eyeteeth wrote:
Man... she's a thirsty girl though. I forgot how much we spend on fuel driving our small apartment down there and back. Probably better to not remember.
Yeah, but think about how much you'd be spending on motel/hotel rooms instead. (I was horrified over the amount of taxpayer money being spent when the Air Force had me staying at a hotel in Tysons Corner for seven weeks while I attended a computer programming course.)
Likewise, staying with relatives can be stressful for both the guests and hosts. (The same thing, to a lesser extent, goes for staying with friends.) I don't know what your family is like but significant distance, in time and space, is the only thing that keeps the Griffin family from breaking out into open warfare.
My dad used to say, "If my wife's family are in-laws, then my family must be outlaws." He also frequently repeated the old saying, "Fish and guests start to stink after three days."
Thank you for letting me, and others, know how your trip went ... I'd been wondering, on and off, how it went.
The temps are still a bit on the high side. An engine's internal temperatures are a bit higher than the external temperatures measured by your (and everyone else's) temp gun.
You might want to consider getting a chemical coolant system flush from a reliable shop. (That kind of flush involves nasty, caustic chemicals, special equipment, and stringent safety regulations so it's not available to shadetree mechanics.)
Likewise, make sure you have fresh coolant, with at least 1/3 antifreeze. Most people don't realize modern antifreeze has ingredients that also help keep the engine cooler, compared to just water. While a 50/50 mixture is preferable for the significantly subzero temperatures here in interior Alaska, I don't know if that greater concentration helps or hinders engine cooling.
Note: a 50/50 mixture provide maximum protection from freezing but don't go over that concentration. When you go past 50% antifreeze, protection starts dropping off significantly.
Also, most people don't know how important engine oil is to keeping engine temperatures under control. So, make sure you have good, relatively fresh oil in the engine.
BTW, If you want to extend the lifespan of your engine, change the oil AFTER a trip, BEFORE putting the vehicle into storage rather than immediately before starting a trip. (When I put anything with an engine into storage, I prefer having oil with less than a half hour on it and strongly prefer to run the engine just long enough for the new oil to circulate completely.)
Finally, your kids killing the battery by watching TV probably seriously shortened the SLI (engine) battery's life. Keep an eye on it ... it may become unreliable and fail at an inconvenient time. (See my reply to Wolf_n_Kat above.)
On the other hand, be glad you didn't go through what happened to a friend. His kids managed completely drain both the house and SLI batteries while they were camped 20 miles from pavement, in a area rarely visited by other people. (He's not sure if the battery switch had been inadvertently left in the both/combined position, the kids had switched to the both or #1 position when the house battery bank started dying, or they'd killed the SLI battery by using the cigarette lighter to recharge their smartphones and tablets.)
He didn't have a generator or cell-phone service where he was at so he was preparing for a 20-mile hike when, by sheer chance, someone else happened to show up and helped them out.
After he got back to town, he wound up replacing the SLI battery because it had been drained so far that it was destroyed and wouldn't hold a charge.
As an after note, he became especially annoyed when he found out the kids were playing a fishing simulation game when there was a lake chock full of hungry rainbow trout and Dolly Varden right outside the motorhome's door.
