June 27th to 29th - Spokane

June 27^th – Thurs – Spokane

When we were coming back yesterday, the dreaded “check engine” light came on in the truck.  It was accompanied by a “service exhaust system” light & message.  This has happened a couple of other times over the nearly 3 years that we have had the truck and mechanics could never find anything wrong so they cleared the lights.

After breakfast we went to a Chev dealer (Autonation) to have it checked out again.  They were full up and said they could not help us unless we came back tomorrow and left the truck for several hours.  We continued on the Becker Buick who were also busy but the service manager hooked up the diagnostic equipment to clear the lights.  He cleared the “check engine” light but could not find a problem or clear the other light.  So we continued on to Camp Chevrolet (“check engine” light came back on) where the front line guy said that first thing they would top up the DEF even though no indicators said it was low.  So we went to their parts department and put in 2 ½ gallons of fluid.  We made on more stop at a golf store and as we were driving back the “exhaust system” light went out!

We came back to the rig where I made a late lunch/early dinner.  Then we went to another casino.  On the way back the warning light came on again.

June 28^th – Fri

Terry went to George Gee Chev early this morning to see what they had to say about the message on our truck.  I used the time to request “no mail” from junk that we received when we picked up our mail.  George Gee was able to run more diagnostics and were still not totally convinced what the problem was but figured it had to be the pump so Terry told them to go ahead and order one.  The mechanic told Terry that without a fix the system would slow the truck to 55 mph so on the way home on the freeway Terry exceeded the speed limit by a lot and the darn lights both went out!!  He called and told the guy at George Gee and they decided to go ahead with the pump if it arrived in time.

I made a late breakfast and finished getting laundry ready to go.  We had to stop at a grocery store on the way as I forgot to include the detergent.  We picked up some produce and then saw a good price on baby backs so decided that’s what we would have for dinner.  While I was doing the laundry, Terry got the truck washed and checked the mail.

After we put everything away and made the bed, we went across the parking lot to the Elks lodge to have a drink.  We ended up chatting with some nice people.  Dinner & TV filled the rest of the evening.

June 29^th – Sat

The largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world (?) takes place here in Spokane and starts today.  Weather forecasters warned of high temperatures and keeping hydrated.  Surprise – Mother Nature decided to do the hydrating.  It poured last night and on and off most of the day.

We puttered around most of the morning – I got more recipes transferred to new cards – and then went for lunch.  We made one quick stop and then went to visit Terry’s brother Gary and his new wife Clare.

They live on Long Lake which is northwest of Spokane but you hardly realize that you leave Spokane until a few miles from their house.  Even though it was still drizzly, it was comfortable sitting out on the covered deck to enjoy the lake, a glass of wine and 2 more fun people.  Gary’s large English water spaniel Stormy thought we were there just to visit him.  Clare put together burgers for dinner with help from Gary on the BBQ.  We shook hands with Clare when we arrived and hugged a new friend when we left – welcome to our crazy family!