Thanks for the comments everyone. Sorry the pictures disappeared for a day. I usually resize pictures down to 640x480 for trip reports, but I mistakenly downsized them to 1024x768. Having done that I thought I would just go with it and see how the report looked. The pictures were nice and big, but the portrait format ones needed some scrolling to see the whole picture. Initially the major problem with this size was how long it took for the page to render all the images. Subsequently the size of the images (in Mb) caused the views of the report to trip DropBox's daily limit on the number of Gb downloadable from a free account. Reverting back to 640x480 images seems to have fixed that.
A few replies:
Cewillis: Chet's Duramax is a 2006. At idle or when coasting or using little throttle it is fine, but at any sort of engine load, e.g. when pulling up a slight slope, then applying just enough throttle to get it to go results in this bang, bang, bang, bang until you lift off the throttle. It sounds like one cylinder. It didn't get any worse over the trip. Chet is pretty much deaf from an industrial accident so he can barely hear it.
Dakonthemountain: Thanks Dak - we got home safely.
Sleepy: Yes, I kicked myself when I found the blankets in that cabinet when clearing the camper :S
Rexlion: Well spotted. I will admonish Sally for misuse of an OHV trail. I mean, we really struggle to find any trails to drive in Britain, so what does Sally do when she finds a good one? Washes her hair in it :B
Oldtymeflyer: See my reply to Cal above - I think there is something wrong with that engine, although I imagine it can't be anything too deadly (like a failed bearing) or it wouldn't have made it 4500 miles.
Hotrodfords: Thanks for the info on Atomic City. Our route was heading through the north of Idaho, so we probably wouldn't have had a chance to incorporate that visit. I have to be careful and ration the number of facilities like this that we visit in one trip. I could happily jump between hard-hat tours of dams, generating stations, factories, military complexes - you name it. But there are only so many of these facilities I can drag Sally around on one trip before it becomes bad for my health. We've visited White Sands, but the national monument, not the missile range itself and past the Trinity site, but it wasn't open when we were there.
67avion: We loved your piece of the earth, and it wasn't just the mint juleps :) Let us know if you ever make it out to Britain - it would be lovely to meet up again.
Skipbee: Many couples don't do anything together, almost living separate lives, so we are really lucky to share interests like this. I hope you get a chance to use your camper again soon, and hope it doesn't need too much of a refit.
Jefe: Good to hear from you. 10% off $400. Hmmm, I think I could pass on that offer too. Most of us don't mind putting in a bit of effort to document our hobbies, but if we are spending dollars then we want to spend them on our hobbies, not just posting pictures.
Flaxi: Hi Felix - glad you can now see the pictures from Germany.
Cheers,
Steve.
