before.
May 22nd: Sunrise from the hotel window
The wait for an update or better yet Bailey is ready call from I-State is excruciating. As I said earlier, we can “kind” of see I-State from the lobby. We go down to the lobby every 20-30 minutes to see if we can see Bailey outside.
930am Bailey is outside!! We pack up our stuff, (something told us to bring the room key check out isn’t till noon), Bailey is gone!
Jason tells Allan, Jorden took Bailey for a test drive.
The story is…. Jordon tried to start (we know this as we heard Bailey not starting) prior to being dragged. Didn’t start. When she got into the bay, Jordon tried again and she started. He cleaned wires and for cracked fuses. Checked the voltage in & out of the ECM The error code was an issue with the out. He found a wire rubbing where it shouldn’t & repaired that. Bailey kept starting. He didn’t want to take it upon himself to suggest replacing the ECM cause what if the same issue occurred miles down the highway.
He said he had a few other things to check. Allan & I took a drive to discuss what to do. It is no fun sitting on the side of the road waiting hours for a tow then the repairs.
Allan calls our diesel repair shop in Lethbridge and recounts the story. Armando, checks the error codes Allan said we had but with not seeing the unit is reluctant to advise but suggests it may be best to replace which is what we were leaning to.
Back we go to authorize the replacement. They then said they thought it best to replace as well
Will take about two hours to replace. Off we go again, this time we end up at Appleby’s. We happen to get there at Happy Hour 🙂
517p Here she is! Super dirty and needing a good dump! We’re going to top up diesel, fill propane, dump and get the wash. Pay up, Jason was nice by discounting the bill $800ish None for us, no one trained is in
To the dump
We’re most excited about the wash; 1/2 hour from start to finish. We both thought, but didn’t voice while in the wash, “What if she doesn’t start?”
Before After
720p Finally take a deep breathe and chill time. We’re overnighting at I-State and will leave early tomorrow. Like this view better:)What a week!
Fortunately we have an appointment to have our washer looked at, unfortunately it’s not till the end of July.
Friday at the races is get acquainted with the surroundings (normally Thursday is not go to the track day so we had a bonus day).
Can’t wait for tomorrow!
IMSA Race
This is our grand stand 3B; road courses are fun!
The track helicopter as seen from our hotel window 
1012a The fog
When we’re somewhere for a few days we’ll try to get a mobile glass company,
None for us, no one trained is in
