Part Four: On The Road Again

It’s amazing that we have been in Avon for almost two weeks and I have yet to bring up the stars out here. Growing up in an area that, even though parts of it may have been rural, the residual light pollution from surrounding cities always had an effect on the amount of star coverage in the sky. And quite honestly, living in Lancaster city for the past six years, well, the nights that I could pick out even a handful were few and far between. Out here in Avon, South Dakota, even with us being camped out beside a garage that has floodlights shining on us all night long, we’ve been seeing the Milky Way almost every night. Some nights it simply just takes your breath away…feeling yourself get lost in the vastness of the night sky and the open land that supports such a magnificent scene. Some nights it can almost bring you to tears…

So, although it has been a test of our patience to get this vehicle working we have also had a great opportunity to check out an area of the country that we never really gave the time to before.



During all the trips that we have taken together eastern South Dakota has always been an area that you drive through as fast as you can to get to the next spot on the map (like Ohio). Usually the Black Hills if we were coming from the east and home to PA if we were coming from the west. But sometimes there are other forces at work in these situations and all you can do is go along with the plan. Not to say you should throw your hands up in defeat but instead let what is supposed to happen just happen and see what comes out with the wash. I think that this general attitude has really helped us enjoy the fact that, although we are both antsy to get back on the road, this may be a good opportunity for us to explore some uncharted territories for us. At least that’s what we keep saying to ourselves so that maybe we won’t go a little insane with the helpless feeling we’ve had in dealing with our situation.



Dennis wasn’t ready to give up on us though. He still had a few more ideas up his sleeve and was determined to figure this out. As you might remember, when we first pulled into town almost two weeks we had Ray replace the fuel pump, which he did. But he replaced it with an electrical pump and bypassed the mechanical one that the Ultrastar was designed with. The next idea was that maybe the new pump was not working adequately for the 454 system (pumping too much fuel) so we ordered a new mechanical pump, scheduled to arrive on Tuesday afternoon. Dennis cleared out appointments for Wednesday promising to dedicate his entire morning to us. Being true to his word, he was underneath the Ultrastar first thing the next morning. So out with the old pump and in with the new one. He also wanted to check to see if the timing was where it was supposed to be (which it wasn’t, making a huge difference in the strength of the idle) so that it would ready for test run right after lunch. Once again Kevin, Dennis, Nola, Russell and myself jumped into the Ultrastar and took her out on the road to see if we would once again be disappointed. It was starting to get hard to keep our hopes up but there was no reason to spread any feelings of defeat or pessimism in the group. As usual she drove great down to the five-mile mark where we made our turn around and headed back to town and up that crucial hill that on every previous ride had been her breaking point. Holding our breath, we ascended. And the clouds parted. And the angels looked down upon us and serenaded us with saintly voices that seemed to echo within each of us as continued our way back to Avon. We made it…she purred the entire way back to the garage with no incidences, no hesitations, no stalling. After a week and a half we could all finally let out a sigh of relief. We pulled into the garage, jumped out and immediately celebrated with high fives and hugs around. We did it!!! We got the old girl up and running and ready to hit the road…finally. Within an hour somebody from town who had seen the RV running nicely on the road had called Dennis to congratulate him on his success.
By the time we had finished congratulating ourselves and jumped off the clouds that seemed to be walking on, it was too late to hit the road (plus we all naturally wanted to have a few congratulatory drinks) so we decided to wait until Thursday morning to head out. Later that day Dennis, Dixie and a few other farmers suggested that we actually stay until Friday morning due to a weather forecast that consisted of severe thunderstorms and an excessively hot heat index for Thursday. We’re not ones to argue nature and we do have a fairly unlimited amount of time so we thought, hey, why not?
Well the farmers were right. Thursday was pretty brutal and driving conditions would have been miserable for us as well as the motorhome. The weather was much better suited for a drive on Friday morning so we finalized any loose ends, packed up the Ultrastar and geared up to hit the road. After exchanging phone numbers and email addresses we gave our final hugs and everyone wished us lots of luck and good times.
In the end we drove out of Avon with a damn good tune up for the Ultrastar with a new fuel filter, fuel pump, spark plug wires and ignition module. We got the timing adjusted, the spark plugs as well as the carburetor cleaned (twice), and a once over (many times) of the entire system. Kevin and I drove away with an awesome experience in Avon, South Dakota and many new people that we can now call our friends. Thank you to everyone who supported and helped us throughout our stay. Avon will always have a place in our hearts.