Right before we left Wickenburg, AZ, we had to replace all the brakes and brake booster. It wasn’t cheap, but you can’t put a price on your family’s safety. The first brake booster didn’t fit, and the second one failed the same day it was installed (bad diaphragm). The third booster did the trick and we were back in business. Not a minute too soon either, because we were scheduled to pull chocks and get moving the next day.

Friday after work, we packed up. We hadn’t done this in a while, and the Arizona heat was making us 30% slower, so it took about 2 hours to get on the road (typically 30 mins or less). Leaving our site, we came across our friend Gerri who we’d developed a fine affection for during our stay, and by pure coincidence another person we’ve become quite fond of saw us and stopped to wish us well.

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Some time later, we got out on the main road and pointed the truck, with it’s shiny new brakes, towards the Arizona mountains. After we got through the mountains, there was a noise. Subtle at first, and reminiscent of the sound a speeder makes as it accelerates in the Star Wars movies. As we eased our way towards New Mexico, the noise got worse. We stopped in Milan for the night, and in the morning I got under the truck with an idea that it was either a wheel bearing or the rear differential. Unfortunately, the wheel bearings were fine, since that would have been the easier and cheaper fix. I did what I could to service the rear diff in an O’Reilly’s parking lot. It would need replacement, but not by me, and not on the weekend. We decided to limp along and see if we could make it the rest of the way to Topeka, KS. The diff was already shot, so other than listening to the noise we weren’t going to do further damage.

On the way to Topeka we revisited a talk we had last year about buying a new truck. At twelve years old and always hauling at the absolute max if it’s capabilities, it was starting to make more sense to put the old truck out to pasture. Frequent costly repairs get old quick, and truck tech has come a really long way in twelve years. We decided to shop around once we got there (or broke down) and make a final decision.

We limped into Lake Shawnee in Topeka Sunday afternoon and put down our landing gear. After work on Monday we did a little truck shopping, and on Tuesday we shopped a little more. Used trucks are selling at new truck prices, and new trucks are hard to find. We walked away from a couple of unscrupulous dealers trying to scam us with bad merchandise, and then we found a GMC Sierra 2500HD right on Topeka Boulevard.

I try not to get attached to vehicles, but the old truck was special. It was Dad’s truck, and it always felt like he was riding around with us. He left a stuffed armadillo on the dashboard when he sold it to me, saying it belonged there since it was a Texas Edition Silverado. Dad had a bracelet with a ring on it for each of his kids, and after he passed away Kristin put Dad’s bracelet on his armadillo. Late in the evening, we moved Dad’s armadillo to it’s new dashboard, and drove the new truck back to camp.

With the truck issue solved, we spent Wednesday and Thursday catching up with family (our original reason for spending the week in Topeka). We had dinner with Kristin’s cousins at the 23rd Street Brewery in Lawrence, and spent the following afternoon watching Suebee take a real shine to Kristin’s grandpa. It was a real treat to see some of our people, that’s one thing we don’t get enough of on this adventure.

The campground at Lake Shawnee was fantastic too. There was lots of grass for Suebee to run in, and a swimming beach right across from the campsite. We had several fantastic sunset walks by the lake, and Friday came a little too quickly for us. Topeka treated us well, and I’m sure we’ll be there again before we know it.

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We packed up quickly enough on Friday, no longer being out of practice, and without the Arizona heat. It still took a while to get on the road though, since the new truck had to be set up with the hitch system. There’s a lengthy procedure to get the leveling even and weight distribution balanced properly. Kristin and Suebee were super patient while the rig went up and down many times with measurements being recorded and adjustments being made each time. When the dust settled we had a nice level truck, and a nice level camper. We hit the road and headed towards Cleveland, by way of Chicago.

Until next time!
-Adam