We made it all the way across South Dakota to the southeastern most point, crossing the Missouri River into Iowa, then several hours later into Missouri.
We got our worst mileage of the trip, just over 18.5 mpg. We had to fill the tank at our last stop (Vivian, SD)with premium unleaded as they were out of regular. Right from the get go the Jeep had issues. In sputtered and misfired for the first 50 miles on that tank-full. It was lethargic and sounded like the high RPMs were masking continued misfires. I initially thought I had allowed air into the fuel system when we last ran out, coupled with sediment churned up by the new gas added at fill up. At any rate I knew it was fuel/fuel delivery related and worried the fuel pump may be going. It is in the tank and I wonder if running it low/empty so often was overheating it. When submerged the gas actually acts as a coolant for the pump.
As I mentioned we ran out unexpectedly early. I have been running the truck hard, better than 70mph for hours on end, just maintaining the speed limit which varied from 70 to 75. That certainly would hit our mileage, but wouldn’t explain the sputtering. I wonder if they had water in the fuel tanks, with regular out, perhaps premium was running low and condensation/water was mixing in. We topped off with regular gas in Emerson, IA and again in Red Oak IA, after another bad leg: 18.57 mpg.
A long day in the car we stopped in Oscala, MO for camping. A site near the highway with all the fun that includes. Still not far away from Sturgis to escape noisy motorcycles. They had a pool so Tyler was quite happy, spending the better part of an hour climbing in and out with new friends.
Tyler and I are also becoming amateur entomologists and have developed a unique way to store our specimens.
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| Nice wingspan. |
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| Quite the collection, ehh? |
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