7/6/07

Well, we're in the Black Hills. This morning the guys got the thermostat replaced. It helped a little tiny bit, but that's all. We stopped at Wall Drug, but it was way too hot to go into the badlands. We got to Rapid City & the boys stopped & picked up a new radiator cap. We went over to Walmart to wait for it to cool off. I went in to pick up a cooler & some ice because the refrigerator still doesn't work. They waited until it cooled off & put on the new radiator cap, and then came in. When they came back out, it had leaked radiator fluid all over because the overflow tank had burst! Go figure.

So they juryrigged up a plastic milk carton and we went to a RV repair place on the freeway. They told us we had to go to a Gulfstream dealer at Whitewood, about 35 miles away. We got there & they said they don't service RVs, they just sell them. They sent us back to Rapid City to a auto repair place. We got there & the guy said we need a new radiator, $1000-$1200. I asked if they could just flush it or do something so we could at least get us to Grand Junction. So he got us in, the mechanic pulled the tranny radiator out and blew & washed the radiator. The mechanic said there was a lot of junk in there & that it would help a lot, and he also replaced the overfill tank. $124.

So we went south to Custer to a campground & stayed there overnight. The guy there said they were in a record breaking heat wave. It had started out at 49° that morning, and was up to 93° by the afternoon.