Last night Scott woke up in the middle of the night and turned on the heat (we had the air conditioning on when we went to bed,) Tom woke up and turned it off and put the system on fan. Then Scott woke up again and turned the heat on again, slightly lower. When we woke up there was a bit of chill in the air the the temperature lower by nearly 40 degrees.
We were heading North anyway – to a KOA in Maple Grove, MN – and we knew from weather forecasts that it would turn cold. But for almost the entire trip we have been wearing shorts and T-shirts in high 80s/low 90s heat, and this was a bit of a shock. We spent the morning at Boone County Fairgrounds on emails and phone calls, ate lunch, then head North.
The new hose setup worked pretty well, but we had a problem leaving the campground as the jeep refused to roll when Khan tried to pull it. Tom was able to back up, but not go forward. This should have been a clue to the problem, but Scott (as outside man responsible for setting the Jeep up for towing) repeated the steps of 1) put in park 2) put transfer case in neutral 3) make sure parking brake is off 4) put windows up 5) exit and lock the jeep. He then got out, noticed the surge brake cable was kinked at the camper end (something that Tom, as Inside Man, should have caught when he hooked up.) Confident that the problem was solved, Scott hopped in Khan and we set off down the road.
We should have noticed that there was a problem still when Khan complained that the jeep’s turn signals were not working. We vowed to take care of it the first chance we got, which was 30 minutes later when we stopped to fuel both vehicles.
When Tom got out, he immediately noticed that the engine on the jeep was running, and asked Scott why. The answer, of course, was that Scott had forgotten step 3a), turn the jeep engine off. Since Scott drives Teslas, which “turn off” automatically, it is something he sometimes forgets. Tom passed the OWGrv Senior Moment trophy, he’s been holding on to after he forgot his bike keys, to Scott.
There was no time for bike rides or cultural museum stops today, but we did have a chance to do a bucket-list item for Scott. While reviewing dinner choices Tom mentioned that Maple Grove has a White Castle. Scott always wanted to eat at one, and this was a chance to do so before his 70th birthday. We acted a bit like the newbies we were, and ordered the shared meal that included 10 sliders and fries and drinks. Both Tom and Scott showed that we were White Castle lightweights and stopped at 3 sliders each.
The quest for a White Castle goes back to at least a bus trip the VideoRay Team took in 2013. On September 14th of that year, the group of VIdeoRay executive – younger men at the time – were in Nashville searching for the grave of Johnny Cash. Looking for a place to eat, we found a White Castle via Google Maps and were all in. However, that attempt to eat at White Castle was a failure – and the story is best told by the archival blog linked above.
Back to the camper where, fortunately, we both agree that heat will be needed tonight. Blog then bed.